BGI had the chance to catch up with Brady Quinn in a recent 20-minute phone interview for a story that will appear in the August print edition of Blue & Gold Illustrated.
Quinn touched on a variety of topics, including the patience he has learned as a backup quarterback for the last two years, and the challenges he will face this fall to try and dethrone Derek Anderson for the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback job.
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Some of Clausen's actions this offseason suggest he might be turning a corner as a leader of the Irish squad.
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Eric Mangini is the new coach in Cleveland, so both quarterbacks are starting with a clean slate, and the same goal.
“I have faith that I’m here for a reason. God has a plan for me and that’s kind of the direction I’m taking it,” Quinn said. “You have to look at how fortunate you are to be able to play this game. There’s nothing frustrating about the situation we are in. I couldn’t be in a better place.”
Quinn talked about the differences between the pro and college game, his ongoing friendship with Charlie Weis, and his fondness for Notre Dame. But the one line of questioning that inspired Quinn the most was leadership.
From the way Quinn carried himself at Notre Dame during drills in practice, or in the huddle on game day, it’s no secret that he emerged as a terrific leader during a junior season that helped return the program to at least temporary relevance in 2005 and 2006.
It was interesting to hear Quinn talk about the importance of leadership because there continues to be some concern whether current Irish quarterback Jimmy Clausen has the mental makeup to become a guy teammates gravitate to. Even Charlie Weis admitted that working on Clausen’s leadership skills was part of the spring routine.
“Honestly, I think a lot of things to becoming a good leader start with off-the-field issues,” Quinn said. “It starts with leading guys to make sure you are making the right decisions off the field, whether it’s in the classroom or just working out. Leading guys through workouts, just being the first one there, the hardest worker of the group.”
Any quarterback, especially the starter at Notre Dame, needs to embrace the leadership responsibilities because fair or not, they are the player that becomes the face of the program. It should become clear early this season if Clausen has matured to the point of being an effective leader, because like Quinn pointed out, by the time you’re a junior, you either have it or you don’t. “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” he said.
Improved chemistry is going to be very important to the Irish this season, and that will be cultivated, at least in part, by how good of a leader Clausen develops into. When things started to fall apart late last season, the team seemed to lose all direction – a rudderless ship – evidenced by three blown leads in losses to North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Syracuse, as well as two miserable losses to Boston College and USC in the last seven games.
The point is, there were opportunities for leadership to emerge and help right the course in each of those individual games, and in the season as a whole, and it never happened.
“Leadership is extremely important and something I take pretty seriously,” Quinn said. “I think off the field is where it starts. Then, it kind of follows you on the field, your presence in the huddle, your direction out there on the field, your communication with the other players. If you don’t have control of the huddle, if you’re not effectively communicating to the other guys, you’re going to have some breakdowns as you get out of the huddle and get to the line of scrimmage.”
Notre Dame is going to face similar difficult stretches in 2009 as it did last season, and how the leaders respond – most notably Jimmy Clausen – could be the difference in two or three games. It could be argued it made a difference in at least that many last year.
When the No. 2 Irish lost to Michigan in Game 3 of 2006, Quinn kept his cool, righted the ship, and strung together eight wins in a row – a sign of level headed leadership. That’s the type of response Clausen needs to show this year.
From Tom Clements (1973), to Joe Montana (1977), to Tony Rice (1988), to Quinn (2005), junior quarterbacks have a nice history at Notre Dame, both in terms of leadership and on-field development.
Let’s hope the same holds true for Clausen - a season and a coach’s job may depend on it.
