(Photo: Aaron Suozzi: Icon Sportswire)
Brady Quinn arrived at Notre Dame in 2003 from Dublin, Ohio, and rewrote the school’s record books. An accurate passer and an outstanding team leader, Quinn took over the starting quarterback position midway through his freshman year and never looked back.
He played in all 12 games during his freshman season and became a full-time starter as a sophomore. While there were flashes of brilliance from the beginning, Quinn truly blossomed when Charlie Weis took over as head coach in 2005.
Under Weis’s NFL-style passing attack, Quinn thrived. As a junior, he threw a school-record 32 touchdown passes and racked up 3,919 passing yards, also a record. After the season, he was awarded the Sammy Baugh Trophy and named a third-team AP All-American.
In his senior year (2006), Quinn led the Irish to a 10-3 record and a berth in the Sugar Bowl. He broke his own record for touchdown passes in a season by throwing 37, a Notre Dame record that still stands today. At one point during the season, he threw 226 consecutive passes without an interception, another school record.
Following his senior season, Quinn was again named an All-American. He finished third in the Heisman Trophy voting and won the Maxwell Award as the nation’s best college football player.
At Notre Dame, Quinn set 36 school records across career, season, and single-game categories, including the records for career pass attempts (1,602), completions (929), yards-per-game (239.6), and touchdown passes (95). His 29 wins as a starter tie him with Ron Powlus and Tom Clements for the second-most in school history.
He served as team captain his junior and senior years.
Quinn was selected in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns and went on to have a seven-year NFL career. He is now well known for his work as a college football analyst and for his philanthropic work on behalf of veterans. Quinn helped establish and also serves on the board of the name, image, likeness collective, Friends of the University of Notre Dame.