Error processing SSI fileIrish's Quinn has familiar look
Junior quarterback carries Notre Dame like new coach Weis' other protégé, Patriots' Brady.
Brady Quinn led Notre Dame past then-No. 23 Pitt on Saturday.
Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis, in his first season, said quarterback Brady Quinn is "all-day tough." ... "You don't have very many quarterbacks that fall into that category," Weis said.
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If Brady wins, Brady loses.
No matter the outcome of Saturday's rivalry showdown between No. 20 Notre Dame and No. 3 Michigan, one of Charlie Weis' quarterbacks will come away smiling.
Weis, Notre Dame's coach, would rather it be his current protégé, of course. Brady Quinn, a third-year starter, will lead the Fighting Irish (1-0) into Michigan Stadium this weekend. Former Wolverine Tom Brady, who spent the past five seasons in the NFL running the plays for Weis, who was the offensive coordinator with the New England Patriots, figures to be on the sideline cheering for the home team.
"We have a friendly agreement," Weis said of Brady, whose NFL regular season begins Thursday night against the Oakland Raiders. "I'm not going to tell you what I'd owe him, but I can tell you that if he loses he's going to be wearing a Notre Dame football hat to his next press conference."
Weis took a break from tutoring Quinn & Co. on Tuesday to hold his own press conference in South Bend, Ind. And try as he might during his weekly media briefing, the coach couldn't ignore the obvious: His new Brady looked a lot like the old one in Notre Dame's season opener -- Weis' debut as a head coach -- Saturday night at Pittsburgh.
Playing on the same field where Brady led Weis and the Patriots to another AFC championship victory in January, Quinn was nearly flawless in leading the Irish to a 42-21 rout of then-No. 23 Pitt.
Quinn drove the Notre Dame offense to touchdowns on six of its first seven possessions -- completing 11 consecutive passes during one stretch -- in the first half. By halftime, the Irish had piled up 319 yards of total offense, more than they totaled in five full games a year ago.
Quinn finished the night completing 18 of 27 passes for 227 yards and two touchdowns.
"It's not as easy as it looked," he told reporters afterward.
But he could have fooled anybody, maybe even his coach.
"As far as Brady went, I mean, God, I think at one time, I don't know if he was 14-for-16 or 16-for-18, it was some phenomenal statistic," Weis said. "I know he completed 11 in a row. It wasn't just screen passes, either. They were balls down the field, too. We dinked and dunked a little bit and threw the ball (deep) a little bit. It was a combination of the two. But the thing is, he had good composure.
"Now, he has plenty of things that he can improve on. It wasn't that he played an error-free game. But he made a number of good plays in that game."
Weis, not surprisingly, also made a number of good play calls.
Renowned for his offensive genius in the NFL, Weis got his first chance to demonstrate his mastery of the X's and O's at the collegiate level. He wasted little time painting a new face on what had become a tired, patience-trying offense for Notre Dame fans in recent years.
On the first play from scrimmage, Weis called a sneak that Quinn -- not the most mobile quarterback -- turned into a 7-yard gain. Then, after a handful of running plays, Quinn dumped off the football to tailback Darius Walker, who raced 51 yards for a touchdown on a perfectly executed screen pass.
The second quarter included a prototypical Weis drive that lasted 20 plays and more than seven minutes. It featured a power running game with plenty of short passes mixed in, along with an assortment of formations, including a five-receiver set on one play.
Mostly, though, it featured Quinn -- already ranked fifth in career passing yards at Notre Dame -- doing what he does best: Using his smarts as much as his athletic skills.
"One of the biggest things about our offense is that it plays to your strengths," said Quinn, who, at 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds, is nearly a carbon copy of Brady's build. "Coach Weis isn't going to ask us to do things outside of ourselves."
Notre Dame's strength is its experience on offense, with 10 starters returning from last season. (Walker, who emerged as star freshman in 2004, is the lone newcomer to the lineup.) But Weis has made no secret that he expects Quinn to be the leader of this veteran bunch -- just as he did with Brady, a two-time Super Bowl MVP, in New England.
"You don't have very many quarterbacks that fall into that category that are 'all-day tough,' " Weis said. "Well, (Quinn) obviously is one of them. Once you take that ingredient, then you have to find out what the key components are that he does as a quarterback. Is he intelligent? Yes. Does he have arm strength? Yes. Does he have touch? Yes. ...
"But the most important element of a quarterback, without a doubt, is his leadership ability. And the fact that the team voted for him as a junior to be the offensive captain in a landslide, it obviously tells me what the team thinks of his leadership ability."
You can reach John Niyo at john.niyo@detnews.com.
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