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Can Quinn silence doubters at Combine?
He often lingers at the Athletes' Performance Institute in Tempe, Ariz., after hours, putting in a voluntary 75-minute boxing workout after everyone else has dispersed for the night.
During his lunch break, Brady Quinn likes to hook himself up to a 3D vision-testing machine that, in theory, sharpens the small muscles in his eyes to give him that much more reaction time to deal with oncoming defensive linemen.
So driven, so stubborn, so absolutely steadfast is the former Notre Dame quarterback to be the top pick in the next NFL Draft (April 28-29), he refused to skip a workout to take an afternoon flight to the Super Bowl in Miami earlier this month. Instead, he took a red-eye from Phoenix after completing his 12-hour-plus regimen, then headed to a gym in Miami for an hour-plus session shortly after stepping off the plane.
Men's Heath Magazine was so taken by Quinn's workouts, it's going to make him the cover story for the July/August issue.
"This all goes back to last year, making a decision to come back to school after my junior year," said Quinn, who deleted 36 school records during his time at Notre Dame. "At that point, I knew what I wanted do and how I wanted to approach things. I approached football this year almost like an internship. I haven't changed since."
But some perceptions of Quinn seem to have.
The man who spent most of the 2006 college football season as the foregone conclusion to be this year's No. 1 draft choice, heads into the NFL Scouting Combine (Thursday through Feb. 27) as the player seemingly most likely to end up in a draft story with unflattering comments affixed to his name.
Perhaps the most biting came in a recent story by The Sporting News' Steve Greenberg in which he quoted an unnamed scout as saying the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Quinn was "the biggest fraud in the draft." Greenberg goes on to point out two other scouts who project Quinn as a third- or fourth-round talent.
ESPN's Todd McShay, meanwhile, wrote Quinn is the player out of the 300-some invitees who has the most to prove at the combine and projects Quinn as the eighth pick of the draft. Some projections have Quinn falling out of the Top 10 -- all prognostications that seem to fly in the face of what Quinn has done since ND's 41-14 Sugar Bowl loss to LSU on Jan. 3.
And that is outwork the other draft hopefuls, rehab a minor knee injury, constantly consult with Irish coach Charlie Weis, keep business distractions to a minimum and take on the social life of a nerd.
"I think one of the biggest reasons people are talking that Quinn's draft stock is falling is because of the Internet," said longtime independent scout Frank Coyle of the draftinsiders.com. "Now every knucklehead on the planet is a draft expert.
"Where are these stories coming from? I think the one thing he did that hurt him was opting out of the Senior Bowl. Had he played and played well, he would have guaranteed himself to be a top 2-3 pick, but he did have the knee (injury). Then people look at the LSU and Southern Cal games, and say he didn't win. He made mistakes, blah, blah blah.
"People tend to overreact to whatever you've done for me lately. Now junior JaMarcus Russell (of LSU) is supposedly the greatest thing. Russell is a monster talent, but he's going to run into a wall in the NFL. I think Quinn is the better-developed player. This nonsense of juniors coming out off a big bowl game is way overblown. Decisions have to be made off the entire body of work, not the final game. And that's where Quinn really shines."
Quinn and agent Tom Condon, who have brokered deals with Xbox 360 and EAS Nutrition, are still formulating their strategy as to which facets of the combine the former ND star will participate in. Quinn has committed to working out for scouts, though, on March 4 -- the first of two Notre Dame "pro days" in South Bend.
"I think coach Weis has done a great job of getting me ready for all this, including how to deal with the negative stuff," said Quinn, who visited with Weis Sunday and Monday in South Bend. "I mean the guy has been there for me every step of the way.
"It's important for me to be the first pick in the draft. It's one of the goals I've set for myself, and hopefully in the next few weeks, I can position myself to do that. As far as the analysts and people who make predictions, the only thing that bothers me about that is that it bothers my friends and family, because they buy way too much into that. The thing I know is that if I work hard and do what I'm capable of doing, the No. 1 slot should be there for me."
Staff update
ND head coach Charlie Weis announced several staff changes, revisions and additions Monday. The following are the personnel whose job titles/descriptions were altered:
Corwin Brown, defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach; Brian Polian, inside linebackers/special teams coach; Bernie Parmalee, tight ends/special teams coach; Tim McDonnell, director of football personnel; Dave Peloquin, director of football development; Nick Mainieri, coordinator of quality control; Patrick Graham, graduate assistant/defense; Kevin Loney, intern/offense.
He often lingers at the Athletes' Performance Institute in Tempe, Ariz., after hours, putting in a voluntary 75-minute boxing workout after everyone else has dispersed for the night.
During his lunch break, Brady Quinn likes to hook himself up to a 3D vision-testing machine that, in theory, sharpens the small muscles in his eyes to give him that much more reaction time to deal with oncoming defensive linemen.
So driven, so stubborn, so absolutely steadfast is the former Notre Dame quarterback to be the top pick in the next NFL Draft (April 28-29), he refused to skip a workout to take an afternoon flight to the Super Bowl in Miami earlier this month. Instead, he took a red-eye from Phoenix after completing his 12-hour-plus regimen, then headed to a gym in Miami for an hour-plus session shortly after stepping off the plane.
Men's Heath Magazine was so taken by Quinn's workouts, it's going to make him the cover story for the July/August issue.
"This all goes back to last year, making a decision to come back to school after my junior year," said Quinn, who deleted 36 school records during his time at Notre Dame. "At that point, I knew what I wanted do and how I wanted to approach things. I approached football this year almost like an internship. I haven't changed since."
But some perceptions of Quinn seem to have.
The man who spent most of the 2006 college football season as the foregone conclusion to be this year's No. 1 draft choice, heads into the NFL Scouting Combine (Thursday through Feb. 27) as the player seemingly most likely to end up in a draft story with unflattering comments affixed to his name.
Perhaps the most biting came in a recent story by The Sporting News' Steve Greenberg in which he quoted an unnamed scout as saying the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Quinn was "the biggest fraud in the draft." Greenberg goes on to point out two other scouts who project Quinn as a third- or fourth-round talent.
ESPN's Todd McShay, meanwhile, wrote Quinn is the player out of the 300-some invitees who has the most to prove at the combine and projects Quinn as the eighth pick of the draft. Some projections have Quinn falling out of the Top 10 -- all prognostications that seem to fly in the face of what Quinn has done since ND's 41-14 Sugar Bowl loss to LSU on Jan. 3.
And that is outwork the other draft hopefuls, rehab a minor knee injury, constantly consult with Irish coach Charlie Weis, keep business distractions to a minimum and take on the social life of a nerd.
"I think one of the biggest reasons people are talking that Quinn's draft stock is falling is because of the Internet," said longtime independent scout Frank Coyle of the draftinsiders.com. "Now every knucklehead on the planet is a draft expert.
"Where are these stories coming from? I think the one thing he did that hurt him was opting out of the Senior Bowl. Had he played and played well, he would have guaranteed himself to be a top 2-3 pick, but he did have the knee (injury). Then people look at the LSU and Southern Cal games, and say he didn't win. He made mistakes, blah, blah blah.
"People tend to overreact to whatever you've done for me lately. Now junior JaMarcus Russell (of LSU) is supposedly the greatest thing. Russell is a monster talent, but he's going to run into a wall in the NFL. I think Quinn is the better-developed player. This nonsense of juniors coming out off a big bowl game is way overblown. Decisions have to be made off the entire body of work, not the final game. And that's where Quinn really shines."
Quinn and agent Tom Condon, who have brokered deals with Xbox 360 and EAS Nutrition, are still formulating their strategy as to which facets of the combine the former ND star will participate in. Quinn has committed to working out for scouts, though, on March 4 -- the first of two Notre Dame "pro days" in South Bend.
"I think coach Weis has done a great job of getting me ready for all this, including how to deal with the negative stuff," said Quinn, who visited with Weis Sunday and Monday in South Bend. "I mean the guy has been there for me every step of the way.
"It's important for me to be the first pick in the draft. It's one of the goals I've set for myself, and hopefully in the next few weeks, I can position myself to do that. As far as the analysts and people who make predictions, the only thing that bothers me about that is that it bothers my friends and family, because they buy way too much into that. The thing I know is that if I work hard and do what I'm capable of doing, the No. 1 slot should be there for me."
Staff update
ND head coach Charlie Weis announced several staff changes, revisions and additions Monday. The following are the personnel whose job titles/descriptions were altered:
Corwin Brown, defensive coordinator/outside linebackers coach; Brian Polian, inside linebackers/special teams coach; Bernie Parmalee, tight ends/special teams coach; Tim McDonnell, director of football personnel; Dave Peloquin, director of football development; Nick Mainieri, coordinator of quality control; Patrick Graham, graduate assistant/defense; Kevin Loney, intern/offense.
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