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Brady Quinn explains the time he tried recruiting Urban Meyer to Notre Dame
Former Notre Dame and NFL quarterback Brady Quinn stopped by The Audible on Tuesday to chat with Bruce Feldman about Notre Dame football, offer a defense of Charlie Weis and hit other stuff around college football. You can listen here:
The best story, though, might have been that time a 19-year-old Quinn called Urban Meyer and tried to recruit him be the next coach at Notre Dame following Tyrone Willingham.
Meyer had just finished winning 24 games in two years at Utah and was being pursued by Florida, among others. So Quinn, then a sophomore, acted on his own.
"I had called Urban Meyer when all this was going down and actually spoke to him on the phone. There's a local radio guy that I grew up with in Columbus who gave me his number as he was at Utah at the time. The radio guy reached out to me and said, 'Hey man, it looks like Urban is going to Florida. Try to call him and talk to him.' So I called him and gave him my best pitch, but I guess it wasn't good enough.
"My pitch was just that we had a young team that was building something. He doesn't have to go back any further than some of the wins -- Tennessee on the road, Michigan, Michigan State -- and look at what we're capable of. I would love for the opportunity to play in his system and play for him given the success he had previously. And, obviously, it being a place that maybe was desirable to him considering his past coaching there.
"[The call] was only a few minutes. Obviously he was busy trying to make a decision and I was a 19-year-old kid trying to convince Urban Meyer to go to Notre Dame. He probably wanted to talk to his agent, he didn't want to talk to me."
Meyer went to Florida, of course, and won two BCS championships in six years while Notre Dame hired Charlie Weis and won 35 games over five years (including making two BCS bowl appearances) before firing him.
What would have happened if Meyer had actually gone to South Bend?
"[My career] probably would have been even better," Quinn said. "His quarterbacks are very much involved in the run game with some of the zone read scheme, and I think that would have played to some of my strengths. Also, from a completion percentage standpoint and the style of the passing game. It utilized screens, it utilized short, high-completion percentage passes and the ability to take some more play-action shots.
"I don't know how much different it would have been [for Notre Dame]. Part of the limitations on Notre Dame were recruiting. We can't recruit the same guys that Florida was able to recruit. That's always going to be a limiting factor for any head coach [at Notre Dame]. There are certain things they have to get around to get certain players, and that limits your talent pool."
