Brady Quinn....a poor man's Joey Harrington?

I am a die hard University of Michigan football fan. Why is this important? Because for the longest time I have tried to defend Brady Quinn. Its not because I like him, his college team, or particularly respect his play. I guess I just felt bad for everyone picking on him. Despite repeated assertions by my smarter, wiser friends, I have always maintained that I think Brady Quinn could develop into a good NFL Quarterback. I will now eat crow.

My flip flop on opinion has very little to do with what people at ESPN and in NFL front offices so preposterously obsess (Private Workouts and the NFL Combine), articles anointing Jamarcus Russell as the second coming of..well...know one (many so-called prognosticators somehow feel that a player that threw 15 touchdowns and 9 picks one year ago and had two 300 year passing games for his ENTIRE college career is the most unique prospect in years....but that's for another time and place), or commentators like Merrill Hoge referring to Quinn as "OK".

Rather, it was when I heard the question "when has Brady Quinn ever played well on the big stage? " The answer is never.

In 2003, his freshman year, ND was 5-7 (with wins over the likes of dominate college football powerhouses like Navy, BYU and Stanford).

In 2004, Quinn had his first marquee win against Michigan. However, ND won in spite of him that day, with Quinn throwing three picks, completing 50% of his passes and throwing for only 178 yards. He beat a 10-3 Tennessee team with the "magnificent" numbers of 118 yards passing, 53% completion percentage, 1 TD. Hardly the type of numbers you expect from your star QB in big game.

In 2005, ND's best in Quinn's four years, included wins over Pitt, Michigan and Tennessee. Pitt went 5-6. Michigan went 7-5 in one of their worst seasons in years, and Phillip Fullmer apparently couldn't use enough dirty recruiting tactics (just kidding....kind of) to lead the Vols to anything greater than a 5-6 season. Also, ND then proceeded to get waxed by the Devil's team, Ohio State, in the Fiesta Bowl, in which a QB did put forward a big time, big game performance....but his name is Troy Smith.

In 2006, the year Quinn was to run away with the Heisman, Quinn promptly dropped the ball in the first big game of the year, favored at home against Michigan. He threw two early picks and Michigan was up big before Quinn could put any numbers on the board. While strong in a great comeback against Michigan State (the only team in college football guaranteed to have a massive stomach punch game every year), how great do numbers look when putting them up against Army, Navy, Stanford and North Carolina? In his final attempt to show up on the big stage, Jamarcus Russell completely out-shined him in the Sugar Bowl (a game ND did not deserve to be in in the first place).

So how does Quinn compare to Joey Harrington? First, Harrington and Quinn share the same strong college pedigrees as three-plus year starters (with Quinn obviously coming from the "mecca" of college football and Harrington putting Oregon back on the college football map out in Eugene). Second, both Heisman trophy candidates fit the Golden Boy image that America loves in its QBs (see Brady, Tom) - although I am pretty sure Quinn doesn't have the musical skills of Harrington. Third, both put up great numbers in their final campaigns that had hig expectations. Fourth, both (once the NFL Draft arrives in a few weeks) will have been high draft picks. Fifth, both had concerns about their ability to translate their success in the college game to the pros, and despite these concerns unfortunate NFL front offices made the decision to choose them highly anyway.

Despite their similarities, I view Quinn as coming into the NFL not with the same trajectory as Harrington - but worse. Everyone gives Quinn a pass because he was the star QB for Notre Dame. But he never showed up when the spotlight was on when actually playing against a quality opponent. Granted, the spotlight is always on a Notre Dame QB (remember the Ron Powlus hype), but it's a whole lot easier dealing with media scrutiny when you can toss 5 TDs against a 1-10 team that you can beat with your third stringers than beating a loaded OSU team or a Michigan team that would go on to have one of the top ranked Defenses in the country. Harrington at least came in with a reputation for producing when it mattered most (save for the 2000 Civil War game where he threw 5 picks). At least Harrington produced on the big stage, earning a reputation as a strong 4th Quarter QB and led the Ducks to a 22 point thrashing of Colorado in the Fiesta Bowl (where was Quinn's big bowl win?).

A common retort to this would be to look at Quinn's comebacks against MSU and UCLA this past season. That would make him, at best, similar to Harrington....which should scare every GM in the first round in need of a QB. The natural result of this information is that Matt Millen is sitting at home right now thinking about how happy he is going to be to make Quinn a Detroit Lion.