Brady Quinn - College Career

College Career

Quinn accepted the offer to attend the University of Notre Dame, where he set 36 Fighting Irish records during his four seasons with the team. There were ten career records, twelve single-season records, four single-game records and ten miscellaneous records broken by Quinn throughout those four years, including the record for career pass attempts with 1,602; completions with 929; yards-per-game with 239.6; touchdown passes with 95, and the Irish's lowest interception percentage with 2.43. Quinn won 29 games as a starter at Notre Dame, tied with Ron Powlus and Tom Clements for the most in school history.

In 2005, under Notre Dame's new head coach Charlie Weis, Quinn excelled as a starting quarterback, averaging 110 more passing yards per game than he had as a sophomore while nearly doubling his number of touchdown passes, throwing 32 in 2005 compared to 17 in 2004. Quinn placed fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting behind Reggie Bush, Vince Young and Matt Leinart. Quinn was named to the 2005 AP All-America Team as a third-team quarterback and the 2006 SI.com All-American Team as a second-team quarterback. Quinn received the Sammy Baugh Trophy as the nation's top passer of the 2005 season. At the end of the season, Notre Dame faced Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. Quinn had 29 completions in 45 pass attempts for 286 yards in a 34–20 loss to Ohio State.

Prior to the start of the 2006 college football season, Quinn was featured in a regional cover on the August 22, 2006 issue of Sports Illustrated's 2006 College Football Preview issue along with then-teammates Tom Zbikowski and Travis Thomas with the caption "Notre Dame: The Battle For No. 1." However, despite the somewhat disappointing season for the Fighting Irish, Quinn posted impressive numbers, finishing the season with 3,426 yards on 289 completions out of 467 attempts for a completion percentage of 61.9% and 7.34 yards-per-attempt. He threw 37 touchdowns to only 7 interceptions, and was sacked 31 times. Quinn finished the regular season with a passing efficiency rating of 146.65, which ranked him 18th in the country. Notre Dame invited to the 2007 Sugar Bowl on January 3, 2007, where they played LSU. However, Quinn was held to 148 passing yards. Quinn threw only two touchdown passes, both in the first half, and the LSU held Notre Dame scoreless through the second half of the game to defeat the Fighting Irish 41–14.

Following the 2006 season, Quinn won several awards, including the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award for the best college quarterback in the nation and the Maxwell Award for the best college football player. Quinn finished third in the Heisman Trophy balloting behind Troy Smith and Darren McFadden. He was named the Cingular All-America Player of the Year and was named to the 2006 AP All-America Team as a second-team quarterback. Quinn graduated from Notre Dame with dual degrees in political science and finance.