Oct. 26, 2006

Irish head coach Charlie Weis talks about his senior quarterback and all-star candidate Brady Quinn.

Q. Can you talk about Brady Quinn’s development since you arrived? Two, you talked about playing to your players’ strengths. Are you able to do more because you have a quarterback like Brady who can make throws that maybe some other quarterbacks don’t? And three, with your NFL experience, what do you project him as far as next level?

COACH Charlie Weis: Well, let’s start with number one. He had already been playing here for two years when I got here, so the learning curve of getting out there and getting your feet wet had already taken place. He was already intelligent when I got here. He had already been playing for two years when I got here, so realistically you already had something good to work with because you had a kid with athletic ability and intelligence that had been playing for two years.

Secondly, because he has a lot of those special qualities, intelligence and physical skills coming together, it allows you to expand your offense quicker than you initially would, putting in a system because you can put more responsibility on the quarterback than you could with somebody of lesser either physical skills or mental skills.

Last but not least, I think he’s a can’t-miss in the NFL.

Q. I know you’re not a big stat guy. Evaluating Brady, not using stats so much, but where do you feel he is right now?

COACH WEIS: Here’s what I know. The (Michigan State) game was on the line, he throws five touchdown passes. That stat I do know.

The game was on the line, he threw five touchdown passes. What more can you say? That’s what good quarterbacks do. What was he, 20 for 36, something like that for over 300. The 20 for 36, completion percentage, the yards, is irrelevant. It’s all about scores, it’s about getting the team in the end zone. That he was able to do.

Q. Somebody asked Bob Morton after the (UCLA) game yesterday, they said, “How cool was Brady on that final drive?” And Bob Morton’s response was, “How cool is Brady always.” Did you see that when you arrived at Notre Dame or was that something you had to teach him?

COACH WEIS: I think he has matured in the last couple of years, but he was well on his way when he got here. He has just matured as he’s gained more confidence in what he’s doing, and the players around him. Not to get off track on your question, but I think Bob’s answer is really right, when he goes in the huddle, there’s a calmness, that special something about him, the it I always talk about, it exists, and I think that it keeps everyone else under control and always knows something good could happen.

Q. Can you talk about Quinn’s day today (vs. Penn State) and also his week, what he was like this week.

COACH WEIS: He’s the same. The good thing about Brady, he’s the same every week. This guy has a passion to be great. He practices that way. He practices to win. He’s not one of the guys who goes through the motions. There’s not one day of practice where this kid isn’t practicing to win.

Q. You touched a little bit on Brady’s play. Can you talk more in detail about his (Georgia Tech) game last night.

COACH WEIS: First of all, the guy made some plays to help us win the game, some critical plays. And he got hit multiple times in the game. He’s a tough guy, made some plays. He was able to engineer the two touchdown drives, make a big third-and-nine in that last drive of the game, hit that completion to Rhema McKnight on an end-cut to help buy us the game.

There were a lot of positive plays in the game. No one is a bigger critic of Brady than Brady. He’ll come in today, he’ll be so far in the tank, I’ll have to spend a whole day getting him out of the tank. I’ll be dragging him out of there because his expectations for his play are so high.