Jeff Quinn Hired As Notre Dame’s New Offensive Line Coach
Notre Dame officially announced on Tuesday afternoon the hiring of longtime Brian Kelly associate Jeff Quinn as the offensive line coach. He might be the newest member of the 10-man on-field assistants, but nobody in the business has a longer affiliation with the Irish head coach.
Quinn replaces Harry Hiestand, who instructed the Fighting Irish offensive lines from 2012-17 before accepting a position this month with the NFL’s Chicago Bears under new head coach Matt Nagy.
Hired as an offensive analyst at Notre Dame in 2015 by Kelly, Quinn is expected to make a seamless transition into the operation with some continuity, similar to the promotion of second-year linebackers coach Clark Lea to defensive coordinator after the departure of Mike Elko to Texas A&M at the turn of the New Year.
The coaching careers of the 55-year-old Quinn — a 1984 Elmhurst (Ill.) College graduate — and Kelly extends back to 1989 when Quinn coordinated the offense, in addition to coaching the line, and Kelly coordinated the defense at Grand Valley State.
When Kelly was promoted to head coach at GVSU in 1991, Quinn remained his right-hand man the next 15 years there, highlighted by consecutive Division II national titles in 2002-03.
He had the same role with Kelly at Central Michigan (2004-06) while leading the 2006 Chippewas to their first Mid-American Conference title in 12 years and then at the University of Cincinnati (2007-09), where the Bearcats in their last two years captured back-to-back Big East titles and went to BCS bowls. During the 12-0 regular season in 2009 that landed Kelly the Notre Dame post, Quinn was a finalist for the Frank Broyles Award as the nation’s top assistant coach.
Branching off on his own after Kelly was hired, Quinn in 2010 was hired as the head coach at the University of Buffalo, which had been to one bowl game since moving to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1999. Under Quinn, the Bulls gradually improved from 2-10, 3-9 and 4-8 before an 8-4 regular season in 2013 that landed them a bid to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, where they lost to San Diego State. A 3-4 start in 2014 prompted the school to relieve Quinn from his post, and in 2015 he was reunited with Kelly as the offensive analyst at Notre Dame.
“I’m thankful to Father [John] Jenkins, Jack Swarbrick and Coach Kelly for this tremendous opportunity,” Quinn said in a released statement from Notre Dame. “There’s a tremendous legacy of coaching the offensive line at Notre Dame, from Brian Boulac to Merv Johnson to Joe Moore to Harry Hiestand.
“As each of those men will tell you, the focus of this job has been and always will be about the best interests of the players in the offensive line room, both on and off the field. I’m simply honored to now serve in this role.”
Kelly commented on the hire in the same press release.
“Jeff has helped produce NCAA, conference and school record-breaking offenses along with multiple conference, bowl and national championships over his 34 years as a college football coach,” he said. “He has an accomplished track record of not only identifying but also developing outstanding offensive linemen.
“Jeff also understands the high standard of offensive line play at Notre Dame, having been part of the offensive staff the last few years. He will continue to develop the culture necessary to produce college football’s top offensive line.”
Two of Quinn’s most distinguished pupils include former Cincinnati center Jason Kelce of the 2017 NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles and former Central Michigan tackle and San Francisco 49ers standout left tackle Joe Staley.
Kelce was selected to the 2014 and 2016 NFL Pro Bowls and twice has been named All-Pro (2013 and 2017). He was the first Eagles center named to the Pro Bowl since Jim Ringo after the 1967 campaign.
Staley has been the starting left tackle for the San Francisco 49ers the past 11 years and been selected to six NFL Pro Bowls (2011-15 and 2017), and three times has been named All-Pro (2011-13).
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook