Notre Dame football: Top 5 quarterbacks in school history
Brady Quinn sits, without a doubt, the best Notre Dame quarterback of the 21st century. If you were to only go by statistics, Quinn would find himself as the best quarterback in the history of Notre Dame football. However, he did have the benefit of playing in the 21st century, when the game has evolved to include exponentially more passing.
Still, as it stands Quinn holds the Notre Dame quarterback record for career passing yards with 11,762. That’s 3,614 more than the quarterback with the second-most career passing yards, Jimmy Clausen.
More impressive is his record for career touchdowns with Notre Dame. He threw 95 touchdowns for Notre Dame. Tommy Rees is second all-time on the Notre Dame career touchdown list, with 61.
Most of Quinn’s damage was done during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. He threw for 69 touchdowns over these two seasons, still good for most in the history of a Notre Dame quarterback. Those two seasons, individually, rank 1st and 3rd for passing touchdowns over a single season. Over those two seasons, he threw for a combined 7,345 yards which were good for 1st and 4th most in program history.
During his time with the Irish, Quinn won the Sammy Baugh Trophy, the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, and the Maxwell Award. He was an All-American and Heisman Trophy finalist in 2006.
Of course, as with everything associated with Notre Dame football in the past couple of decades, Quinn had one fatal flaw. He couldn’t win a National Championship or a major bowl game. He lost the Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl in 2005 and 2006 respectively. In both those seasons, he also lost to excellent USC teams. He couldn’t even win the Insight Bowl against Oregon State in his sophomore season.
Don’t hold any of that against Quinn, though. Simply recall that Notre Dame has never had a better, or more prolific, college passer. Just remember that a generation has grown up knowing Quinn as the gold standard Notre Dame quarterbacks.
If you need more convincing on Brady Quinn, just remember he made Charlie Weis look good.