Posted on January 2nd, 2010 by Erin McLaughlin

As I watched the Sugar Bowl last night, I was paying close attention to the style of offense being run by Cincinnati since that will be the offense run in South Bend next fall.

One thing I learned is a bit of a concern as the Brian Kelly era begins. Before the game, I assumed that Interim Head Coach Jeff Quinn would join Brian Kelly at Notre Dame after the game. Apparently that is not the case at all. Quinn will be heading to the University of Buffalo to take over as Head Coach.

Why is this a concern?

Quinn has been an assistant coach for 26 years. 21 of them have been along side Brian Kelly. That means that Quinn was right there with Kelly through his success at Grand Valley State, Central Michigan, and Cincinnati. Quinn was Kelly’s offensive coordinator for many of those great offenses.

To say that Quinn was a huge part of Kelly’s success is a major understatement.

So how will Kelly do without Quinn?

There have been a couple of coaches I can think of that constantly lose coordinators and still do fine. Those guys are Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll. I know Charlie Weis and and Romeo Crennel were with Belichick a long time before they left. I am not sure how long Norm Chow and Steve Sarkesian were with Carroll before they left.

Another coach is Jimmy Johnson. He had Norv Turner and Dave Wannstedt at the University of Miami and they followed him to the Dallas Cowboys.

Then when Johnson took over the Miami Dolphins, Turner and Wannstedt had both moved on to head coaching jobs. Johnson was clearly not the same coach without them and was nowhere near as successful.

I don’t want to make a mountain out of a mole hill here. But when you are a successful coach and one of your top assistants who was with you for 21 years is no longer with you, that is a huge loss. Hopefully, Kelly has somebody that can be as successful as Quinn was.

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