Jarrett Patterson was recruited by Quinn. HH basically quit on recruiting, which he reportedly hated, once he decided that he was leaving for the NFL. Quinn came in late and worked his ass off to get a class together. While it's true that the 4 seniors who left for the NFL were recruited by HH, they were coached for 3 years by Quinn. At the time they were recruited, Tosh Baker, Quinn Carroll, Andrew Kristofic, and some of the others were considered good to great recruits. It's fair to say that he hasn't developed the current group, and to question his coaching as you are only as good as you are now, last year was last year.
Thoughts on the QB situation. Jack Coan deserves to be the starter, but they need to expand the package for Tyler Buchner. I don't know what % of the reps he's been getting since on the depth charts for both FSU and Toledo, Drew Pyne has been listed as the backup. Don't get me wrong, from what I've read Pyne is a great kid, terrific teammate and his dream was to be a ND QB. But it seems to me that he is just not likely to have the upside that Buchner has. Tyler is bigger, faster and has a stronger arm. The concern was that he he hadn't played in a game for 2 years. I agree it wouldn't have been good to throw him out there, but desperate times, you know. Plus I think he showed that moment wasn't too big. He's the #2 now IMHO and he needs to play. Also keep in mind that nobody had film on him in action. Purdue now does and you can bet their DCOORD will have a plan for when he comes in the game.
I'm not down on either Quinn or the OL. What concerns me is that we seem to have hit a dead spot between the development process, which is crucial for OL, and having a full group of upper classmen ready to play. I agree with Terry that we have OL who are capable, but we now are forced to mix younger, less developed players with a few veterans. I'm looking for game to game improvement, which I know is not fast enough for some fans. In the meantime, as the OL develops confidence, I look to our defense and Coan's leadership and passing to keep us competitive and hopefully winning, whether by 2 or 20.
Quinn was not a popular hire at the time and he's continued to be doubted, sometimes fairly and sometimes not, by a lot of fans. Partly because fans feel that Kelly ignored other OL coaches who seemed to have a better resume and that his prior relationship with Quinn who was working at ND at the time and had to anybody's knowledge no offers to coach OL anywhere. Low hanging fruit. The same was said of hiring Rees and ignoring Joe Moorehead who is now the OCoord at Oregon. Kelly went with the familiarity over anything else.
If you've been a Detroit Lions fan for years, you know what an ineffective O line looks like. When your left tackle has the mobility of a pylon when 3rd and 1 is a passing down, you've got problems and ND has problems.
I don't think anybody disagrees that we have problems on the OL. It's also fair to look at the OL coach when you have problems. As much as Harry Heistand is venerated, don't forget he was fired at Tenn before he came to ND, and the Bears canned him with the rest of the staff when they cleaned house and he's not in coaching at the moment. We aren't fixing the OL issues by firing Quinn midseason as many have suggested, if we have a new OL coach in 2022 that's fine with me. I just want a good team that looks good wining. Right now 2-0 feels more like 0-2.