By Tom Coyne
The Associated Press
West Lafayette, Ind. – Purdue will see a different Brady Quinn when it looks across the line of scrimmage Saturday.
The 22nd-ranked Boilermakers won’t see the Notre Dame quarterback in his awkward looking stance – a “duck squat” as coach Charlie Weis describes it. He will be standing more upright and at ease.
“The stance is more comfortable and allows you to be a little more loose,” he said.
Quinn is a little more loose in everything he does on the field this season as he settles into Weis’ offense. He’s more mature, more at ease and a lot more accurate.
Heading into this season, Quinn had thrown 25 interceptions and 26 touchdown passes. This year, Quinn has thrown just two interceptions and 10 TD passes for the 13th-ranked Fighting Irish (3-1). In completion percentage, he has had the three best games of his career this year: 66.7 percent against Pittsburgh, 63.3 percent against Michigan and a career-best 67.5 percent last week against Washington.
Quinn has been a quick learner under Weis.
“He’s a sponge now. You give him something, he’s absorbing it,” Weis said.
Quinn will get to test what he’s learned Saturday night against the Boilermakers (2-1). But the team he sees may look a little different than the squad he has looked at on film; Purdue coach Joe Tiller is considering some changes at linebacker.
Strong linebacker Bobby Iwuchukwu is out after undergoing arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, and Tiller said the backups at middle and weakside linebacker are likely to play more and could start.
“We feel we have an ability to play at a lot higher level than we’ve been playing at,” Tiller said. “We need to step up and make a play and challenge our squad from a competitive point of view.”
The Boilermakers have the fourth- worst pass defense nationally, ranking 113th out of 117 teams against the pass, giving up an average of 305 yards a game. Their secondary has struggled.
“We’re not covering people like we should,” defensive end Ray Edwards said. “With our whole secondary back, we shouldn’t be having mistakes there.”
The Boilermakers can’t afford it against Quinn. He has passed for a lot of yards against Purdue – 297 yards in his first career start as a freshman and 432 yards last season – but still has no victory to show for it.
“We’ve moved the ball down the field. We just haven’t put it in the end zone,” Quinn said.
For the most part, that has been the story of Quinn’s career. His best days statistically have been losses. In 28 career starts, Quinn has passed for more than 230 yards nine times. The Irish are 2-7 in those games – with both wins coming against Washington.
Quinn said he believes the key isn’t how many yards he passes for, it’s how well he takes care of the ball.
“If you can have a big statistical day, being very efficient without turning the ball over, it should end up turning into a win,” he said. “There are very few cases where you can put up big statistics and not come up with a win.”
When Quinn passed for 297 yards against Purdue in 2003, he threw four interceptions in a 23-10 loss. In a 41-16 loss last year, Quinn wasn’t intercepted, but the Irish did fumble the ball at the 1-yard line and Quinn was sacked seven times. Weis said that won’t happen again this year.
Edwards said the Boilermakers need to find a way to get to Quinn.
“If we don’t stop him this year, he might decide to throw for 500 yards,” Edwards said. “He’s a great quarterback, and if he finds a hole in the defense, he’ll throw to whoever is open and make us pay all day.”
