HOUSTON — The young coach was relentless. Dan Quinn called San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Jim Mora Jr. so much he could recite the office number backward. When that didn't work, Quinn turned to his sister-in-law, who worked with Mora's wife. Rarely has an entry-level job been so coveted.
For a month, Mora talked to other applicants for the defensive quality control coach opening. Head coach Steve Mariucci had a preferred candidate, a good friend. But none of the options felt right to Mora. He kept thinking about that persistent 30-year-old coach from Hofstra University.
“Steve, let’s bring Dan Quinn in for an interview,” Mora told his boss. “This guy might have something. He just won’t let it go.”
Sixteen years later, Mora and Mariucci are reveling in the success of that humble, baldheaded, goateed fellow who refused to be overlooked. Quinn wowed them during that interview, a breakthrough moment in a career that has led him inside the brains of some of football’s best defensive coaches. And now, at 46, Quinn is in his third Super Bowl in four years, this time as the Atlanta Falcons’ head coach.
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“It’s been really fun for me to see him have this success,” said Mora, now the UCLA coach. “It’s wonderful. It’s beautiful. I love it. Dan recognizes his journey was not easy. He’s very, very humble in that way. That’s who he is. That’s Dan Quinn. I’ve never had a conversation with Dan that felt rushed, that felt like he was looking over me to see who else is in the room. He’s always present with you. He’s all in, all the time.”
When Quinn sees a familiar face, his reaction is consistent: He uses his right hand to shake yours and his left to grab your shoulder. He asks how you’re doing, and for as much time as he can provide, he is warm and charming. He’s as genuine as it gets, and even in this overcrowded setting, he manages to make personal connections.
I covered Quinn in Seattle, where he coached for four seasons in two stints. When Mora replaced Mike Holmgren in 2009, he hired Quinn to be an assistant head coach and defensive line coach. When Pete Carroll took over for Mora after one season, he retained Quinn. Later, Quinn left to return to college as Florida’s defensive coordinator, but when Gus Bradley left Seattle to become the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach in 2013, Carroll rehired Quinn within two hours to run his defense.
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I remember sitting in Carroll’s office for an interview once. Quinn had just arrived, and when Carroll was done with me, he was going to have a long talk with Quinn about coaching philosophy. Carroll is a master of messaging, and every offseason, he challenges his assistants by quizzing them on what they believe and how they will relay it to the players. To Carroll, it’s the most important lesson he can offer to develop future head coaches.
“DQ has been away for a few years,” Carroll said that day. “We’ll see what he’s about now. We’ll see if he has it together.”
A few weeks later, I stopped Carroll in the hallway and asked whether Quinn passed the test.
“He’s got it,” Carroll replied. “We’re about to turn up.”
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Carroll, the rare 60-something to dare utter the phrase “turn up” in public, was right. Bradley implemented and taught the defense that made the Seahawks special. Quinn perfected it. The Seahawks won the Super Bowl in Quinn’s first season and finished one yard short of a repeat the next year. And then Atlanta made him a head coach for the first time.
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Quinn considers Carroll to be “probably the biggest single influence on me in my coaching career. He gave me just a great vision of what a head coach can be.”
What separates Quinn, Mora said, is his ability to help players “understand, grasp and apply” difficult principles. He’s an upbeat, energetic coach, but he’s not a rah-rah personality.
“He’s very direct,” Seahawks star cornerback Richard Sherman once said of Quinn. “His message is on point, and you’re going to listen to him. He doesn’t mess around, and everything he does is detailed.”
Before the Seahawks beat Denver, 43-8, in Super Bowl XLVIII, Quinn watched every snap Peyton Manning took during his record-breaking 5,477-yard, 55-touchdown season. He didn’t just watch every throw. He studied every handoff from Manning. By the time the game began, he had his defense feeling as if it knew Manning better than the legendary quarterback knew himself.
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Quinn is so thorough in preparation that he had to pause and tell a reporter this week, “Honestly, there’s not a lot of room left in my brain other than this game.”
Mora remains close friends with Quinn. The coaches have exchanged text messages this week. When they communicate, they send three phrases to each other: 1. Stay on point. 2. Sweep the corners. 3. Knock them back.
There’s a story behind each. They often send single bullets in the mail with the message “stay on point” inscribed. Mora keeps all the bullets from Quinn in his office. When they were coaching in San Francisco, Mora and Quinn would run the steps at Candlestick Park, and once they reached the top, they would sweep the dirt off the corners of the old stadium, a reminder not to ignore any details. And “knock them back” is just about being persistent and dogged in pursuit of success.
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There’s no doubt Quinn has knocked back every challenge he has encountered. Fifteen minutes into his first NFL interview, Quinn had convinced Mariucci and Mora that he was exactly who the 49ers needed.
“It wasn’t that he did anything supernatural,” Mariucci recalled. “He was his humble self. He led us to believe he’d work well with that defensive staff. He didn’t act desperate, but he acted confident. When you start in that job, it’s not like you’re watching him thinking, ‘You’re going to be the head coach in the Super Bowl one day.’ You just want them to do whatever you need: break down this film, get some coffee, get those cards done — now. And whatever you asked him to do, he did it 100 miles per hour.”
The young coach who kept calling Mora is one victory from standing at the top of his profession. The difference between a pest and a dogged dreamer? The pest just knows that he wants a chance. The dogged dreamer already knows what he will do with it.
For more by Jerry Brewer, visit washingtonpost.com/brewer.
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