Brady Quinn Up For O'Brien Award

Are you like me? Do you see that Brady Quinn is a semifinalist for the Davey O’Brien Award and ask yourself, who the heck is Davey O’Brien?

Well, good news. We have the answer. Davey O’Brien was an outstanding quarterback at Texas Christian University in the late 1930s. He was the first person to win the Heisman, Maxwell and Walter Camp awards in the same season. He had an outstanding NFL rookie year with the Philadelphia Eagles before retiring to join the FBI. He was named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956. He died of cancer in 1977.

Anyway, back to Brady, who is in the running for enough awards to fill a room. He already has thrown for 2,579 yards and 25 touchdowns, against just four interceptions. He’s completing 63.6 percent of his passes and he recently became the 32^nd player in NCAA Division I-A history to throw for more than 10,000 career yards. He’s on pace to throw more than 90 touchdown passes and more than 12,000 yards.

He’s one of 18 semifinalists for this award, which is presented annually to the nation’s top college quarterback. Other semifinalists include Louisville’s Brian Brohm, Florida’s Chris Leak, Ohio State’s Troy Smith, West Virginia’s Pat White, Michigan’s Chad Henne and Texas’ Colt McCoy.

The winner will be announced on Dec. 7, with an awards dinner set for Feb. 19. Former Irish great Paul Hornung also will be honored with a legends award.

So now you know.