Kelly’s presumed OC named head coach at Buffalo

(Writer’s note: Now free of typos in the headline... Thanks, Tim.)

Jeff Quinn, Brian Kelly’s offensive coordinator at Cincinnati who was named interim head coach for the Sugar Bowl, was named the next head coach of the Buffalo Bulls. This most likely throws a small wrench in Kelly’s plans, as it was long assumed that Quinn would join Kelly in South Bend after the Bearcats bowl game.

Here’s more from Buffalo’s official release:

BUFFALO, NY - University of Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jeff Quinn will be announced as the 24th head football coach in University at Buffalo history on Tuesday afternoon. Quinn, who will serve as interim head coach for the 12-0 Bearcats Sugar Bowl meeting with Florida on New Year’s Day, replaces Turner Gill who accepted the head coaching position at Kansas on Dec. 14.

Quinn has 27 years of college coaching experience and has helped guide Cincinnati to back-to-back Big East championships. He also boasts championship experience in the Mid-American Conference, having served as offensive coordinator at Central Michigan in their run to the 2006 MAC title. The following season he moved to Cincinnati to take on offensive coordinator and offensive line duties with head coach Brian Kelly where the Bearcats compiled a 33-6 record over the past three seasons.

A press conference announcing Quinn’s appointment will take place at UB Stadium on Tuesday, Dec. 22 at 2 pm.

It’s assumed that Kelly will continue to call plays in his offense, but Quinn carried the titles of offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, two key positions that Kelly will likely have to go outside of his coaching tree to fill. Notre Dame already announced that offensive line coach Frank Verducci would not be coming back, but I wonder if Quinn taking the Buffalo job could change Kelly’s thinking on Verducci.

Quinn was a candidate for both the Cincinnati job as well as the Buffalo job that Corwin Brown interviewed for, so Kelly had to think that there was a good chance that Quinn wouldn’t be coming to Notre Dame with him. Kelly will likely be able to get a dynamic young coach with a strong recruiting background to come to Notre Dame with the offensive coordinator title available to add to the job of offensive line coach.