this marital partnership extends beyond the norm for a coach's wife.

"I also have taught for 28 years, and good coaching is just good teaching," she says. "Maybe a player's not grasping a play, or it's difficult, and we talk about the research of the mind and the brain and that sometimes you can't implement a play on the last day prior to a game because it actually takes statistically and theoretically time for the whole process to go through your mind. So a lot of times, although he's working with 18-23 year olds, and I may be working with 0-6 year olds, a lot of the process is exactly the same."

Jeff and Shannon have been together since they were 15, high school sweethearts as freshmen. Their relationship has endured over two decades of long hours, through the recent spate of moves from one school to the next.

"Shannon's been my rock," Quinn says. "They say better half, she's much better than my better half. ... There's challenges in all marriages and we've faced them ourselves as husband and wife and mother and father, but the bottom line is we trust each other and we care deeply about each other and that's why my last breath of air goes to her."

Gill cultivated and sold a sense of family during his four years at UB, the bond among players and coaches tightening like a clenched fist. Quinn is doing the same, although the approach is as different as their personalities.

"They definitely care about their players, that's one thing about them both," said senior defensive back Domonic Cook. "They will stand up for us. Coach Gill is more laid back. Coach Quinn is more on you, but they both will put us first."

FOOTBALL

Quinn's first stop in the working world was as head wrestling coach and assistant football coach at Division III Ohio Northern. An ideal job, that was. Quinn had been a two-sport standout at Division III Elmhurst (Ill.) College, where he was an All-America offensive lineman and a three-time NCAA qualifier as a heavyweight wrestler. Twice he was named the school's Student-Athlete of the Year. The innocence and purity of Division III athletics appealed to him. Had he remained a coach at Ohio Northern forever he might well have been content.

His trek toward UB commenced in 1989, when Tom Beck, Quinn's football coach at Elmhurst, took over at Grand Valley (Mich.) following a stint as a Marv Levy assistant with the USFL's Chicago Blitz. Quinn joined Beck and quickly developed a relationship with Grand Valley's defensive coordinator -- Kelly.

"He had a great passion for football and life and he's a man of faith and family and the next thing you know Tom Beck left to go to Notre Dame as the running backs coach for Lou Holtz," Quinn says.

Kelly became the new head coach at Grand Valley.

"I have a very strong sense for people and I want to be around winners," Quinn said. "And I knew Brian was a winner."

For the next 21 years Quinn became a teacher under Kelly and a student of his ways. They won at Grand Valley, then turned struggling programs into forces at Central Michigan and Cincinnati. It was as if they had canned whatever it takes to succeed in college football.

"People ask me all the time, 'How do you win?'" Quinn says. "I know how to win. I've proven how to win. I know exactly what it takes to win. ... And I'm not talking about catching the ball and blocking. I'm talking about consistency in the four pillars of development and who you are and what you're about. Those are the things that we've done very well with Brian and myself. ... And that's how you win."

FISHING

Quinn was 6 when his parents, John and Arlene, bought a cabin in Wisconsin's famed Rock River Basin, a collection of 45 lakes and 3,900 miles of streams created as if to produce childhood memories. And so grew Quinn's passion for fishing, a skill that serves him to this day.

"Let's put it this way, I've done some of my best recruiting with high school coaches on a boat," Quinn says while the charter captain, Mark "Sparky" McGranahan, nods in understanding. "In West Michigan, very rarely do I go into a high school recruiting a kid without that coach being an outdoorsman, maybe a hunter, a fisherman."

FUN

The no-huddle spread offense that UB will utilize, the frenetic attack that put quarterback Tony Pike and Cincinnati on the national map, is an elemental extension of Quinn's personality. He's all in when it comes to life, whether he's coaching football or spinning a yarn.

Long story made short, Quinn was a senior in high school when his future father-in-law, George Rantis, learned of Jeff's adulation for Ray Nitschke, the former Green Bay Packers linebacking great. It so happens Rantis and Nitschke played against each other in high school, were teammates at Illinois.

Rantis arranges through Nitschke a trip for Quinn and a couple of teammates to Green Bay for the Bears-Packers game. They're having breakfast in the hotel dining room when Nitschke walks in and joins them.

"I even know what he ordered," Quinn says. "He ordered eggs, sausage, pancakes, hash browns, french toast. He put all this stuff on one plate, mixed it all together, and he poured syrup all over it. And he's eating. And he's going back and forth with George, remember that game ...

"He's reciting exactly the thing they always did at Illinois, whatever their pregame ritual was, and George and him are reciting it verbatim. And then all of a sudden (Nitschke) kicks his chair out to simulate him getting out of the locker room all excited, and this poor waitress, with a tray of plates and cups, he nails this poor gal.

"And Ray's like, 'I'm so sorry. Are you OK, honey? Are you OK?' And she's looking at him, 'It's OK, Mr. Nitschke. I'll take care of it.'

"And he goes, 'Good,' and went right back to the story."

FINALE

A variation of the spread attack Kelly and Quinn constantly refined makes its UB debut Thursday against visiting Rhode Island. The quarterback is inexperienced. The receiving corps is young. But Quinn is ready to play his hand.

It's football season, and he has faith in his family of players. At the very least it ought to be fun to watch.

The fishing will have to wait.

bdicesare@buffnews.comnull