Westminster LB is enjoying a ‘flow-for-all’
In reviewing game film, the Westminster College coaching staff regularly notices the flowing locks and double-XL white gloves of senior linebacker Mac Quinn dominating the screen.
So much so that it earned the Northgate High School graduate a nickname.
“They call me, ‘Hair and Gloves,’” said Quinn, a mighty tackler who amassed 113 stops last fall and has 13 this season. “You see those two things showing up so much. I like to be all over the place, in the middle of it all.”
For the Titans (2-0), Quinn is the man in the middle of one of the top defenses in Division III football.
They rank seventh nationally in yards allowed (191.5 per game) and eighth in points yielded (3.5). Westminster shut out Hiram, 400, in the season opener and held Waynesburg without a touchdown for nearly 54 minutes before a late turnover in their territory led to a score.
“That touchdown was crushing to some of our guys, but I told them we’re going to be all right,” said Quinn, who had 10 tackles and a sack in that 28-7 victory Saturday. “We want to be the best in Division III.”
At 6 feet 1, 205 pounds, Quinn is a quick-strike hitter who does his best work while freelancing. This is not always the prescribed method for third-year coach Scott Benzel, who’d prefer to see his star work within the framework of the system, but the results are indisputable.
En route to becoming just the third Westminster player in history to earn D3football.com All-South Region honors last fall, Quinn produced 4 forced fumbles, 2 interceptions, 5 pass breakups and 13 tackles behind the line of scrimmage. His ubiquitous nature makes him difficult to game plan for.
“He’s our heartbeat,” said Benzel, who led Westminster to its best season in 18 years last fall, including marks of 9-2 overall, 7-1 in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. “The thing is, when I first got here, I wasn’t even sure I could play him at linebacker because he’s all over the place. He’s a free spirit. But after that first year, we tried to calm him down and he’s really taken off. Sometimes, he’ll improvise, but that’s what makes him unique.”
Unique. It is an apt description of a young man who sports those lengthy locks, talks ad nauseum on game days and goes fullthrottle on every play. In some ways, Quinn is the Division III version of Green Bay Packers linebacker Clay Matthews, who inspired the long-haired look when Quinn was a high school freshman.
It has been a flow-for-all ever since.
“I used to have a Justin Bieber hairstyle,” said Quinn, a first-team All-PAC selection in 2015. “But then I saw Clay Matthews and that was it. It became part of who I am.”
Twice last season, Quinn channeled his inner-Mat- thews in producing 16-tackle games against Carnegie Mellon and Waynesburg.
His performance versus CMU was especially gratifying because he was assigned to slow down eventual Division III rushing champion Sam Benger, who finished with a season-low 83 yards on 26 carries. Quinn would be named the Division III Defensive Player of the Week for the effort.
Quinn credits much of his success to octogenarian assistant coach Dan Radakovich, one of the architects of the “Steel Curtain” Steelers defenses of the 1970s. Radakovich’s tough-love approach can be intimidating, Quinn said, but effective.
“It’s a little intense,” Quinn said of Radakovich, a colleague of Benzel’s when the two served as assistants to Joe Walton at Robert Morris. “I won’t repeat some of the things he says, but he’ll get after you. He doesn’t care. But it pushes me.”
Solid bloodlines have also aided in Quinn’s football success. His father, Bill, played defensive back at Clarion University and his mother, Donna, ran track at Slippery Rock. One of four siblings, Quinn said older sister Chloe toughened him up. The two played youth football together for the Avonworth Eagles and she was fearless, according to Quinn.
“We’d wrestle — and she’d beat me,” said Quinn, a business administration major with an eye toward becoming a financial planner. “But it was always enjoyable. And all of it helped make me who I am today.”