T.J. Quinn Continuing to Make Strides as a Player and Leader for Louisville

Following a breakout 2023 campaign, the linebacker for the Cardinals is continuing to take step forward both in terms of his on-field play and his vocal leadership.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - As many know by now, the Louisville football program's 2023 campaign - their first under head coach Jeff Brohm - was primarily anchored by a strong and deep defense. Sporting the No. 9 rushing defense and the No. 21 total defense, the Cardinals wound up finishing that season at 10-4 with a berth in the ACC Championship Game.

A big reason for this development was due to the steps forward taken by the linebacker room. Viewed as potential weak spot on the roster through much of last offseason, this position wound up being a relative strength for the defense, and was a key factor that fueled a stout Louisville front seven.

While it was a collective effort from the linebacker position, the catalyst at this spot undoubtedly came from T.J. Quinn. Whether it was against the run or in pass coverage, the 6-foot-1, 230-pound inside linebacker made plays all over the field, all season long. By the end of the year, he collected a team-best 92 tackles, while also tallying 2.5 tackles for loss, half a sack, an interception and two pass deflections to earn an All-ACC honorable mention.

It was a bit of a meteoric rise for the Valdosta, Ga. native. Quinn played in 13 games the season before in 2022, but only finished with 18 tackles. In 2021, he played in just one game, making two tackles against Duke.

But for linebackers coach Mark Ivey, who has been with the program since 2019, Quinn's breakout 2023 season didn't come as much of a surprise because of the way that he had carried himself ever since he got on campus. If anything, he was pleased by Quinn's consistency and maturity for being such a relatively inexperienced player.

"I don't know if there's anything that he did that purely surprised me, but it was nice to see the consistency from TJ," Ivey said. "He would make a mistake, and not harp on it. A guy that hadn't started or played a ton, sometimes something bad happens, and they kind of shut it down a little bit. He never did that. He always came to the sideline, he always took whatever information was coming from the top and coming from the sideline, and he would go back and make corrections. I thought it was a very mature thing for a guy that had not played a ton.

"I don't know if there's anything he did that really surprised me, because I knew he's really good football player. But that was just nice to see that he was able to be mature enough, and consistent enough, to work through problems. ... He didn't play every game perfect or every play perfect, but was always ready to come back and on to the next one. And if something good happened, on to the next one."

As Louisville goes through spring ball in preparation for their 2024 season, there's not one massive area that Quinn wants to improve on. For him, it all comes down to cutting down on the amount of mistakes that he did make, taking small steps forward in regards to the various aspects of his game, and maybe even adding a wrinkle or two.

"From what I did last year, I always want to take those mistakes that I did make, and improve on them," Quinn said. "I also want to work on different parts of my games that I maybe I can improve on to try to make a bigger impact this year. That's just coming with film study, and just honing in on the little details just to try to improve going forward."

Put that all together, and - while it hasn't been picture perfect - Quinn looks like he is well on his way to having yet another impact season for Louisville. So far through spring ball, Quinn seems to be playing much faster, and has made several plays in the four open practices up to this point.

"One thing, TJ, I think has done a good job of, he's done a good job of knowing our coverages, knowing our systems, knowing our defenses," Ivey said. "There were times where we'd get- and this is the whole group, so this is not just TJ. There's times we go to strike a block, and you got to engage blocks. You can't dodge everybody, you can't avoid you if don't want to. We got to be able to get immediate instant lockout, and get into our gaps. That's really a statement for the whole group, not just for TJ."

If there's anything that Ivey wants Quinn to work on, it's becoming a more vocal leader. It's not that Quinn is not already leader, it's that he is very similar to how former Louisville All-ACC linebacker Yasir Abdullah was: Quinn is very reserved and a bit on the quiet side. Because of how knowledgeable that Quinn is, Ivey wants him to come out of his shell and improve his on-field communication.

"If I'm a teammate of yours, I see that the guy's not complacent, he's not taking that as 'I've arrived.' He knows there's a long way to go to get better," Ivey said, "But then, assert yourself verbally, and just put that out there in the locker room, and then on the practice field, and continue to do that. Because when people know you're genuine, and when people know you care, as a player, they'll take that constructive criticism from you. They'll take that gamesmanship from you. That's what I think, and I think he has done a decent job of that, and he can still continue to improve in that in that area.

As Ivey alluded to, it's still a bit of a work in progress to turn Quinn into someone that you can hear crystal clear from the sideline. However, the fourth-year linebacker is slowly becoming more comfortable as it pertains to becoming much more vocal in his leadership.

"I feel like the more you do it, the more comfortable you get with it," he said. "He always says that being a linebacker, you're the quarterback of the defense. So people are going to look towards when things going bad or things are good. They're going to expect to get that energy from us. I feel like as more time goes on, the more comfortable I'll be with it."

(Photo of T.J. Quinn via University of Louisville Athletics)

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