29 September 2023
The Carroll family cherishes Saturdays.
Before each game, Gophers offensive tackle Quinn Carroll will telephone his father, Jay, and they will pray together. It’s a “fun” tradition that extends to all of Jay and mother Kari’s seven children, but for Quinn it became more pronounced when his dad would drive him to youth football games and practices at age 9.
“I kind of tease that this was really my pregame speech to him, masked in a prayer,” Jay, a Gophers tight end from 1981-83, said this week.
Then after each game, a band of Carrolls will gather around Quinn for hugs and a debriefing on highlights and drama. They want details on things such as what Quinn might have said when that North Carolina defensive end jacked his hands into Quinn’s facemask in Chapel Hill, N.C., two weeks ago.
“We live vicariously through our college brother,” said Collin Carroll, a former long snapper at Virginia Tech, from 2007-11. “It’s the most exciting thing in our lives.”
The Carrolls adore these moments because they were few and far between and further away when Quinn, who graduated from Edina High School, started his college career at Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., in 2019. But after three difficult seasons with the Irish, Quinn took advantage of the newly sanctioned NCAA transfer portal to come home to the Gophers before the 2022 season.
Carroll has since made 17 consecutive starts for his hometown team going into the U’s homecoming game against Louisiana at 11 a.m. Saturday at Huntington Bank Stadium.
“Who saw it coming?” Jay asked. “I mean, the transfer portal was not a thing his sophomore year. … Everything kind of seemed ordained and orchestrated way beyond our control.”
‘The tension’
At Edina, Quinn was regarded as the best high school player in the state of Minnesota in the class of 2019. Blessed with great size (now listed at 6-foot-7 and 315 pounds), he received more than 30 scholarship offers, including many of the preeminent programs in the country.
Newer Gophers head coach P.J. Fleck tried to stand out in the recruiting process and flew on a helicopter from Dinkytown to one of Carroll’s games with the Edina Hornets.
But Carroll later announced his choice of Notre Dame on KARE 11 news, with Minnesota only a runner-up.
“We certainly took flack for that, and he did, too,” Jay said of Quinn’s decision to leave the state.
Jay let Quinn make his own college decision, and during the process, Jay had seen Quinn become “very entrenched” with Fleck and his staff at Minnesota.
“We thought, kind of, almost, for sure, he was leaning towards the U,” Jay said. “When he got on that (Notre Dame) campus, I think it just kind of grabbed him. You know, it’s just so special. The faith component was intriguing to him… It’s everywhere you turn. It’s all over the place.”
Jay grew up in a Catholic household in Winona, Minn., and his father’s dream school for him was Notre Dame, and the Irish recruiting Jay in the late 1970s.
“Back then it was, if you got a phone call and a letter, they were hot on your trail,” Jay recalled to the Pioneer Press of his own recruiting experience. “Then if they came to a game, I mean, it was like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ They never came to a game. And I think they offered me a walk on, if I’m not mistaken.”
The Gophers came to several of Jay’s high school games and he attended head coach Joe Salem’s camp before his senior season of high school, where he was roommates with the coach’s son Tim Salem.
For the Gophers, Jay went on to produce 70 career receptions for 883 yards and 10 touchdowns across three seasons. His breakout game was a three-touchdown performance in a 35-31 upset of No. 18 Ohio State in 1981. After the third score, he made a sign of the cross with the football, an early expression of what faith means to the Carrolls.
Jay went on to play one NFL season apiece with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1984 and the Vikings in 1985, but it was his legacy with the Gophers that couldn’t help but be a part of Quinn’s collegiate decision.
“It was a hard decision for Quinn and he definitely was prayerful about where to go out of high school,” Collin said. “Certainly the U was a super intriguing opportunity. And we had a ton of respect for P.J., the energy and the culture he was bringing. And at the same time, Quinn was kind of caught in that tension between proximity to home and legacy, meaning my dad played there, and just how special that is. But then just like the lore, and the mystique, and the tradition of Notre Dame.”
There was also some unannounced family pull. “Selfishly, would we have loved to be able to drive 20 minutes to his games every game?” Collin admitted.
Lightning quick
Quinn’s tenure at Notre Dame got off to a bad start with him blowing out his knee during the first practice of his freshman season in 2019. The pandemic disrupted the 2020 season, but he was part of a team that played in a national semifinal game against Alabama at the Rose Bowl.
In 2021, Carroll played in 12 games for the Irish, but it came sparingly. Pro Football Focus had him down for only 52 offensive snaps across 2020-21.
That’s around the time Jay contacted his former college teammate, Tim Salem, who has been the tight ends coach at Pittsburgh since 2015. Salem shared with Jay that “the second five linemen at Notre Dame could probably start at 90 percent of the schools in Division I.” That got Jay’s attention.
Quinn “hemmed and hawed” on the decision to leave Notre Dame “until minutes before putting his name in the portal,” Jay said. While playing time had been sparse, he felt like he might get a shot to start that year or the next.
Quinn entered the portal on Jan. 3, 2022, and the Gophers jumped at the opportunity at recruiting redemption.
“It was like lightning fast,” Jay said. “Phone starts blowing up. My phone, his phone, they’re trying to get ahold of him. You have, like, 24 hours, basically, to win the recruiting battle in the portal. And I can’t remember who called first, but I know that U called second, and that was like only a minute or two behind.”
Fleck said recruiting now isn’t just a one-and-done relationship.
“The second time went way better than the first,” Fleck said. “… When you’re recruiting right now, even if you don’t get some of those kids, you hope to build a strong enough bond that if they do jump in the portal … you have the ability to be in the hunt.”
Fleck called Carroll a “beacon” for teammates on how to respond to adversity. “I’m proud of him,” Fleck said. “I’m glad he’s here.”
Young quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis said he has benefitted from Carroll’s leadership.
“He’s very vocal with the guys, he says how it is,” the redshirt sophomore QB relayed. “He doesn’t care about anybody’s opinions. He says exactly how it is and we need to get better. He is going to say it. If we are looking good, he’s still going to find something to get better at it. I love his leadership style.”
Prayers and pride
Jay and Kari set out to instill a form of non-demoninational Christianity in their home and prayers were a regular occurrence, not just on the way to youth football games. Quinn is the youngest of five boys and two girls, so it started well before him. They did it on the drive to school or to such things as choir concerts.
But Quinn and Jay’s tradition of pregame prayer is set to continue Saturday morning.
When Quinn was just starting out playing tackle football, they would pray for protection, concentration, humility and leadership.
“All of these essentials that you want for your kid,” Jay shared. “We didn’t pray for wins or for Quinn to dominate anything, just be the best he could be.”
Quinn says it calms his nerves before kickoff. “I know that God has got it in his hands, whatever is going to happen and whatever the result may be, however I perform,” he said. “I just know that I go out there and do my very best for the team and the rest God will take care of. That has always been a fun tradition he and I have.”
With Quinn back in Minnesota, a larger contingent of family can encircle him outside Huntington Bank Stadium and join them for postgame meals.
“Quinn has always been close to all his brothers, he’s a pleaser,” Jay said. “I think that’s his greatest sense of fulfillment. He wants to please and kind of entertain the family and bring the family together. They’re all in his face, giving him hugs and telling him what a great job he did. I think for him it’s special; for us, it’s way special.”
Brother Collin told Jay he would love it if Quinn could be mic’d up for the entire game and the feed would go straight to the Carrolls’ ears in the stands. “It would just be so entertaining,” said Collin, who played 55 games for the Hokies.
Desmond Evans #10 of the North Carolina Tar Heels rushes against Quinn Carroll #77 of the Minnesota Golden Gophers during the first half of their game at Kenan Memorial Stadium on September 16, 2023 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
Brother Paddy, a college baseball player at Augusta, called Collin before the season and said: “ ‘It’s fall and I’m just living Saturday to Saturday until I get to watch Quinn play again.’ That’s where we’re at now, that’s the case. But (Paddy’s) got a wife and a kid!”
When Paddy and Collin were watching Quinn play against Northwestern in Evanston, Ill., last weekend, they vowed that their kids would not go to another school besides Minnesota. Not even if Alabama or Ohio State offered scholarships, they claimed.
Quinn can share with his nephew how meaningful it is to him to wear maroon and gold. “Especially because my dad played here, too,” he said. “It’s kind of surreal, thinking about every time I put this uniform on. It’s a special feeling.”
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