Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Former Hawkeye WR Quinn Early discusses his reasons for choosing Iowa, the culture shock of Iowa nice, and his memories with the Hawkeyes

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

We're honored to be joined by former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver and 13-year NFL veteran Quinn Early on today's show as we talk about his time before Iowa and during Iowa. What was his recruiting experience like? What kind of culture shock did he experience when coming to Iowa from New York, and how tough was Bill Snyder on him? We cover all of that today, and on tomorrow's show we touch on his time in the NFL, his second career at a stunt man, and the Iowa Hawkeye-focused project he is working on currently.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back, Hawkeye Nation, to a Monday morning episode of the Locked On Hawkeyes Podcast, your daily podcast covering your Iowa Hawkeyes on the Locked On Sports Network. As always, I am your host, Andrew Wade, and today's episode is brought to you by Built Bar. Go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKDOWN and you'll get 20% off your next order. And on today's show, we have a very special guest. I've been teasing him for a few weeks now since we recorded probably about 12, 13 days ago.

Just wanted to make sure we got through our segments we were doing as a preview for the Iowa Hawkeye football season. But I've been really excited to drop this episode. We have former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver and 13-year NFL veteran Quinn Hurley on the show today. He's going to be talking all about his time pre-Iowa and at Iowa. And on tomorrow's show, we're going to be talking about his time in the NFL, what was his favorite stop, what led to some of his really good seasons with New Orleans, and he's going to tell us about the time where he was a stunt devil for Will Smith's 50th birthday party celebration, having to jump out of a helicopter. So we're going to talk about that on tomorrow's show.

But on today's show, we're going to talk all things Iowa Hawkeyes, his time joining Iowa, what led him to Iowa, what the shock was coming to Iowa. That's all coming up on today's show. And if you like this show, please make sure to subscribe wherever you downloaded it at. So you get tomorrow's episode downloaded directly to your smart device. But with that being said, let's hop into the interview with Quinn Early right now. All right. I am joined here by former Iowa Hawkeye wide receiver and 13-year NFL veteran Quinn Early. Quinn, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Yeah, man. Thank you for coming on. And obviously the topic of the day is Iowa and the NFL. And I

obviously want to touch on your second career you've kind of embarked on, which I think is pretty awesome, especially just what we talked about. You kind of mix and match with some pretty famous people and some pretty awesome movies. But let's get started with your Iowa Hawkeye time. You grew up in New York. You end up in Iowa. So what was that recruiting experience like, and why did you ultimately decide to go to Iowa? Well, the recruiting experience was pretty amazing. I always knew that I wanted to play college football and possibly have a career in the NFL. So I just worked very hard. Obviously, genetics had a part to play in it. But, you know, I was very fortunate just to have some good coaching and get some good experiences in high school. And it's pretty funny because I think Bernie Wyatt, who was the

linebacker coach when I was there, he's the one who recruited me. He recruited a lot of guys from the East Coast, but we'll get to that part of it. But we were playing a team and I think the recruiters were there to look at somebody from the other team. I returned to kick off for a touchdown or something and they were like, hey, who's that? And so just fast forward, I was in class one day and I got a call from, a teacher got a call on that black phone in the corner that's, you know, she looked at me and I was like, uh-oh.

Like, I thought I was going to get a call or something, you know. So they told me to go up to the office and Coach Fry was sitting up there with Coach Snyder, you know, Bill Snyder and a few of the coaches and they had their black suits on with their, you know, their yellow so different now because I didn't even know how you got to college. I knew I wanted to go play, but I didn't know that they recruited you. I didn't know the whole process. So I went to visit and then I got recruited by a few other schools, Penn State, Boston College, Syracuse, a couple of smaller schools. And ultimately, I just I really enjoyed my visit there.

There were a lot of guys from the east coast like I said Norm Granger Owen Gill you know Nate Crear Devon Mitchell you know just a bunch of guys and I thought that was pretty cool and then they also had a really good art program there and that's what you know that's what I studied when I was in college so just a lot of factors that you know went went into my decision to go to Iowa. Yeah. And so what did you know about Iowa prior to Hayden Fry and Bill Snyder? And I just, that brought back memories.

I forgot just how amazing that coaching staff actually was from a legacy standpoint. But what did you know about Iowa prior to getting that offer? Nothing. I'll tell you what, though. I'll tell you what's pretty funny. So growing up, I was a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Even though I was from New York, I didn't like the Giants. Didn't like to just love the Pittsburgh Steelers. That couldn't have made you many friends in high school, man. Oh man. I just, Hey, listen, I didn't care. I didn't care. Man, Steelers all the way, you know, Terry Bradshaw and, you know, I mean, Terry Bradshaw and, you know,

Lynn Swan and John Stallworth and, you know, Michael Harris, all those guys. Mingo Green, all those guys, man. I love that team. So when I started getting recruited by Iowa, all I knew is they had those Pittsburgh Steelers uniforms. And, you know, when you're 18, that's a big factor, right, in your decision-making, right?

But it was just a lot of things. But once I went and I saw the campus and I knew they were in the Big Ten and they played Michigan and Ohio State and uh I was like wow this place would be awesome and then it was just you know prior to that I really wanted to go to Penn State you know and they were recruiting me pretty hard, but they wanted me to go to junior college. And then, you know, and I didn't want to do that. You know, I had a great, you know, to be able to go right now to college. So, you know, just the best decision I ever made. Cause here I am today. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, worked out, worked out pretty well.

And we're going to get to some of the stuff you're up to now. And it seems like that was also because of the connections you made at Iowa. But I want to get back to the jersey thing because you mentioned just you love the Steelers, the black and gold that Hayden Fry kind of changed how that team looked, right? But you see all these brand-new uniforms today. You see Maryland coming out with crazy flags on their helmet. Oregon has a new uniform every single week. Do you still feel like Iowa's uniform is one of the best in the country?

Absolutely. And I love the fact that, you know, I think somewhere in the early 2000s or late 90s, you know, they did the thing with the wings on the jerseys and whatever, which I totally didn't like. But I think they've tried a couple of things. But ultimately, it's just such a classic look. And I love how the uniforms – and I love the fact that since I played there, the uniforms would stay the same.

The only thing really that's changed is the fact that, and my kids always tease me about this, is that our shoulder pads were big. You know, every time we're watching a throwback game, you know, my son will turn to me and be like, what's with the shoulder pads? You know, pretty cool. Right. We have to quickly take a break from our conversation with quinn i hope you are enjoying it as much as i did but i do have a very important message from for you from our sponsors

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to try out. I ate that I think for three weeks in a row. It was that delicious. Just for breakfast with a glass of milk, it was kind of my get-me-up and get-me-through-the-day-before-my-workout. So highly recommend you check out BuiltBar.com. And right now, we have a fantastic promo code going for you. So go to BuiltBar.com and use promo code LOCKEDON, and you'll get 20% off your next order. Use promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off at BuiltBar.com.com that's funny i'm not a big fan of the wings either i do like some of the the variations they've come out with in the last couple years with the the all black and whatnot but yeah i didn't i didn't like the wings either not not not a great look for iowa yeah i'm a fan of the all black you know it's funny just a side

story when i played for the saints and uh you know now the saints sometimes they'll come out and they'll wear all black and when i was there I used to go to the equipment manager and I was like hey man you know what if we went all black and he was like get out you know he basically just kicked me out of the equipment room you're out of your lane just go back to you know let me do what I do you do what you do I'm like I'm just saying we need to wear black you know yeah you're a trendsetter back in the 90s man yeah man I just knew. I just knew it would look good, you know? Yeah. Absolutely. So coming from New York to Iowa, I'm from Iowa, so it's pretty normal to me, but Iowa is a different place than New York.

You know, it's cornfields and not a lot of stuff going on outside of Iowa City, which I absolutely love Iowa City. But was there a culture shock for you going to Iowa? There was. There was when I got there and the shock was everyone was so friendly. Being from New York, it's not that way. You know, people would walk by, good morning, good morning. And I was just like, what?

You know, you could, you could basically pull into the gas station, fill up your gas tank, then go inside and pay. Or you could leave your car running while you went inside, you know, and, and it would be fine you know and those were things that were just super like like strange to me you know but uh I absolutely loved it um it's a second home for me and just I can't say enough about my experience there yeah um are you able to make it back to a lot of games I go back I try to go back once a year. It doesn't always work out, but you know, I try to get back as much as I can.

And actually, you know, when I know that we'll get to it, but I'm doing a project now that is going to bring me back quite a bit. That's exciting. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to that, but yeah, I try to get back as much as I can. How are you, how do you handle, like, your stunt schedule and whatnot

while also there's Iowa football going on? I talked to Riley Smith. I don't know if you're familiar with Riley Smith, but huge Iowa fan, also an actor. He's currently playing on Nancy Drew on the CW channel. And he talked to me about one time being on a horse and watching the Iowa game on his phone in between you know action sets and whatnot because they wouldn't let him get off on Saturday so I'm just curious have you had

any instances of dealing with a schedule that you couldn't really get out of but Iowa was playing actually I've been pretty fortunate you know because most of the shows that I've been on you know we film you know it's Monday through Friday schedule. You know, there have been very few instances where I was working over the weekend. So I'm usually able to watch the games wherever I am. That works out well then, yeah. So playing for Hayden Fry, obviously a legend in the Iowa community, RIP to, you know, Hayden and whatnot. But what was it like playing for Hayden Fry?

And how close were you even after you left Iowa with Hayden and whatnot but what was it like playing for Hayden Fry and how close were you even after you left Iowa with Hayden Fry I'll tell you you know a lot of the lessons that he taught when I was at Iowa I've carried into you know my adult life and then also you know I coach high school football here in San Diego my son, who was recruited by Iowa when he graduated from high school, he ended up going to Reno, Nevada. But, you know, I used to talk to the team and talk about visualization. If you see it happening, it'll come true. And, you know, Coach Fry used to make us close our eyes before the game.

He would talk about visualize, visualize making that game-winning touchdown, that great catch, that great catch that tackle that sack and I can't tell you how many times using that visualization technique it would come true for me and I took that into my NFL career and he just always had a lot of good philosophy to say and stuff like that and you know he was just a different guy man he'd had him had on those dark sunglasses and he had the pinky ring with the jewelry and everything. And, you know, he had definitely had that swagger to him. And man, what a great experience. And then like you said earlier, just the lineage of coaches that have used his philosophy and took that into their own head coaching careers. And, you know, the list goes on and on. and it was just a pleasure to be a part of

that yeah it's truly impressive I feel like he was a revolutionary in terms of the the mental aspect of playing sports I feel like that wasn't something that was as commonly thought of and now it's such an integral part of the game but when I talked to you I talked to you know Kevin Casper a little bit about it too just there's such a mental side that Hayden Fry focused on I think was ahead of his time by far absolutely absolutely and I'll tell you what was amazing you know I went to his funeral in Dallas and there were so many players you know coach friends got up and spoke and you know a few others and somebody said okay all the players that played for Hayden Fry stand up. And it was just generations of all of these players, you know,

not just from Iowa, but from, you know, SMU and was it West Texas? North Texas. Yeah. It's North Texas. And it was just amazing just to see the legacy that he has left behind. And, and, And even more importantly, the lives that he touched through coaching and through mentoring and stuff like that. And, you know, I got a chance to, so for his 90th, I think it was his 90th birthday, right? I wasn't able to make it because it was around my birthday time, too. And Jimmy Morrow put coach on the phone

with me and it was funny because he you know he was you know he was like this frail little guy and you know he was a he was a rock you know firecracker man back in the day and he was just like he said how's my favorite receiver doing and i can hear jimmy morrow in the background like i thought i was your favorite receiver and then at the end he was like well I love you I love you too coach and I was just thinking when I got off the phone with him I was thinking to myself he didn't say much of that when I was playing for him

yeah but you know I'm very thankful that I got to at least speak to him I didn't get to see him in his later later years but at least I got to speak with him before he passed. Yeah. I mean, the, the story of just all the athletes standing up and then thinking about all the lives he touched over a 30,

40 year career kind of gave me chills. And I think it's pretty incredible that, like you said, he's had such a lineage of coaches, Bob Stoops, Bill Snyder, Kirk Ferentz right now. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's just, it's impressive to see that happen to take over from Hayden Fry to go to Kirk Ferentz and still kind of continue the traditions that Hayden Fry started. So you said you go to, you know, go to at least a game or try to go to a game a year.

How close are you to the program in general? And, you know, Kirk Ferentz, were you pretty close to him as a player? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, when I came in as a young 18 year old and it was pretty much uh coach for instance um beginning of his coaching career and he's not that much older I mean he was about 24 25 and so he was the offensive line coach when I first came in so I've known him since I was a teenager and then uh you know when I was in the NFL and then he was coaching I was in the NFL and then

he was coaching for the Cleveland Browns and they moved to Baltimore or whatever so you know we you know we'd be against each other and after the game we'd run out and we'd hug and stuff and then I was really happy to hear when he got the Iowa coaching job and so every now and then you know I'll text him or you know great job coach or you know he actually I was there two years ago I believe it was a Northwestern game it was one of those anyway oh that'd be a bad game to go to man that was when Isaiah Bowser went off on Iowa yeah they ended up losing but before the game I went and I visited with him and you know I just I was talking to him about the fact that when I was there myself Robert Smith, Kerry Burt you know we were all best friends in college.

And we all held each other accountable to get our degrees and go to school and do things like that. And he was pretty enamored with that. And then a few months later, he flew me back to talk to the team about that, about the importance of being a student athlete and trying to get your degree. And, you know, because football is, you know, it's fleeting, right? I mean, how many years do you have to play that sport? Yeah yeah what you're going to do and what you're going to be in life and you know I got to share that with the team so that was a pretty awesome experience too so yeah so we we still have a pretty pretty good relationship that's pretty awesome and yeah I do think one of the things I've always really appreciated about the Iowa football program is

that they're trying to develop not just football players, but good people who can be in the community afterwards and make something of themselves successfully. I have a couple questions about your Iowa Hawkeye career, but while we're talking about wide receivers, what do you think about Iowa's wide receiver group today? Oh, man, I like them. I like them. What's in the kid number six?

Amir Smith-Marset. Yeah, I actually talked to him after the kid numbers, what's in the kid number six, Amir Smith, Marcelle. Yeah. Yeah. I actually talked to him after the holiday bowl and, um, and I actually went out to practice when they were here and, uh, man, the kids good player, good player. They had a good group. They got it. Yeah. It's impressive.

I mean, I asked that question because Iowa has had some really great receivers in the past 20, 30 years, but you're the one who's really kind of made that next step to make it into the NFL. And I want to touch on your career there in a little bit. I'm kind of getting over my transitions here, but I do want to get back to the Iowa stuff. You played with two first round quarterbacks and Chuck Hartley, arguably, you know, a very underrated quarterback in Iowa Hawkeye history, but Dan McGuire, Chuck Long, Chuck Hartley, I know Dan McGuire was only there for a hot second, but what was it like playing with those three quarterbacks? And then compared to kind of your NFL time as well.

I mean, how good were they in your eyes? Well, I'll tell you, you know, getting to play with, you know, Chuck Long obviously is a legend. Yeah. One of, if not the greatest quarterback to ever play there. And I had the opportunity to play with him. You know, it's always funny because I always tell the story. You know, I was a young receiver.

And every day Chuck would say to me, today's your day, Q. Today's your day. And then we'd get out there and he wouldn't throw me the ball. See him now. We still joke about that, you know. But, you know, I remember my very first touchdown. It was against Northern Illinois. And it was a torrential downpour, rain and everything.

And Chuck threw me the ball and I caught it. You know, that was my first experience. It was my redshirt freshman year. And just to be able to play with him was great. Playing with Dan McGuire. Me and Dan to this day are really good friends. You know, when I drafted by the Chargers and he was playing at San Diego State, we got together all the time and we hung out.

He had a good NFL career, pretty good NFL career. And he and his family, they moved to Reno, Nevada. So when my son Chance went to Reno, Dan and his family looked after him. That's awesome. We would go out to visit. We would spend time and stuff like that so just uh you know just a really good friend and then when we talk about you know chuck hartley i actually got a chance to spend some time with chuck when i was out in iowa last year and uh man what a great guy man to have a have an opportunity to play for a year with him um obviously my my stats were

really good thanks to to Chuck Hartley. Yeah. Like you said, a really underrated guy and what a great quarterback he was. So I'm really fortunate to have been able to play with such amazing quarterbacks, you know, and then transitioning into the NFL, you know, the preparation that we did at Iowa allowed me to be successful on that next level. It's crazy. I've heard that from so many people. It's just clearly that's,

that's what, I mean, Iowa does a great job of producing NFL players, players that are ready for the NFL. You look at the Buffalo bills and they even mentioned the fact that they love Iowa Hawkeyes because they come in and they're already three, four steps ahead of any other player they're going to draft because they're ready for the NFL. They've been training like NFL players for four or five years at Iowa. So it's pretty cool to see that.

Yeah, absolutely. And playing for Bill Snyder was my office coordinator, and he was my receiver coach. And he expected perfection. I remember catching a – ran an out route, catching it, breaking some tackles, going and scoring, and everybody's going bananas. And then when we watched the film, he was like, congratulations like congratulations he was like but if you ever run that route short you know it's supposed to be a 10 yard out or eight and a half or something if you ever run you can't play for

me if you run that route short oh man i couldn't stand you know i can't stand this guy you know but what he did was he was a perfectionist he expected a certain level of effort and professionalism and you know just in doing everything correctly and you know that helped me transition into the NFL and when I first got drafted by the Chargers I could pretty much play any wide receiver position on the field and I already knew how to run the routes and they really didn't have to tell me anything and that really really helped me a lot and I'll tell you just a really quick story. So years later, about halfway through my NFL career, it really struck me that even though as a freshman, sophomore,

Bill Snyder was really, really tough on me and I couldn't stand him, I realized that it was because of him that I was as successful as I was. And I called him. He was at this point, he was at Kansas State. And I called him and I said, coach, I just want you to know that it's because of you. And he stopped me right there. And he was like, I know.

And I just said, oh, okay. You know, it was pretty funny. But yeah, he was instrumental in helping me develop my skills, you know, to get to the next level. That's crazy. So at what point in your college career did you think you could be in the NFL? After my junior year, the spring game, I knew I had the skills because when I first got to Iowa,

I wasn't sure if I could play on that level. By my junior year, I was playing really well. It became easy. Like I knew that I was like okay I can kill these kids you know and then no unfortunately I you know I separated my shoulder before the first game my junior year and I missed the first half of the season but then when I came back and that first game back was against Northwestern at Kinnick Stadium and Mark Vlasic threw me a 95 yard touchdown and then I think I led the Big 10 or something like that in yards per catch you know I had like uh you know in five games I had like five or six hundred yards or something like that and uh I knew right there going into my senior year I said I can do this and I just

worked extremely hard and uh you know I was fortunate enough to stay healthy and have some good statistics like I said and and then the NFL came calling and I just took full advantage of it so I'm very appreciative for that definitely and I do want to touch on the fact that you did leave Iowa as the leading receiver in terms of receiving yards so outside of that what was your favorite Iowa Hawkeye memory probably my senior year when we played Northwestern um I believe i had i can't i don't remember the exact staff but i had something like 11 catches i had 250 some plus yards and i had four touchdowns that game and uh it was just an incredible experience and i mean he took me out in the third quarter you know i went i was like please coach let me keep playing yeah you know we were

beating pretty bad so they took me out but that was definitely one of my favorite favorite memories that's that's so cool so um you mentioned northwestern a couple times but what is your what is the school you hate the most in the bay 10 so what is the least favorite school you had to play from out of iowa oh uh that's hard to say i i would have to say the team that we had the toughest time with, even though we beat them more than we lost to them, was Wisconsin. They would always come in and they would always just, everybody would be injured after the game and they would just rough us up, man. They were a tough team to play.

You know, I mean, obviously the, you know, the obvious answers are, you know, Michigan, Ohio state, you know, they forwarded us a couple of times. And I remember the year we were number one, you know, for most of that season in 1985. And we went to Ohio State and it was, again, a rainy game. And then towards the end of the game, we were driving, driving, driving. Chuck threw me a ball in the back of the end zone.

And one of their DBs hit me. And know i opened up sports illustrated and there's a two-page spread of me getting knocked into the ball the caption was splish splash iowa takes a bath you know so i didn't appreciate that too much but um yeah it was a it's definitely a tough conference and still is to this day yeah it's crazy to think that the way you describe Wisconsin is exactly how I imagine Iowa, Wisconsin, even to this day, as you know, you hear Kirk talk about that game going into the game and it's, it's basically, it's going to be a battle in the trenches and there's going to be a blood

bath and the, the two, I mean, Wisconsin does a great job of playing Iowa football and it makes sense. Barry Alvarez came from that Hayden fried tree as well. Right. Yeah. I was a coach there for a while, but yeah, man, it's a really underrated and tough program. They're a really good program.

All right, and that concludes part one of our interview with Quinn Early today. Tomorrow we're going to be focusing on his time in the NFL and what he's up to now, specifically talking a little bit about him being a stunt person, how he got into the business, what are some of his favorite memories in the NFL. And of course, we're going to get to that memory with Will Smith and jumping out of a helicopter.

That was a pretty funny story, listening to Quinn tell that. So you're going to really enjoy that on tomorrow's episode of the show. And the best way to make sure you get tomorrow's episode of the show is to subscribe wherever you downloaded this podcast at. It'll download that episode directly to your smart device so you can listen to it tomorrow morning. It'll be released before 8 a.m. wherever you currently are. So make sure to check that out.

And again, just subscribe in general if you like the show. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as well. And as always, Hawkeye Nation, I always appreciate you tuning in to our daily episodes of the show. Have a fantastic Monday. And as always, let's go Hawks.