'We all we got': Former Buffalo football players respond to Quinn's firing

The 2013 Buffalo Bulls football team had a saying: “We all we got. We all we need.”

The phrase meant the players had to hold the team together and couldn’t rely on the coaching staff for support.

“We weren’t playing for coaches. We were playing for ourselves,” said former wide receiver Alex Neutz. “We didn’t feel comfortable with our coaching staff, it was all about us [players].”

Other teams, like the Seattle Seahawks, chant the same phrase, but at UB, the phrase became a cry of solidarity among the players.

And, like much of what happened during the four and a half years Jeff Quinn led the Bulls, it also highlighted the divide between what at least some of the players felt and what Quinn believed.

“Coach Quinn thought it meant the whole organization,” Neutz said. “But it just meant we had to stick together ourselves.”

UB Athletics fired head coach Quinn Monday afternoon. The decision came less than 48 hours after the Bulls’ 37-27 loss to Eastern Michigan Saturday. Quinn has not spoken publicly since the announcement and did not return The Spectrum’s request for an interview, but did send a statement thanking the Bulls for the opportunity to be their head coach. UB Athletics did not make players available for comment. Athletic Director Danny White was also unavailable for comment.

Some former players were shocked by the decision, but others felt like it was necessary – some even said it was overdue because of the gulf between the players and Quinn.

“I felt like we didn’t want to win for coach Quinn,” Neutz said.

Not all former Bulls feel this way. Former tight end Alex Dennison praised Quinn and said he felt the coach had larger goals than many of the players understood.

“A lot of players forget you cannot make everyone happy but what you have to do is defend the program,” Dennison said. “He made sure there was something worth while in Western New York.”

Still, several former Bulls characterized Quinn’s coaching style as aggressive, dispiriting and divisive. The players said Quinn was highly critical and swore openly and loudly. They also said he disciplined unevenly and gave better athletes preferential treatment. And they spoke of an atmosphere of distrust between players and the coaching staff.

While tensions simmered throughout the 2013 season, several players told The Spectrum that the breaking point – the moment many players felt what Neutz called a “loss of respect” for Quinn – came in the summer of 2013, when Quinn kicked former wide receiver Rudy Johnson off the team and took away his scholarship.

Quinn removed Johnson because Johnson had missed voluntary summer workouts. Johnson missed these workouts in order to work two internships near his Baltimore, Maryland home.

“A lot of people never really gave coach Quinn the respect we had for him after that,” Neutz said. “It really started a downward spiral.”

The decision, said Neutz, showed how Quinn played favorites and highlighted the “hypocritical society” that characterized Quinn’s tenure at UB. In that society, Neutz and others said, Quinn gave breaks to some players, but none to others.

For instance, former players told The Spectrum that Quinn allowed some players who failed drug tests or failed classes to remain on the team. Neutz said it really “pissed him off” that Johnson lost his scholarship for missing voluntary workouts as players who failed classes and drug tests were “suspended for a week or two, but they would get brought back eventually.”

Quinn told players if they failed drug tests or classes that they’d be kicked off the team, Neutz said. But, when an impact player actually failed, Quinn would explain to his players that kicking a student-athlete off the team wouldn’t help the player. But in keeping a player on the team Quinn could help him, Neutz and other players said.

Neutz said one back-up player was kicked off the team after failing a single drug test, whereas Neutz knew of several impact players who failed multiple drug tests, but received minor repercussions.

Johnson wasn’t a superstar. He was entering his third year of eligibility and had just 16 career receptions.

“If you weren’t good, they didn’t give a shit about you,” Neutz said.

Johnson’s removal from the team angered players because they had seen so many others avoid such harsh punishment for drug and other violations.

“It all comes back to being a hypocrite and not really following what you believe in,” Neutz said. “If you prove that you don’t really believe in [what you say] you believe in, how are we going to believe your system?”

Former wide receiver Fred Lee said he knows numerous players who failed drug tests but continued playing for the Bulls.

The Spectrum reached out to UB Athletics regarding the accusations of failed drug tests. UB Athletics declined to comment.

“Buffalo has a bunch of hoodlums that were just selfish and were in it for themselves,” Lee said. “For Quinn to come in, he can’t kick the whole team off … You can’t have one bad apple ruin the bunch. But if you have a bunch of bad apples, what are you going to do? Chop the tree down? He always wanted to help guys get better.”

The NCAA's website states schools that choose to create their own drug-testing programs are responsible for determining their own penalties.

Not all players were upset about the alleged lenient discipline policy. Former defensive lineman Colby Way said “every program” in the country has players who fail drug tests.

“You make mistakes and people get suspended. It doesn’t bother me,” Way said. “I think everyone deserves a second chance.”

The football team did experience one of its highest Academic Progress Rates under Quinn. In the 2012-13 academic year, the Bulls had an APR score of 976. Buffalo lost 10 scholarships from 2004-07 due to low APR scores.

“We had an APR score that would have made us borderline ineligible had we made it to a bowl game when I was a freshman,” Dennison said. “We had the highest GPA in the conference [in 2013]. That’s saying something. We had guys that were doing things for the community and in the classroom that you would never expect from the team.”

Johnson was removed from the team because he was “untruthful about summer plans” and missing a meeting, according to the written documentation for his dismissal.

Lee said the team was split “50/50” about how Quinn handled the Johnson decision.

“If you look at the facts, Rudy could have handled it a little bit better,” Lee said. “He was intimidated about confronting coach Quinn and telling him he didn’t want to be here for the summer.”

Quinn’s coaching style contrasted with that of his predecessor, Turner Gill. Gill originally recruited many of Buffalo’s seniors from the 2013 team that played in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

Quinn’s new coaching style was hard to adjust to for certain Bulls after Gill left Buffalo for the head coaching job at Kansas University. The coaching differences between Quinn and Gill were “night and day,” according to Lee.

Neutz said Gill was the type of coach “you wanted to play your heart out for.”

“You didn’t want to disappoint the guy,” Neutz said. “But coach Quinn just starts cussing you out, swearing at you, yelling at you. That doesn’t help you get better. Coach Gill would sit you down, talk to you. Where coach Quinn would just yell at you and not talk to you for the rest of practice.”

Way, however, respected and responded to a more vocal and up-tempo coaching style, like Quinn’s.

“I personally like that coaching style,” Way said. “I know some people don’t. I like a more up beat coach and that’s exactly what coach Quinn was. He was a great coach for me, but obviously it’s different for everyone.”

Lee and Neutz both considered no longer playing football at UB because of Quinn’s coaching style, but finished their careers at Buffalo.

But several other players, including Bulls’ 2009 starting quarterback Zach Maynard, left UB after Quinn’s hire. Maynard transferred to California University less than a month after Quinn was hired.

Lee said the team had a lot of transfers because players weren’t used to Quinn’s “upfront and personal type of personality.”

“There were games he’d get on me on the sideline, but the next drive [he’d call the play] to throw me the touchdown pass down the sideline,” Lee said. “You have to get used to him, that’s how all coaches are.”

Lee is currently the assistant strength and conditioning coach at University of Wyoming. Although Lee initially disagreed with some of Quinn’s coaching methods, he now understands some of the reasons for Quinn’s behavior with the team.

“Even in some situations where I was like, ‘This guy’s crazy’ and I felt he was wrong, I catch myself in those same situations doing the same things as a coach now,” Lee said.

Lee said Quinn lost assistant coaches that players felt they could confide in when they had issues with Quinn, like Zach Duvall, who currently works with Lee as the director of sports performance at Wyoming.

Neutz, however, said Duvall and Quinn acted “childish” and fostered an atmosphere of distrust. Duvall told players they could be open with him in the weight room but he would later tell Quinn the remarks made about the head coach, according to Neutz.

Last season, Lee said players turned to former Bulls Khalil Mack and Branden Oliver for advice and motivation. This season, Lee doesn’t see the same strength in player leadership.

Lee doesn’t believe all the blame falls on Quinn. He said a team also needs leadership from its players and that without it, even a great coach like Nick Saban of the University of Alabama, can’t pull out wins.

“You can hire Nick Saban. I guarantee he goes to Buffalo with half those guys not buying in, he won’t be successful,” Lee said.

Lee said last year’s team had the maturity to look past their issues with Quinn and perform for one another – leading to their “We all we got. We all we need” mentality.

“Did coach Quinn do everything right and do everything perfect? I can’t say he did and I’m sure he would say the same thing,” Lee said. “I know one thing: I know he cared about the team, he was passionate.”

email: sports@ubspectrum.com