TUCSON, Ariz. -- Kyle Quinn recently started a new career with the Arizona Wildcats as a pre-dawn to post-dusk graduate assistant, eager to please, excited to learn.
Good thing he's been planning for this moment for more than a decade.
Quinn is in his second tour with the Wildcats, his first stint being a five-year run as a player, finishing as a two-year starting center in 2012. He went to camps with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Arizona Cardinals and received a tryout from Tampa Bay. But by the start of the 2013 season, his playing days were over.
"It wasn't all that difficult to hang up the cleats," Quinn said this week. "I started playing football when I was 13, and I never thought I would be a Division I player. When I got to college, I never thought I would have an opportunity to play in the NFL. I was concerned with playing my heart out, getting good grades and getting my degree. Now, the opportunity to be a GA has taken over my life."
Quinn, who twice earned honorable mention all-conference honors, will assist offensive line coach Jim Michalczik and help with other aspects of the offense. He'll get back on the field soon enough; Arizona's spring practice begins next Wednesday, with the spring game set for a Friday night, April 10.
This is pretty much working out as planned for Quinn, a graduate of Liberty High School in Brentwood, Calif.
"Starting in high school, I always had a pad and paper with me as a player," he said.
"I was always taking notes. I was writing down things that could happen to me as a coach. I have binders and binders full of notebooks. I have notebooks from when I first got here as a freshman. It's funny to look back at those and see how far my football IQ has come. And it's funny, you realize how much more there is to learn."
For now, Quinn said the goal is to beat the coaches into the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility -- "before the sun is up is a good reference," he said -- and stay until after they leave for the night. Much of his work at the moment is breaking down video from last season.
"I'm living in front of my computer screen," he said.
Quinn worked last season as an assistant at Liberty High before jumping on the opportunity to return to Arizona, where he will be helping to coach several former teammates along the offensive line, such as seniors Cayman Bundage, Lene Maiava and Faitele Faafoi and redshirt juniors T.D. Gross and Zach Hemmila.
"When I got here, I immediately told the guys, 'I played with some of you, and I will still help you as I did as a player, but I'm your coach,'" Quinn said. "They have to respect that. That will come with time."
Quinn earned a bachelor's degree in history in May 2012 and is taking graduate classes in international security.
He was part of a group of seniors that head coach Rich Rodriguez still credits with full buy-in in his debut at Arizona, as the Wildcats turned a 4-8 squad into an 8-5 team that won the New Mexico Bowl over Nevada in a thrilling last-minute comeback.
"We wanted to buy into a new system; we wanted to get back to the winning ways we experienced in our earlier years," Quinn said of those seniors, which included quarterback Matt Scott. "That was not a fun time in the program. Things stalled out.
"Coach Rod told us, 'There is not greater experience than a winning locker room,' and we wanted to feel that again. We knew that to go out winner, we had to buy in immediately, and that just filtered down."
The Chuck Bednarik Award as the national defensive player of the year was part of Scooby Wright's awards haul in December.
Almost all of the awards circuit takes place in December soon after the end of the regular season, but multiple-award winner and unanimous All-America linebacker Scooby Wright had one more banquet to attend last month.
He attended the Walter Camp Foundation festivities in New Haven, Conn., as did former Arizona safety Tony Bouie, a Walter Camp All-American in 1994.
"It's an absolute blessing to be invited back," Bouie said.
"I got to spend some time with Scooby. I told him, 'You know what, watching you brings back great memories for our defense. From all the guys I talk to who were there for the Desert Swarm years, we personally thank you for playing the way you do.'
"He acknowledged that and was very respectful. He's a great, great kid."
Bouie, like everyone else, sees the playing-style resemblance between Wright and former Arizona defensive end Tedy Bruschi.
"He's got the motor just like Tedy," Bouie said.
"That's the one thing that separated Tedy from every other player and why he is in the College Hall of Fame. He would crawl, scratch, claw to get to the quarterback. He would never give up. Scooby is the same type of player."
Because it's the offseason, and this is the internet, here is Rich Rodriguez from North Marion High School in West Virginia:
Rich Rodriguez, senior year of HS, 1981. Everything about this picture is perfect. pic.twitter.com/bzDeaGSTNI
— Paul Myerberg (@PaulMyerberg) February 24, 2015
WR Austin Hill wasn't invited to the recently completed NFL Combine, but he's still rated at No. 158 overall by NFLDraftScout.com, putting him in the late fifth-round range. He figures to be the highest-drafted Arizona player this year. ... Arizona will hold its Pro Day for scouts on March 10. The event is closed to the public and media. ... Sophomore running back Nick Wilson was listed with 33-1 odds to win the Heisman Trophy by Bovada.lv. Wright is at 66-1. The Wildcats were listed as 100-1 shots to win the national championship.
Follow Anthony Gimino on Twitter
