Falcons coach Dan Quinn, who’s had his share of big-game coaching miseries, will reach out to Georgia coach Kirby Smart, who suffered a crushing overtime defeat to Alabama in the college national championship game Monday.
Quinn can share with Smart how he dealt with adversity after the Falcons blew a 28-3 lead in Super Bowl LI before losing to New England 34-28 in overtime.
Also, Quinn was the defensive coordinator when Seattle elected to throw a pass on the 1-yard line instead of handing the ball to Marshawn Lynch in Super Bowl XLIX. They lost to New England 28-24.
Quinn has ties to Smart and Alabama coach Nick Saban, having served on his NFL staff with the Miami Dolphins.
“Well, I’ll reach out to both coaches,” Quinn said. “I did see the overtime portion. I didn’t see the first half or much of the second half, but I did see the ending.”
Quinn can related to the deflating feeling of being so close to a title, then to have it ripped away.
“It’s absolutely the life of a competitor,” Quinn said. “What a remarkable run by Alabama, and I think it really goes to show what good hands the Georgia program is (in) with Kirby.”
Quinn enjoyed the setting and didn’t mind the all-SEC matchup.
“Classic matchup, really good ball right in our backyard, so I thought man it was cool to have it here with teams that are from this area,” Quinn said. “Competing for championships on all sides is as fun as you can imagine. It looked, or at least it sounded like, I was watching from TV and I’m sure some of you guys covered, the environment and energy inside the stadium looked awesome, too.
“So yeah, obviously I can’t wait to talk to both guys at some point.”
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