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Quinn’s Maxims

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The Shawn Quinn era at Savannah State has been record breaking, historic, unorthodox, and mostly successful.
 
The 2019 season, Quinn's debut as head coach, saw the Tigers return to the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) and NCAA Division II. Savannah State finished the season 7-3 overall and 5-0 in SIAC play after being voted to finish in last place in a preseason conference poll.
 
Savannah State first joined the conference—comprised of Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) across the Southeast—in 1969 as an NCAA Division III program. From 1969-1999, Savannah State Athletics competed in the SIAC, winning multiple conference championships across several sports, including a football championship title in 1972. The SIAC and SSU elevated to Division II in 1981. In 1999, Savannah State left the conference and moved to NCAA Division I.


 
The Tigers return to the conference in 2019 and their success was the best the program has experienced since 1998. Despite finishing 5-0, Savannah State was not able to play for an SIAC Championship due to a preseason vote by the conference. The vote was initiated because the school was in transition to Division II and would not be eligible to play in the NCAA's post-season.
 
Quinn declared the team 2019 East Division Champions despite the preseason vote. His team proved all they needed to on the field, not on paper. And he wanted to recognize the players for their hard work.
 
Following his first season success, Quinn was fired up for the 2020 season. He had his playmakers coming back. In fact, he had most of his winning team coming back. The Tigers booked Division II powerhouse Valdosta State to open the season. The COVID-19 pandemic shuttered life as we know it and with those changes, the 2020 fall schedule was cancelled.
 
Quinn took his team and 31 new recruits into a 10-week practice session in the fall of 2020. At the end, he said "the semester felt like cooking dinner and never getting to eat it." Hungry for more, they looked for the spring of 2021.
 
Quinn eagerly scheduled two games, hoping for a third that never martialized. He wanted to test his team. His system. His players. At the Gulf South Challenge, Savannah State took on the great Division II program at West Alabama for the first time in school history.
 
For three quarters, Savannah State was dominate, despite playing with a majority of freshman. However, they were unable to recover from a faulty fourth quarter and opened the spring season with a close loss.
 
In the second game of the 2020 season (played in March of 2021), Savannah State hosted Middle Georgia State for a blowout win in Theodore A. Wright Stadium. The Tigers set a new school record, beating MGS 85-0.
 
Quinn enters his third year with an 8-4 coaching record, and over 60 returners. There is no preseason vote that can stop a post-season run. Savannah State officially moved to Division II in September of 2020. With the advantage of a fall and spring seasons, something several SIAC schools did not have, Savannah State is poised to make a run for the 2021 SIAC Football Championship Title.
 
Savannah State was voted the No. 1 team in the SIAC East Division in a preseason conference poll last month. But the climb to a title is still ahead of them and they will still be underdogs.
 
Gallery: (9-1-2021) 2021 Football Preseason

 
The Tigers will finally get to see Valdosta State, opening the season against the No. 6 team in all of NCAA Division II on Sept. 4. They will know pretty quickly where they stand as a team.
 
"Most talented team we'll see all year," Quinn said of Valdosta State. "Probably, as a good a team as we've played since I've been here. They are very talented. They've lost one game in the last two years."
 
In 2018, Valdosta finished 14-0 beating SIAC teams Albany State and Fort Valley by a combined 100 points (45-14 and 55-6) en route to Division II Championship Title. They finished 10-1 in 2019, beating Albany 38-3 and West Alabama 44-27.
 
"We hope to make it a competitive football game and see our guys play to the best of their ability, Quinn added. "Find a way for us to play our best football for four quarters. We have four excellent teams on the road. That's the hardest part of our schedule. Albany State is more talented than us and are bigger than us. They should be favored against us when we're on the road. We'll be underdogs in all of those.
 
"We got to find a way to play our best ball each week and find ways to win. Sometimes it will be offense. Sometimes it will be defense. Sometimes it will be special teams. Sometimes it will be all the above. Got to find a way to make games fourth quarter games and find a way to win the fourth quarter."
 
For now, every day begins with small battles and victories and loses. Find a way, Quinn's motto from 2019, is still the team's rallying call.
 
During his time as an assistant under legendary head coach Phillip Fulmer at the University Tennessee, Quinn knew how the team would perform on the field based on how they recited General Neyland's infamous Maxims in the locker room. If the team rattled them off on point, boom boom boom, they would go out and win. If they dragged through them, "I knew we were in trouble."
 
If Quinn had his own set of Maxims, they would read like this:
Find A Way To Win The Fourth Quarter.
Find A Way To Control The Run Game.
Find A Way Win The Turnover Battle.
Tigers Don't Beat Tigers.
 
Find a way to start a new victorious era for the football program at Savannah State, that resembles the glory days of the late 1980's and early 1990's when Shannon Sharpe was catching touchdowns in Savannah State blue and orange.
 
 
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