Football jerseys line the walls where Quincy Avery sleeps. Just as they did nearly two decades ago, when he drove his Mustang out west to California. Avery had graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta when, in 2008, he talked himself into a role as an ᴀssistant with the UCLA Bruins. It was a first step. But it was also unpaid.
So Avery set up camp in the locker room. ‘You got a shower, an air mattress… your whole setup,’ the 39-year-old says. He couldn’t ask his mom to fund an apartment. He wouldn’t have had much time there, anyway.
At UCLA, Avery’s days began at 4:30 am and often ended after midnight. His roles included studying film and fetching coffee but within a few seasons he was back on the road to Georgia to chase his dream: coaching quarterbacks.
For more than year, Avery slept in his car or on a friend’s couch. He showered at the local gym and his $3.68 dinner rarely changed: ‘Two Taco Bell bean burritos – no onions,’ Avery recalls. And a taco.
The rest of his day was spent searching for clients. He found some eventually and, these days, their jerseys hang around Avery’s home. Among them? Jalen Hurts, Geno Smith, Justin Fields and Deshaun Watson. There isn’t space for everyone to have a spot.
Avery is the owner of Quarterback Takeover, an elite finishing school, and over the past 14 years he has helped coach many of the NFL’s greatest players including Patrick Mahomes, Jordan Love, CJ Stroud and Hurts, who recently led the Philadelphia Eagles to Super Bowl glory.
Quincy Avery slept in his car and on couches before becoming a leading quarterback coach
Avery is pictured on the sideline with Deshaun Watson, quarterback for the Cleveland Browns
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His team of coaches have worked with more than 700 quarterbacks. Nearly 150 have gone on to earn Division 1 or Division 2 scholarships, worth a combined $20 million.
But even now, even after all the grind and all the success, Avery’s alarm still rings earlier than most.
His daughter needs to be in school by 7 am and Avery is usually on the practice field a few minutes later.
Earlier this week, Avery trained nine NFL quarterbacks across three different states in a single day. He works with prospects, too, and aims to be back in the air by 6 pm. ‘Home at 7:30 and try to make my daughter dinner… it’s not easy,’ Avery says. Not when one delayed flight can derail the best-laid plans.
No wonder he doesn’t consider quarterback a position. ‘(It) is a lifestyle,’ Avery says.
He first saw that as a kid, sitting in on meetings when his dad was coaching at colleges such as Savannah State. ‘All I’d ever known, all I ever saw, all I’ve ever been around is quarterbacks,’ Avery says.
Over recent years, few have divided opinion like Hurts. But then, in February, the Eagles star orchestrated one of the most destructive Super Bowl performances of recent times. Avery always knew better than to doubt Hurts.
‘People think that they can quantify all the things (you) do as a quarterback… in terms of metrics,’ he says.
‘(But) he’s the quintessential arm raiser. He makes every single person on that that team better because how dedicated he is.’
Avery, who has been christened the quarterback ‘guru’, discussed his journey with Mail Sport
Avery first worked with Super Bowl-winning QB Jalen Hurts during his days at Alabama
He also trained Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes when he was at Texas Tech
Avery explains: ‘He is one of the people who truly live by: the way you do small things, the way you do all things. He’s doing everything with the same level of excellence, and he’s unrelenting…. some people may be thrown off by that. Because it’s difficult for everybody to operate in that world.’
Avery first met Hurts when he was in high school and they began working together after his sophomore year at Alabama. The quarterback would turn up to every session 30 minutes early and, before entering the NFL Draft, Hurts watched more film than anyone Avery has seen.
‘We don’t train together as much now as we did then,’ he says. ‘But it’s still a great relationship – we’re talking all the time… talking about how to get better.’
In New Orleans in February, Hurts achieved immortality while Mahomes suffered one of the most chastening afternoons of his career. Avery spent a few days working with the Chiefs quarterback during his days at Texas Tech.
‘It was spring break… (and) it was very evident the arm talent that he had. He had the ability to do things that were truly unique.’ Back then, though, Mahomes remained a rough diamond.
‘His footwork was not super polished,’ Avery says. ‘But you knew he had something special… he’s been able to become the best quarterback in the world. And I think that’s more about his compeтιтive greatness.’
That is difficult to teach but Avery can help refine a quarterback’s physical talent. The level of detail is lost on the untrained eye.
Players hire him to improve the minutiae of their body mechanics, all the way down to the angle of their toe. ‘That commitment to doing those little things right,’ Avery says. ‘Those are what make a quarterback.’
The 39-year-old trains young prospects hoping to reach the NFL as well as seasoned pros
Avery is seen working with the ‘truly special’ Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud
During his homeless days, Avery would send message after message to promising players. Eventually, he changed route and told them: ‘I’m throwing a camp for the best quarterbacks in Atlanta who are sophomores.’
It wasn’t the most inviting proposal. ‘I had to run that camp at 5:30 am because I had to convince somebody at a gym to let me get some free time,’ Avery explains. ‘It was a weekend. It was in the middle of baseball season.’ No one turned up.
But a youngster named Joshua Dobbs reached out. ‘I still want to train,’ he told Avery. These days, Dobbs is on the New England Patriots but he remains a client. No matter that their very first session was blighted by technical problems.
‘I set up a workout where I had all these cameras,’ Avery recalls. ‘A couple of the cameras didn’t work, but I (thought): “I have to put on a presentation and let him know how serious we are about training him”.’
Avery continues: ‘I’ve been fortunate enough to keep growing from there, meeting top kids, creating top guys.’ Including Texans star Stroud – ‘truly special’ – and Fields, who has the task of leading the Jets into life after Aaron Rodgers. Their relationships stretch far beyond the end zone. Avery will go out for dinner and rounds of golf with his clients.
‘I’ve been on 30-day trips with quarterbacks before… where we basically explored the whole world,’ he says. ‘I have a daughter who looks at all these guys like her big brothers and uncles.’
Even those who don’t train with her dad anymore. ‘(Who) we still have relationships with, who call my daughter on her birthday, or check how she’s doing, or makes sure she has a jersey,’ Avery says. ‘All those little moments are as important to me as being on the football field with these guys, because that’s lifelong.’
Browns quarterback Watson trains alongside Avery at the Cleveland training base
So are many of the lessons he teaches his players. But Avery has seen football change and he knows tomorrow’s quarterbacks will look different to his current clients.
Before long, he thinks, the best quarterbacks will have morphed into a ‘super chess piece.’ No longer will it be enough to process information faster than anyone else.
‘They’re also going to be the best athletes who are able to do things that no one else on the football field can do,’ he says. NIL has altered the landscape, too. Many quarterbacks are becoming ‘spoiled’ and soon toughness will matter more than talent. ‘So that when they get their opportunity in college or the NFL, they’re callous enough where they can go through the difficult times,’ Avery says.
No one need tell him about the rewards of perseverance. Back at UCLA, road games – with a H๏τel bed and and a proper meal – became luxury retreats. During his sofa-surfing days in Atlanta, his daily food budget was around $12.
‘I knew I wasn’t going to quit, I wasn’t willing to sacrifice my dreams because it got difficult,’ he says.
‘It’s not by accident that I am where I am… I don’t sacrifice my dreams. I may adjust. I may make a small pivot. But I’m not going to quit.’
