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When it comes to top-notch quarterbacks, the University of Notre Dame has produced its fair share over the years. The Fighting Irish count seven Heisman Award winners among their alumni, and three of them were quarterbacks. A lot of former Notre Dame quarter backs have found varying degrees of success in the NFL, too.

In the modern era, I count Joe Theismann, Joe Montana, Steve Beuerlein, and Rick Mirer as Irish QBs who have gone on to start in the NFL.  Two more recent Notre Dame quarterbacks were also on NFL rosters as of last season, but have been converted to other positions. They are: Arnaz Battle, who is now a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers (who actually made the switch to WR in his senior year at ND) and Carlyle Holiday, who is now a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals.

Obviously, Theismann and Montana are the standouts on this list. Between them, they have five Super Bowl rings, three Super Bowl MVP awards, and three NFL MVP awards. And yet, when you peruse the Notre Dame record books, you'll see their names at the top of only a few categories. Their college accomplishments have been all but dwarfed in just three seasons by Brady Quinn.

Quinn, who has already declared that he will come back to Notre Dame to play out his senior season, had a monster year in 2005 under new head coach Charlie Weis. Weis provided the kind of offensive system that played to Quinn's strengths and allowed him to thrive. Although being the starting quarterback in and of itself is enough to bring young men lots of attention, Quinn really vaulted into the national consciousness for the first time last year and frequently had his name mentioned in the same breath as Matt Leinart, Vince Young, and other top Heisman contenders.

In leading the Irish to a 9-3 finish in his junior year, Quinn passed for 3,919 yards (if you include stats from the Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State). He also threw for 32 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions, which is an incredible ratio for a college quarterback. Along the way, Quinn set several Notre Dame records, including most career attempts, completions, yards, and touchdowns. He also became the first quarterback in school history to throw for more than 8,000 yards in his career.

And since he will be coming back for another 12 games with the Irish, you can expect him to just keep adding to his incredible numbers. Quinn is, for all intents and purposes, going to put many of these passing records out of reach -- at least for the time being. In fact, I think it would take a four-year starter of great skill and maturity to come in and attack Quinn's records. That's something you won't seem too much of in modern times, especially since most of the top college athletes in the nation leave school prior to their senior year in order to enter the NFL draft.

Although Quinn's resume seems impeccable at this point, the question remains: is he the best quarterback that the University of Notre Dame has ever seen? Sure, his name is all over the records books, but does that fact alone make the case for Quinn? After all, before he arrived on campus, Ron Powlus held many Notre Dame records and he didn't exactly go on to make a splash in the NFL.

Obviously, college quarterbacks should be evaluated differently from NFL quarterbacks. Some players don't develop until later in their careers and some of them just need the right coach to get them on track.

Quinn is in the unique position of having been a starter since the fourth game of his freshman year. That doesn't happen to a lot of quarterbacks. Even Matt Leinart rode the bench while Carson Palmer finished out his USC career. Quinn also has an NFL-caliber coach in Charlie Weis to help him along. According to many reports, Quinn and Weis have a deep mutual respect for each other, which has allowed Quinn to learn at an accelerated pace. The results showed in Quinn's record-setting season last year.

Will Quinn go on to make an impact in the NFL? No one can predict that with any certainty. But is he the best college quarterback that the University of Notre Dame has ever had? Absolutely!