New Orleans Saints Forums - blackandgold.com - Saints' next Opposing QB - Behind Minshew's mustache lie 'genius tendencies'

SUNRISE ISN'T FOR at least another hour. The air reeks of that sweet, sweet Florida sulfur. The only light comes from the glint of a rusted streetlamp off the community trash compactor, yet still -- still -- Gardner Minshew is smiling as he pulls out of his apartment complex in Jacksonville on a dank morning last week.

He is talking about escapes.

"I've been learning to play the guitar," he says, gesturing toward the radio that's playing the Allman Brothers. His grin is wider than his (considerable) mustache. "It's been going ... slowly. But I kind of love it."

As we cross the bridge into downtown, Minshew asks if I have heard of something called Yousician (I haven't). He explains that it is an app, created in Finland, that features instrument tutorials and -- critically, he says -- a virtual instructor that listens and corrects you as you try to play. Each night, after he's done with football practice and football study and football preparation, Minshew puts in his earphones and slips away from all that is bubbling around him, zoning out with his automated music teacher as he tries to master the chords and frets.

Minshew took up the guitar about a month ago, he says, which makes sense because that is also when the speed of his life suddenly went from a syrup drip to a freight train. There was the injury to Jaguars starting quarterback Nick Foles and coach Doug Marrone calling Minshew's name. Then came the string of completed passes that first day -- 13 in a row to start his career in a 22-for-25 performance -- followed by the closer-than-close rally in the second game. Then came Thursday night bedlam against Tennessee. And the fourth-quarter miracle a week later in Denver.

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THERE ARE, OBVIOUSLY, some considerable physical skills that helped Minshew -- who is barely 6 feet tall and who attended four colleges in search of consistent playing time -- find success. To offset his (relative) undersize, he is so strong he can lift weights with the linebackers, and his intensity during practice runs so hot that one of his old quarterbacks coaches, Alex Williams, remembers Minshew literally hitting himself in the face if he missed an easy throw during a training drill. ("Not hard or anything, but still," Williams says.)

Nearly everyone who comes into contact with Minshew, however, ends up with the same conclusion: His biggest weapon is his brain. Mike Leach, who coached Minshew at Washington State in his last (and best) college season, tells me, "He has genius tendencies," and those smarts were a big part of what led the Jags to take a flier on Minshew in the sixth round of April's draft. Tom Coughlin, the Jags' head of player personnel, immediately highlighted Minshew's ability to be "quick" in carrying what he learned in the film room to the field. "He's very smart; he's very sharp," Coughlin said then. "He will suck up all that information, and then, based on what we have seen, he will go onto the practice field and carry it with him."

Turns out, Coughlin was right -- only it wasn't on the practice field. When Minshew thrived so quickly after taking over in Week 1, Marrone was legitimately surprised, he says, because the playbook had been designed for Foles, not Minshew.

"The game plan is written for a different quarterback and he just goes in there and executes it?" Marrone tells me after the team's workout one day. "A lot of players don't have the head to do that."