Nick Kreinbrink, who started the first five games at quarterback last season for the Northwestern football team, quit Monday, saying he had lost his passion for the game.
He said he will try to return to the baseball team next year, a sport he played at NU as a freshman.
Kreinbrink was listed as the Wildcats’ backup quarterback on the depth chart this spring.
“I had been thinking about (quitting) for a while,” Kreinbrink said. “It had nothing to do with the coaches. I’m at a time in my life where I felt I no longer enjoyed playing the game.
“I would like to stay here, go to school and play some baseball.”
In 1997, Kreinbrink redshirted as a freshman football player. That same year, he walked on the baseball team and posted a 2-2 record with a 3.50 ERA.
As a sophomore, Kreinbrink played in eight football games. He threw for 189 yards and one touchdown as the backup to Gavin Hoffman.
When Hoffman transferred to Pennsylvania after his freshman year, Kreinbrink stepped into the starting role for the Cats.
He threw for 774 yards and four touchdowns in 10 games in 1999. In NU’s 31-23 loss at Purdue, Kreinbrink notched career highs in passing yards (241) and touchdowns (2).
In the very next game he was pulled in the first quarter in favor of junior Zak Kustok, a transfer from Notre Dame who was ineligible to play in the Cats’ first four games of the season.
Kreinbrink became the backup for the rest of the season. He played in five of the Cats remaining six games but did not start another game all season.
Walker said he met with Kreinbrink in his office last week and the two discussed the quarterback’s football future at NU.
“I really like Nick,” Walker said. “But I also think that he knows, and I was really honest with him, I don’t see a big future here for him at quarterback.
“We parted on good terms. He said ‘I would really rather develop my energies in baseball in the time I have left here as an athlete.’ He’s played baseball here before. He’s going to get full time and attention in baseball.”
Kreinbrink is no stranger to success in baseball. At Leipsic High School in Leipsic, Ohio, he was a two-time conference player of the year.
He did not play baseball at NU as a sophomore and will not play this year. But Kreinbrink hopes to be back on the team next season, for what he said would be his final season.
“(Playing baseball) will be difficult and it will take time, but it can be done,” Kreinbrink said.
With Kustok having solidified his role as starter, Kreinbrink would have been competing with quarterbacks Bob Barz and Matt Danielson, as well as highly-touted recruit Tony Stauss from Racine, Wisc., for the backup quarterback spot next fall.
“I thought about (my reduced role) a lot,” Kreinbrink said. “Zak’s a great quarterback. He came in and made himself the man. I respect that. Subconsciously, it may have been a reason, but I really lost the passion for the game.”
