Report: Notre Dame to hire QB coach Gino Guidugli, formerly of Wisconsin and Cincinnati

Marcus Freeman has made another hire from his past, reportedly bringing Gino Guidugli onto the Notre Dame coaching staff as the quarterbacks coach. Guidugli spent the last six years at Cincinnati before spending the last two months at Wisconsin after former Bearcats head coach Luke Fickell brought some of his old staff to Madison.

ESPN ’s Pete Thamel first reported the Irish intention to hire Guidugli.

Source: Wisconsin assistant Gino Guidugli is expected to be the next quarterbacks coach at Notre Dame. Guidugli spent the last two years as Cincinnati’s play caller, including the CFP bid and win at Notre Dame in 2021. He’s recruited the Midwest extensively.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 15, 2023

He called plays at Cincinnati the last two seasons, leading an offense that not only beat Notre Dame in South Bend in 2021 but also reached the Playoff and then finished third in the AAC in 2022.

Perhaps most notably, Guidugli was the quarterbacks coach for the last four of the five years of Desmond Ridder’s collegiate career, developing the former two-star recruit into a third-round NFL draft pick and four-game NFL starter in his rookie season.

Guidugli also has extensive Midwest recruiting experience, as evidenced by spending four years as the recruiting coordinator at Central Michigan. With Guidugli, three of Freeman’s hires in the last two winters have featured résumés with that a recruiting coordinator bullet point on them, joining special teams coordinator Brian Mason and current tight ends coach Gerad Parker. None of them officially have that title in South Bend, a feature of expanded support staffs, but they all understand the importance of recruiting to building a consistent Playoff contender.

Guidugli