Gino Guidugli (born March 13, 1983) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and current

quarterbacks coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

. He was signed by the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2005. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. He is also a former professional

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

quarterback. He was one of the backup quarterbacks with the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

before being cut by the team following their 2008 training camp. He re-joined the

Green Bay Blizzard Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combina ...

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

for the end of the 2008 season, including the playoffs. He then played in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

Early years

Guidugli played at Highlands High School in

Fort Thomas, Kentucky Fort Thomas is a home rule-class city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States, on the southern bank of the Ohio River and the site of an 1890 US Army post. The population was 16,325 at the 2010 census, making it the largest city in Campb ...

. He led Highlands to two state championships in 1999 and 2000 and he also was a backup when Highlands won state in 1998. He still holds many Kentucky records for quarterbacks. He also excelled on the basketball court. He led his basketball team to the Kentucky sweet sixteen his senior season with a buzzer beating shot against Covington Holmes.

College career

Guidugli played collegiately at the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

from 2001 to 2004. He owns most of the school's passing and

total offense Total offense (or total offence) is a gridiron football statistic representing the total number of yards rushing and yards passing by a team or player. Total offense differs from yards from scrimmage, which gives credit for passing yardage to the ...

records. He is ranked 29th for all-time yards and offense of all

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

division I A FBS schools by a quarterback. He finished his career with 11,453 yards on 880 of 1,556 passes (56.6%) and 78 touchdowns. He also rushed for 208 yards and scored five times on 235 carries.

Statistics

Professional career

Guidugli was rated the 18th best quarterback in the

2005 NFL Draft The 2005 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The NFL draft, draft was held April 23–24, 2005 NFL seaso ...

by NFLDraftScout.com. Guidugli went unselected in the 2005 NFL Draft. He was later signed by the

, but he was ultimately released. He later joined the

of the

, leading the Blizzard to the af2 playoffs. He signed a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

contract with the

of the Canadian Football League on July 23,

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

, following injuries to starting quarterback

Dave Dickenson David Dickenson (born January 11, 1973) is a Canadian football head coach with the Calgary Stampeders and former professional player with the Stampeders and the BC Lions where he won the 2006 Grey Cup and was named the game's MVP. Dickenson als ...

and backup

Buck Pierce Buck James Pierce (born November 15, 1981) is the offensive coordinator of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and a retired professional quarterback who played nine seasons for the BC Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. H ...

. He played in 11 games in 2007, completing 6 of 11 passes for 138 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He was released by the Lions following their 2008 training camp after losing the job as third-string quarterback to rookie

Zac Champion Zac Champion (born June 29, 1984) is a former American football quarterback. Champion was released by the BC Lions on May 10, 2010. On June 7, 2010, Champion was signed by the Calgary Stampeders and was competing for third-string quarterback agai ...

. Guidugli signed with the

Milwaukee Iron Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

on January 2, 2010, but was placed on the "Refused to Report" list and did not play with the team. Guidugli signed with the Milwaukee Mustangs on June 10, 2011. He was reunited with former

coaches

Bob Landsee Robert John Landsee (born March 21, 1963) is a former American football player and coach. He was also the head coach and owner of the Milwaukee Mustangs of the Arena Football League (AFL) till the team folded. He is a former American football cen ...

, Mark Stoute, and Cedric Walker. When they signed Gino the Mustangs were 4–8, he went on to start 5 games for the Mustangs and went 3–2, but the 2 losses were by 1 point and 4 points.

AFL statistics

''Stats from ArenaFan'':

Coaching career

Guidugli was introduced as the running backs coach for

Central Michigan University Central Michigan University (CMU) is a public research university in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. Established in 1892 as the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute, the private normal school became a state institution and renamed Cen ...

on March 11, 2013. He replaced Kort Shankweiler, who left for the tight ends and tackles coaching job at Florida International under his father, Steve, who is the new offensive line coach for FIU. In January 2017, Guidugli was promoted to offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach. On March 4, 2017 Cincinnati officially announced that Guidugli was hired as running backs coach. For the 2018 season, Guidugli was named the Quarterbacks coach for the Bearcats. For the 2020 season, Guidugli was named the Passing Game Coordinator. On January 17, 2022

The Athletic ''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports website that provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories from top professional and college sports ...

reported that Guidugli would be promoted to offensive coordinator, after

Mike Denbrock Michael Fredrick Denbrock (born January 29, 1964) is an American football coach. He is the offensive coordinator at Louisiana State University (LSU). Denbrock has previously been a coach at Notre Dame, Illinois State, Grand Valley State, Stanford ...

left for

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

. After

Luke Fickell Luke Joseph Fickell (born August 18, 1973) is an American football coach and former player. He will be the head coach for the Wisconsin Badgers starting in December 2022. Previously he was the head football coach at the University of Cincinnati, ...

left Cincinnati to become the head coach at

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, Guidugli followed Fickell to

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

as the passing game coordinator and tight ends coach. However, in February 2023 Guidugli would be named the quarterbacks coach at Notre Dame after Tommy Rees left for

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

Personal

Guidugli has three brothers, former NFL and University of Cincinnati player

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, � ...

, Tony, who played at

Georgia Military College Georgia Military College (GMC) is a public military junior college in Milledgeville, Georgia. It is divided into the junior college, a military junior college program, high school, middle school, and elementary school. It was originally known as M ...

, and Jeff, who played at

Southeastern Louisiana University Southeastern Louisiana University (Southeastern) is a public university in Hammond, Louisiana. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims as Hammond Junior College. Sims succeeded in getting the campus moved to north Hammond in 1928, when it becam ...

Notes

External links

Green Bay Blizzard alumni roster page

Profile at ArenaFan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guidugli, Gino 1983 births Living people Players of American football from Cincinnati Players of Canadian football from Cincinnati American football quarterbacks American players of Canadian football Canadian football quarterbacks Cincinnati Bearcats football players Tennessee Titans players Green Bay Blizzard players BC Lions players Milwaukee Iron players Milwaukee Mustangs (2009–2012) players Chicago Rush players San Antonio Talons players Central Michigan Chippewas football coaches Cincinnati Bearcats football coaches