Gino Guidugli Notebook | Sun Bowl Week
Notre Dame interim offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli spoke ahead of Tuesday's practice as the Fighting Irish prepare for Oregon State.
On playing in the Sun Bowl:
“We’re really excited to be here and looking forward to the game. It can’t get here soon enough. Looking forward to the game being here and seeing a lot of young guys on our team have the opportunity to play in the game.”
On Tosh Baker getting the starting nod at right tackle:
”Both of those guys did a good job. I think we’ve got good depth there. It was the attention to detail. Coach Rudolph does a great job with them. At the end of the day, Tosh (Baker) had a better week of preparation leading up to the game.”
On freshman left tackle Charles Jagusah:
”Jags is just a huge human being and moves really well for his size. On top of that, the guy is a true freshman. You teach him, he reps it, he knows it and he can go execute it. His ability to just take information and be able to apply it to the field and make adjustments on the fly is what is going to make him special.”
On how much of the playbook is available with new starters all over the offense:
”It’s a whole new offense. At the end of the day, I think we’ve got three starters returning and two of those starters have only started three or four games in Billy (Schrauth) and Ashton (Craig). Everybody else will be getting the opportunity to have their first start in a game of this magnitude.
“You have to go back to your basics, your foundation, your install one stuff from training camp. The fortunate thing is you get a lot of time to prepare for a game like this, so you get stuff in. We’ve got really smart kids at Notre Dame and those guys will go out there and be able to execute.
“As far as how much you can put in, we’ll be able to do enough, but we’re going to lean on the things we think we’re best at.”
On what a healthy Jayden Thomas and Jaden Greathouse can give the receiver unit:
”Those are two of the guys with more experience out there when you look at the rest of the cast outside of those three starters that I mentioned. JT has played in a lot of games. JG was off to a fast start as a freshman starting in Ireland.
“Those are two guys we have to lean on in the pass game to be where they’re supposed to be for Steve and make catches. They’ll be guys you’ll see a lot of come game day.”
On what the last week or so has been like for him:
”This time of the year becomes totally hectic. You have the portal, you have your high school kids you’re trying to keep committed, you have coaching changes and you got guys opting out of the bowl game to go pursue their dreams in the NFL.
“It’s kind of been a hectic time of the year. You just take it one day at a time. The fortunate thing the way Gerad Parker ran things as offensive coordinator was everyone was involved and it was a collaborative effort for each and every game plan.
“Going into it, the game plan was mostly in place when Gerad took the job at Troy. We’re just continuing to execute that game plan moving towards the game. We’ve got a lot of guys who are making their first start, so we want to keep it fairly simple and give those guys a chance to go out there and play fast.”
On quarterback Steve Angeli’s growth:
”He’s shown such a tremendous amount of growth. Obviously, my experience with him, when I got there in February, was just trying to evaluate who this kid is, what he’s capable of and just the improvements he’s made from February to this point now - he’s going to have a chance to be a really good player, especially if he continues on that trend of being able to make the same improvements he made last year in this upcoming year.
“This is a great opportunity for him to try springboard that with the opportunity to start and show what he can do.”
On how the new personnel on offense impacts Angeli:
”He’s never started before, so he doesn’t know any different. It’s not like he had a chance to go out there and play with the starters, so those are the guys he’s been practicing with. Those guys are going to be equally excited. This means a lot to those guys who are having their first opportunity to start.
“I think the motivation is there for those guys to go out there and perform well. I don’t think Steve’s thinking about who is playing in front of him or outside. I think he’s worried about him going in and making sure he’s executing the game plan.”
On pregame walk with the quarterbacks before pregame warmups:
”That came from when I was a player in college. My quarterback coach was Dan Enos and we used to take the field - the process is we go down with the ball coming out, so the ball is at the one-yard line.
“We’re going to make sure they know where the play clocks are inside the stadium. We’re going to talk through situation by situation. Ball is on the one, this is the call you can expect. Now that I’m the one calling the plays, I can give them specifically, ‘Hey, if we get into this situation, this is what you’re going to get.’
“We go to midfield and we talk about third down, third-and-long, third-and-medium and third-and-short. Then we work high red zone, low red zone, and then goalline and two-point plays. Giving those guys the ability to have an expectation of what the call is going to be when they get in those situations and talk through what coverage or pressure we’re expecting in those situations.”
On what the experience in El Paso has been like to this point:
”It’s been great. The people have been super nice. I expected it to be a little warmer than it is, but El Paso has been great. I’m looking forward to have a couple more days to experience it. Again, we came here for a reason and that’s to play a game, so I’m looking forward to that as well.”
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