Gino Guidugli’s continued evaluation of quarterbacks in the Class of 2027 brought him down to Louisiana earlier this month to check on Malachi Zeigler.
The Notre Dame quarterbacks coach has had the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Zeigler on his radar now for about a year.
Zeigler told Irish Sports Daily afterward that it was good to reconnect with Guidugli at Benton High School.
“It was a good day,” Zeigler said of Guidugli’s stop. “It was kind of like a rekindling day. I've seen him numerous times. He came to the school twice before and then I was over in South Bend.
“He came and saw me spin it. His big thing was he hadn't seen me throw since my freshman year. For him to see me spin it again, he said would be huge. I spun it for him and he said he liked what he saw.”
Notre Dame hasn’t offered any quarterbacks in the 2027 class yet, but Guidugli is spending the spring getting to see as many targets as he possibly can to narrow his board. Zeigler is clearly one that has his attention.
Zeigler already has offers from schools like Tennessee, Michigan, Florida State, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Baylor, TCU, SMU and Texas Tech among others.
Even though the Irish haven’t offered yet, Guidugli has made his interest in Zeigler clear. In fact, Guidugli is one of the reasons Zeigler remains so interested in Notre Dame.
Guidugli has shown himself to be somebody who cares about his players and somebody his players can feel comfortable coming to for anything, according to Zeigler.
“We’ve had conversations about literally any topic from the Draft to what quarterbacks I think are going to be really good this year and him and just anything,” said Zeigler.
Zeigler also likes Guidugli’s honesty.
“I really like him,” he said. “He's very real, very blunt and that's just the type of person I can relate to. I don't really like sugarcoating things, so I really like him as a human.”
Guidugli making the effort to come to see Zeigler again in person as well as taking the time to form a true relationship has stood out to the signal-caller.
“That says a lot about them,” said Zeigler. “It says a lot about him as a coach. It says a lot about pretty much everything. It says a lot about the way Coach Freeman runs his program. It says a lot about Notre Dame as a university, the standard they carry themselves with.”
What’s next for Zeigler and the Irish isn’t exactly clear just yet.
“I don't know,” he said. “We're looking at getting the camp schedule finalized, seeing if I'll be able to get up there for the summer. Then, it'll just be strengthening the relationship phone calls and that June 15th date is coming up so we'll be able to communicate.
“It's kind of just strengthening the relationship and getting to know each other. OVs are coming up around this time next year and depending on just how they view me, we'll see where everything takes us.”
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