Wisconsin opening should have Notre Dame football fans chewing fingernails

Other than noticing that another program wasn’t in as good a shape as Notre Dame Football, it’s likely that Fighting Irish fans dismissed Wisconsin’s firing of of Phil Longo with a shrug. After all, it’s not like the Blue and Gold will face off against the Badgers anytime soon. Whisky isn’t going to the playoffs and they might not even go to a bowl.

But here’s the thing. That firing is one move away from it directly affecting the Irish.

Notre Dame football fans should be on high alert now that Wisconsin is looking for a new offensive coordinator because it seems likely that Luke Fickell will come calling for Gino Guidugli.

Notre Dame football could be on verge of losing a coach

Guidugli served as the Offensive Coordinator at Cincinnati with Fickell. He also very briefly followed Fickell to Wisconsin as the Badgers’ TE Coach. He was then hired away as the QBs coach at Notre Dame.

Clearly, Fickell values Guidugli as a coach. And while the Irish quarterbacks coach left Wisconsin once, it was likely due to a pay raise and getting to coach a position group he’s more familiar and comfortable with.

Should Fickell decide he’d like to go back to more of what he ran at Cincinnati - an offense that got him the Wisconsin job in the first place - it would make sense to hire Guidugli away. 

It’s unlikely there will be any movement on this until after the season. However, the Notre Dame football team should prepare for the possibility of losing a coach this offseason.