Former All-ACC center Jay Guillermo hired to coach offensive line at Navy, per report

A former member of the 2016 Clemson Tigers national championship-winning team has found a new home within the college coaching ranks. On Wednesday, former Tigers center Jay Guillermo officially joined the Navy Midshipmen football program as their offensive line coach, according to college football insider Matt Fortuna.

The former first-team all-ACC recipient back in 2016 addressed his move recently with this statement.

“My family and I are excited to be part of the Navy football family,” said Guillermo. “It it is an honor to be a part of the greatest history and tradition that surrounds the Naval Academy. I am greatly looking forward to working with the young man here and creating a family amongst our offensive lineman that lives on and off the field. I am incredibly thankful to coach Newberry for this opportunity.”

Guillermo began his coaching career in 2019 as a graduate assistant coach at Georgia State. From there, he would earn more prominent coaching roles at Western Carolina, Carson-Newman, a Division II program, at Virginia, and his last coaching stop with East Tennessee State.

Surprisingly, Guillermo was not poached away from East Tennessee State but rather Mercer. Following the end of the 2023 campaign, the former Clemson offensive lineman agreed to join the Racers staff before pivoting and joining Navy instead. Also joining Guillermo under Navy football head coach Brian Newberry is David Cole, who is also a former Mercer positional coach.

Early point spread for the 2024 Clemson-Georgia showdown

The Bulldogs are favored by 12.5 points against the Tigers. And for its part, Clemson should be fully capable of commanding that interest.

Clemson will return its starting quarterback, Cade Klubnik, but he was just so-so during the 2023 season. The Tigers will have to replace do-it-all running back Will Shipley.

As for Georgia, the return of starting quarterback Carson Beck should help make up for the loss of elite matchup nightmare Brock Bowers on offense. Beck had a tremendous 2023 season and could be even better next fall.

As usual, he’ll have some quality options to choose from at the skill positions, with Georgia absolutely reloading there through the NCAA transfer portal.

The Bulldogs have added a trio of quality receivers in the likes of USC‘s Michael Jackson III, Miami‘s Colbie Young and Vanderbilt‘s London Humphreys. They also added Florida star running back Trevor Etienne in the backfield.

The defense, once again, returns plenty of pieces and should be stout. All of that is reason for optimism going into the three biggest games of the season next fall.