Five things Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli said in spring practice

Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Gino Guidugli had to be more active than usual in his position group’s warmup drills with Riley Leonard out with his ankle injury. Guidugli paired up in horizontal throwing patterns with freshman CJ Carr.

That’s when Guidugli was reminded this isn’t the early 2000s at Cincinnati anymore.

“You go in there and he’s one of those guys in warm-ups where it’s like…buckle up,” Guidugli said. “He’s going to be shooting at you pretty good.”

Here’s what else Guidugli said about Carr and a few other Notre Dame quarterback items.

On CJ Carr’s competitiveness

“I got out on the basketball court with him and I really saw it then. He was guarding me and I thought ‘Alright, he’ll just kind of sag off and play off’ — but like, he tried to body me up. I was like, ‘Man, I kinda like it’ because I didn’t know what to expect of him. He comes from a household with his brother and I’m sure those two went at it. That was the moment for me where I was like ‘Okay, this dude is competitive, because he’s coming at me.”

On CJ Carr being the class of 2024 leader translating to the field at Notre Dame

“CJ helped build that class at the end of the day. Just like the next class, the quarterback is going to be the one to kind of build it, the people want to know who their quarterback is going to be whether you’re an offensive lineman or a receiver.

“CJ has some natural leadership about him. It’s really evident. When you sit down and talk to him it’s obvious that this kid is really mature. CJ’s always there in the meeting room when I get there waiting on me to get going. He’s got really good work habits and he’s going to build himself into a great player.”

On letting Riley Leonard know how important he is to Notre Dame even while he’s injured

“He knows. He knows we brought him here to compete for this position and we wouldn’t bring him here otherwise. He knows that there’s also a few other good quarterbacks in the room. He’s dying to be out there.

“I was glad to see him get out there and do some 7-on-7 today, because he’s in the meetings. He’s sitting in O-Line meetings. He’ll jump into walk-throughs. And whatever Rob Hunt tells him he can do, he’ll be like ‘Okay, if I can do that, why can’t I do this?'”

On constantly having to try to retain players in the era of the transfer portal

“We never have to talk about the depth chart in my room, because if you recruit guys with great character and see the world through a realistic lens, you don’t have to tell them because they know where they stand.

“They watch the same film. They get the grades from everybody every practice. They know where they stand. They know what they need to work on. They know what they’re better at than the other guy. And I tell them, it’s not you vs. him. It’s you vs. you. He has no effect on what you do with your reps when you’re in there.”

On his approach as the Notre Dame quarterbacks coach

“I think so much of playing that position is confidence. You have to believe in yourself first and foremost, but the other guys in the huddle have to believe in you. It’s my job to build that. You build that by going out there and being consistent. Through our preparation, it’s like, ‘You can do this, you did it right here, now you have to consistently do this. You saw it this time, you didn’t get it, the next time this shows up, we have to get that check done or we have to get that ball all the way back to the dig.’ By repetition, the more times you do that, all of a sudden it’s like, ‘s***, this is easy.'”