TicketsCincinnati football head coach Luke Fickell held a press conference on Wednesday to introduce offensive coordinator Gino Guidugli and new assistant coaches Kerry Coombs, Mike Cummings and Walter Stewart.
Guidugli was promoted to offensive coordinator this offseason after serving as the quarterbacks coach since 2018 and the passing game coordinator since 2020. A member of the UC Hall of Fame after a standout career as a quarterback for the Bearcats, he joined the staff in 2017.
Coombs will coach cornerbacks and special teams. He returns to UC after working at Ohio State as the defensive coordinator the last two years. He also worked with the Tennessee Titans and had a previous stint at Ohio State from 2012 to 2017. He coached at Cincinnati from 2007 to 2011 following a standout run as the head coach at Colerain High School in Cincinnati from 1991 to 2006.
Cummings joins the UC staff from Central Michigan, where he has mentored several NFL players, including 2013 No. 1 pick Eric Fisher. He has more than 30 years of experience coaching offensive lines.
Stewart played at UC from 2008 to 2012, serving as a team captain his final year. He returns to his alma mater to coach outside linebackers after serving as an assistant at Temple.
Full video of the press conference can be found HERE and above. An excerpt of the media session is below.
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Head Coach Luke Fickell
Opening statement
"There is a lot of talk about whether the early signing period is a good thing. For us, I think that it's a great thing. It gives us some direction about what it is that we are doing and where we are going. We have a chance to get these guys in here and signed up early and have a better idea and grasp of things. You do have an opportunity to use January and the beginning of February to figure out what else you might need for your team after some guys declare and things like that. This is always a unique time and one of those exciting things for us just happened a little bit earlier and we continue to move forward. As you know, we signed 19 high school kids, so that will be our mentality, and last year we signed 24 high school kids. That's the way we want to go about doing what we do. We truly believe that having guys here for four or five years and developing them is where we want to make our hay. We've got nine high school kids and one transfer that came in here in the winter. They are getting acclimated to what it is we are doing and they had their first mat drill this morning. It is one of those things that you do on national signing day to indoctrinate some of the new guys into what mat drills really look like. From the time that we have been back since the last game, me and a couple other guys have spent a lot of time shaping the leadership of this team and how we are moving forward with a bunch of new guys on the coaching staff. We have coach Gino Guidugli moving to be our offense coordinator, we hired Mike Cummings as our offensive line coach, we brought back Walter Stewart as our outside linebackers coach and then coach Kerry Coombs coming back home to coach our corners and special teams. It's always an interesting time, in my five years here of what February looks like. We've had 2 or 3 transitions for this year of new things. It's been great to our program every year, we get some new perspective, some new energy and we get some new eyes on all that we are doing both offensively and defensively. We found a way each and every year of losing some really good coaches and really good people, but still find a way to get better. I feel like we have done that this year and it is the same thing with losing some great players. We are going to find a way to get better, that doesn't mean that we have a better quarterback this year, but we have a chance to be better at all those positions and all those areas. It will be a challenge to all of us, especially the coaching staff."
Guidugli was promoted to offensive coordinator this offseason after serving as the quarterbacks coach since 2018 and the passing game coordinator since 2020. A member of the UC Hall of Fame after a standout career as a quarterback for the Bearcats, he joined the staff in 2017.
Coombs will coach cornerbacks and special teams. He returns to UC after working at Ohio State as the defensive coordinator the last two years. He also worked with the Tennessee Titans and had a previous stint at Ohio State from 2012 to 2017. He coached at Cincinnati from 2007 to 2011 following a standout run as the head coach at Colerain High School in Cincinnati from 1991 to 2006.
Cummings joins the UC staff from Central Michigan, where he has mentored several NFL players, including 2013 No. 1 pick Eric Fisher. He has more than 30 years of experience coaching offensive lines.
Stewart played at UC from 2008 to 2012, serving as a team captain his final year. He returns to his alma mater to coach outside linebackers after serving as an assistant at Temple.
Full video of the press conference can be found HERE and above. An excerpt of the media session is below.
--
Head Coach Luke Fickell
Opening statement
"There is a lot of talk about whether the early signing period is a good thing. For us, I think that it's a great thing. It gives us some direction about what it is that we are doing and where we are going. We have a chance to get these guys in here and signed up early and have a better idea and grasp of things. You do have an opportunity to use January and the beginning of February to figure out what else you might need for your team after some guys declare and things like that. This is always a unique time and one of those exciting things for us just happened a little bit earlier and we continue to move forward. As you know, we signed 19 high school kids, so that will be our mentality, and last year we signed 24 high school kids. That's the way we want to go about doing what we do. We truly believe that having guys here for four or five years and developing them is where we want to make our hay. We've got nine high school kids and one transfer that came in here in the winter. They are getting acclimated to what it is we are doing and they had their first mat drill this morning. It is one of those things that you do on national signing day to indoctrinate some of the new guys into what mat drills really look like. From the time that we have been back since the last game, me and a couple other guys have spent a lot of time shaping the leadership of this team and how we are moving forward with a bunch of new guys on the coaching staff. We have coach Gino Guidugli moving to be our offense coordinator, we hired Mike Cummings as our offensive line coach, we brought back Walter Stewart as our outside linebackers coach and then coach Kerry Coombs coming back home to coach our corners and special teams. It's always an interesting time, in my five years here of what February looks like. We've had 2 or 3 transitions for this year of new things. It's been great to our program every year, we get some new perspective, some new energy and we get some new eyes on all that we are doing both offensively and defensively. We found a way each and every year of losing some really good coaches and really good people, but still find a way to get better. I feel like we have done that this year and it is the same thing with losing some great players. We are going to find a way to get better, that doesn't mean that we have a better quarterback this year, but we have a chance to be better at all those positions and all those areas. It will be a challenge to all of us, especially the coaching staff."