The Guglielmino Athletics Complex is adjacent to the Loftus Sports Center on the east side of campus. Affectionately referred to as “The Gug” (pronounced Goog), the new building houses the football practice week locker rooms, coaches offices and meeting rooms in addition to enhanced sports medicine, strength and conditioning and weight room equipment areas for all 800 Notre Dame student-athletes. provides the Notre Dame football team with one of the top facilities in the nation. The building is designed to give the Irish football team a central location for post-practice and pre-practice routines as well as daily positional meetings. Before The Gug opened, the Irish football facilities were spread between Notre Dame Stadium, the Joyce Center and the Loftus Sports Center.

The first floor of the Guglielmino Complex features a new 25,000-square foot Haggar Fitness Center with the latest state-of-the-art equipment that all student-athletes can use on a daily basis. There also is a centralized 8,260-square foot athletic training center for all athletes located on the first floor, as well as a new equipment room where football student-athletes can receive the necessary items for both practices and competition.

The Haggar Fitness Center is perhaps the most eye-catching feature of The Gug, as the previous fitness center has been expanded to twice its size. The Haggar Fitness Center is shared by both the Guglielmino Complex and the Loftus Center and will service all of Notre Dame’s 26 varsity athletic sports.

The fitness center features well over 250 pieces of weight training equipment, six plasma television screens, a state-of-the-art sound system, a 50-yard track for speed workouts and a 45×18 yard Prestige Turf field for team stretching exercises and workouts.

The athletic training facility is also a state-of-the-art area with two new swim exercise pools – one of which includes a treadmill at the bottom. The athletic training staff will be housed in The Gug, as the group will see a significant increase in office space. An increased area available for rehabilitation is also included in the athletic training area.

Locker rooms for both the football student-athletes and coaches are contained on the first floor, as well as a player’s lounge, nine team position group meeting rooms and a 500-seat auditorium (with seats engineered for the size and comfort of football players) for team gatherings and presentations by any Notre Dame varsity sport. The Gug features a private for the football team that contains a ‘mud room’ allowing the players to take off their cleats before entering the facility after practice.

Notre Dame’s new practice week locker room features personal lockers for 125 players, each with a special cleat warmer/driers in the bottom section. The locker room is designed to be big enough for team gatherings in the middle and the facility features 22 showers.

Just adjacent to the players locker room is the coaches practice week locker room. With 20 lockers and six private showers, this area will enable the assistant coaches a place to unwind after practice.

The second floor houses all of the football offices in a 7,775-square foot area, with head coach Charlie Weis’ area overlooking the Cartier Field practice complex. The assistant coaches will be arranged along offensive and defensive hallways, while the video coordinator’s compound sits in the center of the coaches’ offices and is linked into every room in the building. There also is a recruiting lounge on the second floor, which features a balcony overlooking the strength and conditioning complex and a panoramic window with a view of Notre Dame’s central campus.

The head coach’s suite is located at the far southern tip on the second floor of the Guglielmino Athletics Complex. Coach Weis will have a large reception area, a private bathroom and shower facility and two offices – one for official meetings and another closed off area for film work.

The recruiting lounge will prove to be one of the signature features of The Gug. Located on the second floor above the main entrance, the recruiting lounge offers a beautiful view of campus and a glimpse of Notre Dame’s football excellence – there are 11 national championship banners hanging in the room to commemorate Notre Dame’s 11 consensus national titles. The recruiting lounge also will offer a balcony glimpse of a signature two-story mural near the main entrance of the Guglielmino Athletics Complex.

The aforementioned mural is just one of several graphic presentations in The Gug. Along with the stunning two-story mural, there will be trophy cases honoring Notre Dame’s national championships, Heisman Trophy winners, All-Americans, walk-ons and all-pros in the NFL.