Gerard Paul DiNardo (born November 10, 1952) is an American former football player and coach.
He played college football as a guard for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish where he was selected as an All-American in 1974.
DiNardo went to college at the University of Notre Dame, where he played guard from 1972 to 1974 for coach Ara Parseghian.
DiNardo was a member of the school's 1973 national championship team, and an All-American in 1974.
DiNardo's older brother, Larry, was also an All-American at Notre Dame, playing from 1968 to 1970.
In December 1990, DiNardo took the head coach job at Vanderbilt University, starting in the 1991 season.
On December 12, 1994, DiNardo left Vanderbilt and took the head coach position at LSU.
DiNardo promised "to bring back the magic", and for his first three seasons, he had considerable success, including a victory in the 1996 Peach Bowl.
[5] As the team's fortunes improved,[6] DiNardo brought back the tradition of wearing white jerseys during home games.
The Tigers then went to the Independence Bowl, where they beat unranked Michigan State, 45–26,[8][9] coached by Nick Saban, who would go on to replace DiNardo at LSU in 1999.
[8][12] LSU upset the Gators, 28–21, on October 11,[8] making the cover of Sports Illustrated.
LSU's only other loss of the season was to unranked Notre Dame on November 15, which the Tigers avenged by beating the Fighting Irish, 27–9, in a rematch in the Independence Bowl.
[15] On November 15, 1999, two days after the Tigers lost to unranked Houston at home, LSU chancellor Mark Emmert fired DiNardo, over the objection of athletic director Joe Dean, with one game remaining in the season.
DiNardo was given the option to coach the final game of the season against Arkansas, but DiNardo declined (in stark contrast to predecessors Curley Hallman and Mike Archer, who agreed to finish out seasons after Hallman was fired in 1994 and Archer resigned under pressure in 1990).
Saban, then in his fifth season at Michigan State, was named as DiNardo's replacement on November 30.
Unlike eight of the XFL's nine other teams, DiNardo banned his players from substituting nicknames for their last names on the backs of their jerseys.
After the XFL folded, DiNardo moved on to become head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers in 2002.
He currently works as a studio analyst for the Big Ten Network and college football expert for WSCR's Boers and Bernstein radio show in Chicago.