Football
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
- Title:
- Assistant Coach/Tight Ends & H-Backs
- Email:
- Gary.Bernardi@Colorado.EDU
Last updated on July 19, 2018
Gary Bernardi is in his sixth season at Colorado, as he came with head coach Mike MacIntyre from San Jose State and officially joined the staff on January 1, 2013. He is in his third year as the coach of the tight ends and the H-backs after tutoring the offensive line for his first three seasons in Boulder.
Â
Bernardi, 63, is a veteran of 37 seasons in the Division I-A (FBS) ranks (38 including one year in I-AA/FCS), and is no stranger to the Pac-12, as he previously spent a combined 24 years at Arizona, Southern California and UCLA. He’s coached in 429 games on college football’s top level, a number that includes 14 bowl games, five of which were the granddaddy of them all, the Rose.
Â
In his first two years at Colorado, the offensive line improved over the course of both seasons, with the five linemen in the game credited with allowing only 28 quarterbacks sacks in 999 passing plays (or one every 36 plays; and that number was just 11 in 545 for the 2014 season, or one every 49.5 plays). In 2014, CU’s running backs averaged over for yards per carry (4.11) for the first time since 2006. His 2015 group suffered an inordinate amount of injuries, as only two players started every game, Alex Kelley at center and Stephane Nembot at tackle.
Â
Throughout his professional career, he has been involved with winning programs and successful head coaches, establishing a reputation as a sharp recruiter and developer of all-star offensive linemen, tight ends and wide receivers. Several of his players have been afforded All-American honors and over 20 of his players have gone on to play professional football. He worked on the staffs of several notable coaches, including Larry Smith, Terry Donahue, Bob Toledo and Mike Sanford.
Â
One of the veteran offensive line coaches in the nation, with the exception of just three seasons in his career, he’s always coached the entire offensive line or at least the offensive tackles. He coached the line in his three seasons at San Jose State, where he landed after coaching five years at UNLV, where he coached the entire line and the tight ends, in addition to serving as the Rebels’ recruiting coordinator.
Â
It was Larry Smith who gave him his start in the collegiate ranks, hiring him at Arizona as the Wildcats’ tackles and tight ends coach in 1980, a position he would hold the next five seasons. He then coached the wide receivers for the 1985 season before returning to tutor the tackles and tight ends in 1986. When Smith was hired as Southern California’s head coach ahead of the 1987 season, he accompanied him to Los Angeles. For the next six seasons, he coached the Trojan tackles and tight ends, including Boulder’s Tony Boselli, in addition to handing the special teams coordinator duties.
Â
Bernardi then moved crosstown to UCLA in 1994, where he would spend the next 10 seasons under three different head coaches, responsible for the offensive line and tight ends in addition to being the Bruins recruiting coordinator. In-between his positions at USC and UCLA, he was the head coach at Burroughs High (Burbank) in 1993.
Â
Bernardi was offensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Northern Arizona for the 2004 season, his lone season in the FCS ranks before Sanford hired him at UNLV.
Â
He graduated from Cal State Northridge with a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education in 1976, and earned his teaching credential from Southern California College. He started coaching in 1973 before his 19th birthday at Bell-Jeff High (Burbank, Calif.). After two seasons there, he moved on to his alma mater, Monroe High (North Hills, Calif.), as an assistant for one season (1975), before heading to Fountain Valley (Calif.) High for four seasons (1976-79).Â
Â
Bernardi has been active in community service outside of coaching. He was a member of the ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) Association Los Angeles chapter when he was coaching at UCLA, assisting in its fundraising efforts.  On two occasions, he represented the ALS Association in Washington, D.C., meeting with United States senators and congressmen.
Â
He was born September 24, 1954 in Burbank, Calif., and graduated from Monroe High School where he lettered in football and was an All-League receiver. He is married to the former Leigh Nasby, who worked as a Stanford Hospital registered nurse the three years they were in the Bay Area. They are the parents of three grown children, Marina and twins Briana and Joe. Marina works for a medical equipment company (BD) in San Antonio. Briana lettered in softball (catcher) at UNLV, where she earned her undergraduate and master’s degrees, while Joe lettered in football (center) at Fresno State and is now an assistant coach at San Jose State, working with the offensive line. His brother, Rob, was the Athletic Director at Nicholls State for 15 years (2001-16) and is now the Senior Associate Athletic Director for Administration at Tulane.
AT-A-GLANCE—He has coached in 429 Division I-A (FBS) games as a full-time coach, and has coached in 14 bowl games (1985 Sun, 1986 Aloha, 1988 Rose, 1989 Rose, 1990 Sun, 1992 Freedom, 1995 Aloha, 1997 Cotton, 1998 Rose, 2000 Sun, 2002 Las Vegas, 2003 Silicon Valley, 2012 Military, 2016 Alamo).  He has also coached in 11 FCS games for a total of 439 collegiate games.
| COACHING EXPERIENCE | ||
| 1980-84 | Arizona | Offensive Tackles/Tight Ends |
| 1985 | Arizona | Wide Receivers |
| 1986 | Arizona | Offensive Tackles/Tight Ends |
| 1987-92 | Southern California | Offensive Tackles/Tight Ends, Special Teams Coordinator |
| 1994-03 | UCLA | Offensive Line/Tight Ends, Recruiting Coordinator |
| 2004 | Northern Arizona | Offensive Line/Recruiting Coordinator |
| 2005-09 | UNLV | Offensive Line/Tight Ends, Recruiting Coordinator |
| 2010-12 | San Jose State | Offensive Line |
| 2013-15 | Colorado | Offensive Line |
| 2016- | Colorado | Tight Ends & H-Backs |
