DeGuglielmo was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was raised in Lexington, Massachusetts. One of three children, he is first generation Italian-American, as his father emigrated to the US in 1954 with his family as a teenager, from a village outside of Avellino, Italy. His mother was born in Boston, and of Italian and French Canadian heritage.
Playing career
DeGuglielmo played both offensive and defensive tackle at Lexington High School under legendary Massachusetts high school football coach, Bill Tighe. During that time, Lexington High School won two Middlesex League Championships and played for the Division I Super Bowl title against nationally ranked Brockton High School. Moving on to play collegiately at Boston University, he red-shirted his first year at BU. Despite being a non-scholarship "walk-on," he ultimately became a four-year letterman at Boston University from 1987 to 1990. DeGuglielmo trained under world-renowned strength and conditioning guru, Mike Boyle, who was at the time the Terriers' head strength and conditioning coach. Playing for three different head coaches in five years, and three different offensive line coaches in his first three seasons, he persevered and was voted captain of the 1990 Terriers. The second of his head coaches was Chris Palmer, future head coach of the Cleveland Browns. Palmer and DeGuglielmo would reunite in 2007 at the NY Giants. His final offensive line coach was Tony Sparano, who went on to become the head football coach of the Miami Dolphins. Sparano would later hire Deguglielmo as his offensive line coach in Miami. Playing both guard and center, DeGuglielmo was a first-team All-New England selection as well as a two-time Academic All-Yankee Conference selection.
Coaching career
NFL coaching
DeGuglielmo left UCF within a month, joining the New York Giants staff under head coach Tom Coughlin whom he had served as a graduate assistant at Boston College 13 years earlier. In his tenure, the Giants made the playoffs four consecutive years, won Super Bowl XLII, and set a franchise record for rushing yards and yards per carry in 2008. Afterwards, he held the same job for the Miami Dolphins; in 2011 the Dolphins rushed for 1,987 yards in what was also Reggie Bush's first 1,000-yard season. DeGuglielmo was named the New York Jets' offensive line coach on January 24, 2012. He was fired on February 5, 2013, and spent the 2013 football season as a football analyst for Clear Channel Radio's Sports Talk First Edition, on 560 AM WVOC in Columbia, SC. On January 22, 2014, the New England Patriots announced they had hired DeGuglielmo as the new offensive line coach to replace Dante Scarnecchia, who retired after 30 years with the team; DeGuglielmo had a preliminary agreement to serve as offensive line coach at University of Maryland six days prior to the Patriots' announcement. DeGuglilemo won a second Super Bowl ring in the Patriots' Super Bowl XLIX win over the Seattle Seahawks. The offensive line fared worse in 2015, and was ravaged with injuries, including a season-ending injury to left tackle Nate Solder. He was fired by the Patriots on January 25, 2016, one day after the Patriots' offensive line "collapse" in the AFC Championship Game against the Denver Broncos. On July 29, 2019, just four days into training camp, the Miami Dolphins dismissed offensive line coach Pat Flaherty and named DeGuglielmo to the position. DeGuglielmo had previously been hired as a team analyst.
