Tommy Rees - Offensive Coordinator

[irishff1014]

Maybe Rees can build the QB room like Alabamas. I understand 3 QB's from their room a couple of years ago went 3-0 in the NFL last week. Couple that with Young being a top pick next spring and that's a great QB room to try to emulate.

Better chance of winning the mega millions. Lol

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

 

[NDMatt91]

I've been as hard on Tommy as anyone, and believe me, he deserves the criticism. He's not a great talent evaluator/recruiter, QB developer, and play-caller. However, being here is not his fault. He has no business being a OC at a program like ND. His promotion by BK and retention by Swarbrick was due to nepotism, IMO. If someone offered me a lot of money to do a job I had no business doing I'd take it, too.

 

[indianamouse]

I've been as hard on Tommy as anyone, and believe me, he deserves the criticism. He's not a great talent evaluator/recruiter, QB developer, and play-caller. However, being here is not his fault. He has no business being a OC at a program like ND. His promotion by BK and retention by Swarbrick was due to nepotism, IMO. If someone offered me a lot of money to do a job I had no business doing I'd take it, too.

He had a top 20 offense the last 2 years

 

[Free Manera]

He had a top 20 offense the last 2 years

20th last year and 30th the year before. I don't think total offense ranks are the be all end all but still, that's mediocre at a school like ND.

 

[BleedBlueGold]

He had a top 20 offense the last 2 years

Is that opponent adjusted? Because his offenses were pretty pedestrian, to downright bad against any defense with a pulse (except the first half against Ok St).

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Is that opponent adjusted? Because his offenses were pretty pedestrian, to downright bad against any defense with a pulse (except the first half against Ok St).

Opponent adjusted. OFEI was 20th last year.

 

[indianamouse]

Is that opponent adjusted? Because his offenses were pretty pedestrian, to downright bad against any defense with a pulse (except the first half against Ok St).

Ok, tell me which offenses looked great against good defenses last year.

 

[317Irish]

Better chance of winning the mega millions. Lol

Not a bad thought really, then we could afford Dante!

 

[Sea Turtle]

Ok, tell me which offenses looked great against good defenses last year.

The usual suspects.

 

[indianamouse]

Also top 20 out of 130 or so teams is pretty good in my book

 

[Irish4life]

20th last year and 30th the year before. I don't think total offense ranks are the be all end all but still, that's mediocre at a school like ND.

17th in OFEI (which is opponent and garbage time adjusted) in 2020, and 20th in OFEI in 2021. When Rees has a veteran QB he is a pretty good offensive play caller....but his QB recruiting is indefensible. No matter how you feel about Buchner (personally I think the calls for him to transfer out are ridiculous), Clark, Pyne, Buchner, Angeli is a mid 4 year stretch.

 

[IrishSpartan]

Total Offense means very little to me. Scoring offense in my opinion is way more important. Rees ability when it comes to evaluating, recruiting , roster management, and adjustments have been abysmal and that the reason he should be gone after this year. He is not a guy that other schools highlight as someone that creates a threat for their team, we need that type of guy.

 

[Bluto]

17th in OFEI (which is opponent and garbage time adjusted) in 2020, and 20th in OFEI in 2021. When Rees has a veteran QB he is a pretty good offensive play caller....but his QB recruiting is indefensible. No matter how you feel about Buchner (personally I think the calls for him to transfer out are ridiculous), Clark, Pyne, Buchner, Angeli is a mid 4 year stretch.

Do all those recruits have a similar profile in terms of the type of offense you would run using them? That doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe that’s part of the reason why the offense seems to be a bit slapdash?

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Total Offense means very little to me. Scoring offense in my opinion is way more important. Rees ability when it comes to evaluating, recruiting , roster management, and adjustments have been abysmal and that the reason he should be gone after this year. He is not a guy that other schools highlight as someone that creates a threat for their team, we need that type of guy.

OFEI isn't "total offense." It's an opponent-adjusted efficiency based metric, and is way more accurate than any vanilla stat including "scoring offense."

Rees did a great job with developing Ian Book. He did a great job with tailoring an offense around Book and Coan. Cristobol and Kelly offered to make him the highest paid OC in CFB this year, and Sean McVay will likely bring him back to NFL soon. Those guys have forgotten more about football than you know, so this meme about Rees being completely incompetent is ridiculous.

As a scout and a recruiter, he's been well below average. And his scheme this year has been largely ineffective until the 2nd half against Cal, though it's unclear how much of that is on Freeman. Criticism where it's due, but a lot of the hate being directed at Rees recently isn't remotely grounded in fact.

 

[Irish4life]

Do all those recruits have a similar profile in terms of the type of offense you would run using them? That doesn’t seem to be the case. Maybe that’s part of the reason why the offense seems to be a bit slapdash?

I do think there's a disconnect with what Rees wants his offense to be, and what QBs he's brought in.

 

[Irishdrunk]

He had a top 20 offense the last 2 years

That is not accurate.

 

[Irishdrunk]

Opponent adjusted. OFEI was 20th last year.

Yea and we WERE a Top 5 program. Shows how much a laggard the Offense was even before Kelly left. Kelly clearly covered for Tommy.

 

[Dale]

OFEI isn't "total offense." It's an opponent-adjusted efficiency based metric, and is way more accurate than any vanilla stat including "scoring offense."

Rees did a great job with developing Ian Book. He did a great job with tailoring an offense around Book and Coan. Cristobol and Kelly offered to make him the highest paid OC in CFB this year, and Sean McVay will likely bring him back to NFL soon. Those guys have forgotten more about football than you know, so this meme about Rees being completely incompetent is ridiculous.

As a scout and a recruiter, he's been well below average. And his scheme this year has been largely ineffective until the 2nd half against Cal, though it's unclear how much of that is on Freeman. Criticism where it's due, but a lot of the hate being directed at Rees recently isn't remotely grounded in fact.

+1. Those that inherently dislike Rees just consistently undermine their own points of view but acting like he’s awful at everything full stop.

I believe, and I think posted in the off-season that a lot hinges on if he identified and/or developed Buchner. For mostly his responsibility, some outside of his control, he’s going to take a L on that in 2022. That will IMO short of a Pyne miracle be enough to say ND can do better, and likely does via Rees taking a NFL job in some way. We aren’t going to fire the guy because he’s the worst play caller that can’t do a thing right in the world.

 

[IrishSpartan]

OFEI isn't "total offense." It's an opponent-adjusted efficiency based metric, and is way more accurate than any vanilla stat including "scoring offense."

Rees did a great job with developing Ian Book. He did a great job with tailoring an offense around Book and Coan. Cristobol and Kelly offered to make him the highest paid OC in CFB this year, and Sean McVay will likely bring him back to NFL soon. Those guys have forgotten more about football than you know, so this meme about Rees being completely incompetent is ridiculous.

As a scout and a recruiter, he's been well below average. And his scheme this year has been largely ineffective until the 2nd half against Cal, though it's unclear how much of that is on Freeman. Criticism where it's due, but a lot of the hate being directed at Rees recently isn't remotely grounded in fact.

I’m not saying that he’s been useless he does something’s good. I just don’t believe he is suitable for the college environment. Being a college coach of any kind is about relationships and commitment to growth of his players as much as it is about winning and on field play.

Yes he did a good job with Book, but he was basically Tommy 2.0. He seems to want his quarterbacks to be like how he played in college and he to focused on finding a player that fits his system then he is on developing said player towards what he is looking for.

I am not a Rees hater. I will say that he gets way to much credit for the very little he has provided.

All I want is a Offense again that when they receive the ball I am not worried about if they can get a first down or drive down the field. I want an offense that is seen as a threat to other teams.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

ND's OFEI since Kelly arrived:

2010- 58th
2011- 24th
2012 - 19th
2013 - 35th
2014 - 22nd
2015 - 7th
2016 - 37th
2017 - 12th
2018 - 28th
2019 - 25th
2020 - 17th
2021 - 20th

Rees joined the staff as a QB coach in 2017, and our offense since then has been better on average than any period since Holtz retired. I'm open to argument that Rees is a bad scout and recruiter, or that he'd be better suited to the NFL than the college game. But he's clearly not the incompetent many here are painting him as.

 

[arrowryan]

ND's OFEI since Kelly arrived:

Rees joined the staff as a QB coach in 2017, and our offense since then has been better on average than any period since Holtz retired. I'm open to argument that Rees is a bad scout and recruiter, or that he'd be better suited to the NFL than the college game. But he's clearly not the incompetent many here are painting him as.

Incompetent is the wrong word. But the quarterback room hasn’t been good.

Ian Book was a great success story and reached his ceiling at ND, but the QB in general has been mediocre.

I like Rees as a play caller, but he’s a below average QB recruiter.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Incompetent is the wrong word. But the quarterback room hasn’t been good.

Ian Book was a great success story and reached his ceiling at ND, but the QB in general has been mediocre.

I like Rees as a play caller, but he’s a below average QB recruiter.

That's an easily defensible position. I wouldn't be sad to see him move on to the Rams next season. We obviously need someone who's better at scouting and recruiting to rebuild our QB room.

But that's a far cry from what some of our Debbie Downers are pushing.

 

[Ndaccountant]

That's an easily defensible position. I wouldn't be sad to see him move on to the Rams next season. We obviously need someone who's better at scouting and recruiting to rebuild our QB room.

But that's a far cry from what some of our Debbie Downers are pushing.

I love me advanced metrics more than most, but at times they can me self-fulfilling based on schedule. By playing many ACC teams, two PAC 12 teams, etc, ND efficiency is often compared to the average of those conferences. So the talent gap can often provide an artifical floor for these metrics. It's incredibly difficult to accurately account for, but it's real. What would be interesting to me is advanced stats based on ranking of opponents. In other words, ND versus clemson weighted against the other top 25 teams in FEI that play Clemson. They sample size is too small though. But I would suspect that ND is quite average at best once you account for that on offense.

 

[anarin]

Yes he did a good job with Book, but he was basically Tommy 2.0. He seems to want his quarterbacks to be like how he played in college and he to focused on finding a player that fits his system then he is on developing said player towards what he is looking for.

This truly confuses me. Ian Book and Tommy Rees are no where close to the same QB.

 

[Pops Freshenmeyer]

This truly confuses me. Ian Book and Tommy Rees are no where close to the same QB.

Also, Tommy passed J. J. McCarthy. You know, the white kid with the same listed height who grew up an hour away from Rees' hometown, in order to sign Tyler Buchner.

 

[Dale]

This truly confuses me. Ian Book and Tommy Rees are no where close to the same QB.

Nor is Buchner, CJ Carr, a ton of the QBs we’ve offered. Even Pyne is only similar to Rees because he did not grow as he was expected. So Rees was not “looking” for Pyne to be like him per se.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

I love me advanced metrics more than most, but at times they can me self-fulfilling based on schedule. By playing many ACC teams, two PAC 12 teams, etc, ND efficiency is often compared to the average of those conferences. So the talent gap can often provide an artifical floor for these metrics. It's incredibly difficult to accurately account for, but it's real. What would be interesting to me is advanced stats based on ranking of opponents. In other words, ND versus clemson weighted against the other top 25 teams in FEI that play Clemson. They sample size is too small though. But I would suspect that ND is quite average at best once you account for that on offense.

That's what we've been fielding consistently since Kelly arrived in 2010--a low ceiling/ high floor pedestrian offense that reliably beats less talented teams, but gives us very little chance against more talented teams. Given our conservatism on that side of the ball and the way we've recruited offense, I'd expect to be ranked in the 25th-20th range most years, which is exactly what our OFEI has averaged out to. We've only had a single season--2015--where the offense was good enough to give us a chance in the post-season.

 

[Ndaccountant]

That's what we've been fielding consistently since Kelly arrived in 2010--a low ceiling/ high floor pedestrian offense that reliably beats less talented teams, but gives us very little chance against more talented teams. Given our conservatism on that side of the ball and the way we've recruited offense, I'd expect to be ranked in the 25th-20th range most years, which is exactly what our OFEI has averaged out to. We've only had a single season--2015--where the offense was good enough to give us a chance in the post-season.

Yes. But my point is that if you accounted for talent, I don't think ND is top 20 or 25. There used to be a guy that looked at tempo adjusted offensive and defensive stats by recruiting stars. Now, this blends many things together, but adjusts your ranking based on perceived strength of roster. I remember this vividly as it consistently ranked Elko as on of the top DCs when at WF. I wish they were still around today or I knew where to find it.

 

[Dale]

The factual commonality Rees looks for in a recruit is his football knowledge. Probably, I’ll even agree definitely, to a fault. I don’t believe he looks for short white immobile QBs even though that is repeated frequently. Pocket or dual threat, white, black or Asian. Tall or short he wants you to pass his QB knowledge tests.