Tommy Rees - Offensive Coordinator

[T Town Tommy]

Saban addressed some of the changes that were made as the season progressed in his press conference. Saw where the OL was struggling and changed some of the schemes to protect Milroe, asked Milroe to step up in the pocket more in order to have the run option, and did some things to open up better matchups for the receivers.

I think for any team, the ability to recognize what isn’t working and then change in order to put the players in a better position to be successful is paramount for continual improvement. How much is credited to Tommy? A lot but not all of it. As far as the Irish, it appears that on offense they just haven’t had the success from a coaching perspective to effectively do those kinds of things this season.

 

[T Town Tommy]

It’s also maybe a bit unfair to compare who is probably the greatest coach ever in CFB to a first time coach in Freeman. With that said, Freeman does need to be able to recognize the weaknesses of the offensive group and press for some changes to address those weaknesses. If his coaching staff isn’t able to effectively do that then Freeman needs to address that.

 

[irishff1014]

I thought Bama’s off was ok but nothing great. The QB’s on both side just ran around like back yard football.

 

[Old Man Mike]

... remarkable lack of understanding of the complexities of football .... see comment from Alabama-area commentator:

Bama's offense has been ridiculously efficient​

Over 200 yards running and passing, 9 for 12 on third downs, four touchdowns on four red zone trips and now seven points off turnovers. A clinic.

 

[Valpodoc85]

Rees had a tendency to get "cute" at ND. Often it backfired. Saban seems to have reigned some of those tendencies in. MF did not

 

[FightingIrishLover7]

Do people still not like Rees?
Even after seeing ND this year?
Do posters think they have a better read on Tommy than Nick freaking Saban? Lol

I'm not saying he's Bill Walsh.
But I am saying he's not Geraldine Porker.

 

[CANONIZEFATHERSORIN]

Tommy as our next head coach after one more successful year at bama is looking increasingly inevitable

 

[Old Man Mike]

Not news to anybody, but I liked Tommy's creativity from the beginning and felt the only thing holding him back was our lack of excellence at skill positions (other than RB/TE) and so was crippled by situations where opponents could match our power with extra defenders close to the line of scrimmage. Given our personnel limitations, he occasionally designed miracles of getting a receiver open. That receiver often dropped the ball. Rees didn't drop it. Nor did he Drew Pyne it nor Buchner it. "Cute" no. Trying to make lemonade from lemons, yes. If you never try anything, you never succeed.

 

[Irish Knuckles]

Not news to anybody, but I liked Tommy's creativity from the beginning and felt the only thing holding him back was our lack of excellence at skill positions (other than RB/TE) and so was crippled by situations where opponents could match our power with extra defenders close to the line of scrimmage. Given our personnel limitations, he occasionally designed miracles of getting a receiver open. That receiver often dropped the ball. Rees didn't drop it. Nor did he Drew Pyne it nor Buchner it. "Cute" no. Trying to make lemonade from lemons, yes. If you never try anything, you never succeed.

i do think the job rees did with pyne last year was outstanding. rees came into his own as the season progressed.

 

[Grahambo]

I don’t think either our OC or our HC know how to fix this.

All MF needs to do to fix the offense is hire a proper OC. It’s clear GP has no idea how to design an offense so hoping he gets better in the offseason is a losing strategy.

And I’ll be off the MF train.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

So basically all Tommy needed was elite talent to demonstrate his genius?

 

[MacIrish75]

All MF needs to do to fix the offense is hire a proper OC. It’s clear GP has no idea how to design an offense so hoping he gets better in the offseason is a losing strategy.

And I’ll be off the MF train.

Dude doesn’t even know how to sequence plays. He’ll call a good play, but then not be able to base a corresponding play off of that call. Offensive design is much further down the road for Volde—GP.

 

[Irish Knuckles]

ima start stumping for joe moorhead. shoulda hired him last year. Notre Dame is one of his dream destinations. i'm sure we can pay him more than he's getting at akron, which is a dead end job. he's only 50 years old, so he's not ancient yet. has head coach experience and has been a successful oc.

 

[Irish du Nord]

You know who never lost to Clemson in the regular season? Those Clemson squads were better too.

You know who was never shut out in a half against Navy? Gerad Parker. Selective stats make great coaches.

 

[FDNYIrish1]

Dude doesn’t even know how to sequence plays. He’ll call a good play, but then not be able to base a corresponding play off of that call. Offensive design is much further down the road for Volde—GP.

This has been my biggest aggravation. There’s zero sequencing and development to come back to later on. It’s a random mish mosh with no vision.

 

[forkbeard3777]

This has been my biggest aggravation. There’s zero sequencing and development to come back to later on. It’s a random mish mosh with no vision.

Yep. It’s like his offense has zero identity, and he calls plays just to call them. You’ve got a strong running game and a stable of running backs. Feed them the ball, and then mix in high percentage passes, play action, screens, crossing routes…

Yesterday’s crossing route to Faison (I believe?) was a great call, and I believe a first for GP? It worked very well. He just doesn’t build or establish a rhythm or momentum.

 

[forkbeard3777]

Also, Rees schooled BK tonight. After a slow start Bama is looking to be in the driver's seat for the SEC West. They've got Kentucky and Auburn left, while Ole Miss is the next closest and they've still got to get by Georgia.

Respectfully, GP would look like Andy Reid against this Matt House defense. I don’t think Rees did anything of note. He relied on his offensive line and let his RB playing QB scramble and beat us with his legs. He knew we couldn’t stop them from gaining 10 yards on 3 or 4 attempts….that makes it pretty easy to win. “Hey, Milroe, have the WRs all run go routes and then take off…”. It isn’t like he scripted this masterful game plan — he was just going against one of the worst defenses in the country.

 

[Bishop2b5]

I think Tommy's a work in progress. He struggled at ND because of a lack of elite playmakers at a few key spots, especially QB. He had and still has some faults, but he's also still young and growing as a coordinator. Saban has certainly brought out the best in him and sanded off some of the rough edges. Tommy has definitely developed, learned, and started hitting his stride as this season's gone along. Six weeks ago Bama fans were already making out a short list of OC's to hire for next season. Now, we're wondering how much better he'll be next year.

 

[spoonidentity]

I think Tommy's work in progress. He struggled at ND because of a lack of elite playmakers at a few key spots, especially QB. He had and still has some faults, but he's also still young and growing as a coordinator. Saban has certainly brought out the best in him and sanded off some of the rough edges. Tommy has definitely developed, learned, and started hitting his stride as this season's gone along. Six weeks ago Bama fans were already making out a short list of OC's to hire for next season. Now, we're wondering how much better he'll be next year.

Highlighted above is all we want from our assistants, get better as the season goes along. Tommy did it last year here and I'm not surprised he's doing the same down there. Unfortunately, we've been trending the other direction with our OC.

 

[Bishop2b5]

Highlighted above is all we want from our assistants, get better as the season goes along. Tommy did it last year here and I'm not surprised he's doing the same down there. Unfortunately, we've been trending the other direction with our OC.

And you're 100% correct. When assistants & coordinators aren't improving and getting the job done, that's on the HC. He hired them, and he's the one retaining them if they aren't correcting mistakes, learning, and getting better. Years ago when BK was underperforming, I relentlessly complained about him keeping dead wood on his staff. Players were making the same mistakes in November that they'd been making in September, assistants were failing to teach fundamentals and eliminate the same mistakes over & over, and BK would keep those same assistants on staff. I don't think Freeman's at that point yet, but after this season, he needs to evaluate his staff, put friendships aside and make changes IF changes are needed, and make sure he has a staff that learns from mistakes, improves over the course of a season, and isn't satisfied with "good enough."

 

[irishff1014]

Do people still not like Rees?
Even after seeing ND this year?
Do posters think they have a better read on Tommy than Nick freaking Saban? Lol

I'm not saying he's Bill Walsh.
But I am saying he's not Geraldine Porker.

Rees is good at a place like Bama. The head coach will say pull your head out of your ass.

That would have never happened here. But I think we still lose the Ohio State game and probably one more with Rees here.

 

[DomerInHappyValley]

Tommy needs a HC he will listen to as an OC.

He could be controlled by Kelly and Saban will control his worst tendencies.

MFMF someone who Tommy probably saw as on his level and doesn't know offense nearly as well as he does he was never going to listen to.

 

[ulukinatme]

You know who was never shut out in a half against Navy? Gerad Parker. Selective stats make great coaches.

He also never scored less than 34 points against Navy, which is pretty good against an option offense that's constantly running clock. Good teams find a way to win. We had no business giving up 32 points to a 4-8 Navy team last year.

 

[PutuporShutup]

Do people still not like Rees?
Even after seeing ND this year?
Do posters think they have a better read on Tommy than Nick freaking Saban? Lol

I'm not saying he's Bill Walsh.
But I am saying he's not Geraldine Porker.

Because Rees is better than Parker does not make him good…. Bama looks good when milroe scrambles Ad hoc with 4.4 speed and a being a strong qb. Everyone good has lit up lsu, even more than bama did

 

[ulukinatme]

Because Rees is better than Parker does not make him good…. Bama looks good when milroe scrambles Ad hoc with 4.4 speed and a being a strong qb. Everyone good has lit up lsu, even more than bama did

Bama pretty much has the SEC West locked up at this point and has a path to the playoff. I think a lot of people counted them out after the first month of the season.

 

[PutuporShutup]

Yep. It’s like his offense has zero identity, and he calls plays just to call them. You’ve got a strong running game and a stable of running backs. Feed them the ball, and then mix in high percentage passes, play action, screens, crossing routes…

Yesterday’s crossing route to Faison (I believe?) was a great call, and I believe a first for GP? It worked very well. He just doesn’t build or establish a rhythm or momentum.

Or his spread Clemson out 5 wide qb draw

Called a great screen that got tipped (again)

He has some great calls like hi said, but he has more drive killer calls than anything else

 

[PutuporShutup]

Bama pretty much has the SEC West locked up at this point and has a path to the playoff. I think a lot of people counted them out after the first month of the season.

I kinda did as well, when I thought it was Buchner and Simpson

 

[IRISHDODGER]

Because Rees is better than Parker does not make him good…. Bama looks good when milroe scrambles Ad hoc with 4.4 speed and a being a strong qb. Everyone good has lit up lsu, even more than bama did

I think the question still stands…do message board posters like us think we know better than Saban? Not saying Rees is a guaranteed home-run hire but I bet it serves his purpose of getting an NFL gig. Saban needed a quick fix when BOB bailed for New England after the NFL season was over. Rees obviously thought Saban gave him a quicker route to the NFL than Freeman.

While agree Bama’s roster can make any OC look good, Rees inherited the worst QB room they’ve had in awhile. I’m convinced Buchner never had a shot coming out of camp. Saban started Tyler in the USF game b/c he knew Bama could still win w/ their D & wanted to send a message to Milroe. It worked.

 

[NDohio]

Tommy needs a HC he will listen to as an OC.

He could be controlled by Kelly and Saban will control his worst tendencies.

MFMF someone who Tommy probably saw as on his level and doesn't know offense nearly as well as he does he was never going to listen to.

Not an insider at all, but reading the tea leaves, this is the crux of what was going on between TR and MF. MF could say the exact same things to TR as Saban or BK would but TR wouldn't take it the same way. That's understandable as BK and NS have built programs and deserve that respect, but I don't think Tommy was every going to take direction from MF well.

 

[Giddyup]

What tea leaves did you get that from?