Tommy Rees - Offensive Coordinator

[Jiggafini19Deux]

The BK "don't look outside the circle" lazy way of hiring is a 100% valid criticism and arguably one of the bigger drivers of his downfall

It's also very industry standard and not out of the ordinary.

Chris Ash and Charlie Partridge having ties going all the way back to Drake was nice. For every one of those, you get a Freeman-Parker degree of Kevin Bacon that doesn't work out.

Tommy keeps finding jobs. In the League. He was also a breath of fresh air in terms of intangibles after the reportedly dickheadedness of Chip Long.

It's a message board, yes, but even on message boards certain stuff just has to be put to bed. Rees went on a podcast and was complimentary of his former coach AND boss. This program has seen worse in most of our lifetimes, and if you haven't, bless you.

 

[MeanGreenBeans]

I think it would be more remarkable if he was NOT complimentary of BK. Really nothing groundbreaking there.

 

[smw6230]

When he was hired as ND OC he was not ready/qualified for it at that point.

Which is funny because Tommy Rees was designing plays in the gameplan at ND when he was a player.

BK and coaches viewed him as a coach when he was a player at ND.

It's a measure of how much BK respected Rees football acumen that when BK's own job hung in the balance he entrusted his fate to Tommy Rees.

Rees was qualified. He wasn't formally qualified but he knew what he was doing and was never over his head.

On final point. Harry Heistand came out of retirement to work with UNQUALIFIED Tommy Rees.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Actually listen to/watch this pod.

He joked about students petitioning to have him benched when he was a player. He kept two notebooks full of notes in one year at Alabama under Saban, that he still goes back to now before camp starts.

He's smart, he loves the game, is self aware, and people think highly of him for whatever reason compared to his own fanbase where he was both a player and coach.

 

[tirishman505]

Actually listen to/watch this pod.

He joked about students petitioning to have him benched when he was a player. He kept two notebooks full of notes in one year at Alabama under Saban, that he still goes back to now before camp starts.

He's smart, he loves the game, is self aware, and people think highly of him for whatever reason compared to his own fanbase where he was both a player and coach.

100% agree. Never understood the TR hate.

 

[Domer Dude]

100% agree. Never understood the TR hate.

TR was a solid QB with the mobility of a sea urchin. I think every ND fan was driven crazy by Tommy and our numb-nut coach changing the play almost every down at the line of scrimmage and always getting delay's of game.

 

[NotKoon]

I kinda soured when Tommy left ND for the Bama job and all his friends in the media talked about how we shouldn’t begrudge him because Alabama was such a clear step up professionally. It was a lot of the same rhetoric that came from BK leaving for LSU, he just had a mouthpiece doing it for him. Things have gone too well since then for me to actively have ill will towards him, but I’ll never again look at him as the ND folk hero I used to

 

[Rizzophil]

I kinda soured when Tommy left ND for the Bama job and all his friends in the media talked about how we shouldn’t begrudge him because Alabama was such a clear step up professionally. It was a lot of the same rhetoric that came from BK leaving for LSU, he just had a mouthpiece doing it for him. Things have gone too well since then for me to actively have ill will towards him, but I’ll never again look at him as the ND folk hero I used to

He comes off all smart, well spoken, and likable on that podcast.

crazy how many haters he has from his own college that never even heard him speak

 

[ulukinatme]

I thought it was interesting Golic mentioned that CJ gave Tommy a lot of credit for his recruitment. There were some posters years ago that downplayed his influence, but it's cool to hear the behind the scenes and how Tommy stayed on him despite thinking CJ would wind up at Michigan at some point. The story about Carr's cockiness as a freshman high school QB at camp was good too.

Glowing reviews for Xavier Watts, it's cool that they wound up back together in Atlanta with Watts originally recruited as a WR by Long.

 

[allenm5333]

You can make the exact same claim though for when someone like Sean McVay got hired to be the Rams HC at age 30 or when he got hired to be the Redskins OC at age 27 despite zero coordinator experience and being younger than many guys in the roster.

There is no such thing as "qualified" in coaching, and people who traffic in resumes over ability tend to make poor hiring decisions.

Yup and McVay got his breaks for being the grandson of a former Niner executive during the golden days. I am sure him winning the Georgia player of the year over Calvin Freaking Johnson wasnt connected to his grand dad

 

[allenm5333]

I thought it was interesting Golic mentioned that CJ gave Tommy a lot of credit for his recruitment. There were some posters years ago that downplayed his influence, but it's cool to hear the behind the scenes and how Tommy stayed on him despite thinking CJ would wind up at Michigan at some point. The story about his cockiness as a freshman high school QB at camp was good too.

Glowing reviews for Xavier Watts too, it's cool that they wound up back together in Atlanta with Watts originally recruited as a WR by Long.

I am a Rees hater. But he was big in getting Carr (and choosing him over Sayin)

 

[NotKoon]

He comes off all smart, well spoken, and likable on that podcast.

crazy how many haters he has from his own college that never even heard him speak

I listened to it. Also listened to BKs. Doesn’t change my opinion on either one. Rees made ND out to be a second class program and stole their starting QB to go down to Bama with him. Doing it late enough in the process to help ensure 2023’s offense was the disaster it turned out to be. Just because things worked out for the Irish in the long run doesn’t change how he left

 

[Old Man Mike]

He did not make out that ND was second class. Hatred creates incredible assumptions and ..... (fill in the blank.)
The best that any hater might come up with was that he wanted to learn something from Saban (at a high salary) that he couldn't learn from not-Saban. Yeh. Bitch away about that.

 

[drayer54]

I listened to it. Also listened to BKs. Doesn’t change my opinion on either one. Rees made ND out to be a second class program and stole their starting QB to go down to Bama with him. Doing it late enough in the process to help ensure 2023’s offense was the disaster it turned out to be. Just because things worked out for the Irish in the long run doesn’t change how he left

He took a chance to go coach with Saban. I don’t hold that against him. ND man. Cheer for him. Earned hire.

 

[ulukinatme]

I listened to it. Also listened to BKs. Doesn’t change my opinion on either one. Rees made ND out to be a second class program and stole their starting QB to go down to Bama with him. Doing it late enough in the process to help ensure 2023’s offense was the disaster it turned out to be. Just because things worked out for the Irish in the long run doesn’t change how he left

Between Rees and Freeman they left the program in better condition than they found it in. Once BK was out and we weren't satisfied with low hanging fruid. Rees was able to land Carr, Minchey, and Hartman in a matter of months. Nearly had Moore before he puss'd out. The dude decidated 10 years of his life to ND despite fans sending death threats and blaming him for conditions that Long and BK created.

He was the best QB on the roster and probably played above his potential while higher recruited guys failed to live up to theirs. If Tommy doesn't save BK's early career, BK probably gets shitcanned and the rebuild never happens cause what coach is going to replace BK in that scenario where ND has floundered for 2 decades? Because recruiting was such shit in the '19 and '20 classes Rees ended up having to start freshmen and sophomores in '21 and '22, his first classes he recruited as OC. There were growing pains, but those guys were the backbone that Denbrock took to the playoff in '24.

 

[lefty5258]

I listened to it. Also listened to BKs. Doesn’t change my opinion on either one. Rees made ND out to be a second class program and stole their starting QB to go down to Bama with him. Doing it late enough in the process to help ensure 2023’s offense was the disaster it turned out to be. Just because things worked out for the Irish in the long run doesn’t change how he left

“Stole their starting QB” as if losing Buchner was backbreaking and he didn’t recruit Hartman to come over before he left.

 

[Jeffwantpoppers]

I’ll never forgive him for losing to Michigan in the playoffs at Bama. Choke job by him and the Bama staff. Even if Michigan cheated.

Anyway, he’s a really good OC and I never got the hate when he was QB. He didn’t have the skill set to be recruited to ND but he was, the opportunity came and he was called on.

 

[Irishokie]

Y’all made OMM use profanity, and I ain’t about that.

 

[stlnd01]

I’ll never forgive him for losing to Michigan in the playoffs at Bama. Choke job by him and the Bama staff. Even if Michigan cheated.

Anyway, he’s a really good OC and I never got the hate when he was QB. He didn’t have the skill set to be recruited to ND but he was, the opportunity came and he was called on.

Doesn't matter what he accomplished as a QB or an OC - for us or elsewhere - I just think there's a portion of the fanbase that will never like Tommy Rees because he wasn't as physically talented a quarterback as they thought Notre Dame deserved back in like 2011. It's the same people been talking shit about him for 15 years now.