Report: Tommy Rees To Be Notre Dame QBs Coach ... Or Will He?
During Tommy Rees’ Notre Dame career at quarterback from 2010-13, Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly often predicted that Rees' football IQ will make him an outstanding future coach.
Kelly might find out sooner than expected. Blueandgold.com, received a tip this weekend that Rees was a top candidate to succeed 2015-16 Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Mike Sanford, who was hired as Western Kentucky’s head coach last month, once the NFL regular season concluded this past Sunday. This afternoon, NBC Sports’ Keith Arnold tweeted that the hiring of Rees to instruct the Irish quarterbacks is “imminent.”
However, a separate tweet later from the South Bend Tribune's Mike Vorel indicated otherwise.
A December 2013 graduate of Notre Dame’s Mendoza School of Business, Rees served as a graduate assistant at Northwestern in 2015 and was hired as as offensive assistant by the San Diego Chargers last February. The Chargers concluded their 5-11 season Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Rees’ father, Bill, was an esteemed college assistant and recruiting coordinator at UCLA from 1979-93 before working in the NFL a couple of decades. For the past two seasons he has been player personnel director at Wake Forest — where newly hired Notre Dame defensive coordinator Mike Elko came from this month.
The Lake Forest (Ill.) High product Rees was an early entrant at Notre Dame in January 2010 with minimal fanfare. Classmate Andrew Hendrix arrived as the better Irish quarterback prospect on paper, but Rees ended up a full-time starter two seasons and was a stellar figure out of the bullpen the other two while starting 31 games in his career.
Limited in arm strength, size and mobility, Rees compensated with moxie, a strong understanding of Kelly’s offense, and the ability to check into correct blocking schemes and read the coverages with his football knowledge.
Throughout his college career, Rees moved ahead of or stayed in front of five-star prospects such as Dayne Crist and Gunner Kiel (in addition to Hendrix). And although he was not nearly as mobile or possessed anywhere near the arm strength of 2012 starter Everett Golson or 2013 early entrant Malik Zaire, he was an ideal complement to Golson in 2012 and stepped in for him in 2013 when Golson was sidelined for academic reasons.
Rees finished his Notre Dame career completing 627 of his 1,048 passes (59.6 percent) for 7,670 yards, 61 touchdowns and 37 interceptions.
“He’s an incredible young man that he can stay so focused in the game, know what’s going on during the game,” said Kelly during the middle of the 2012 season in which Rees was college football’s top fireman with his relief efforts off the bench during Notre Dame’s 12-0 regular season. “At halftime I’m talking with him and Everett and he’s pointing out some things about the outside coverages that we should maybe think about running, as well. He’s just a very smart football player.”
Rees, who will turn 25 on May 22, would be the fourth new hire on the Notre Dame staff since the conclusion of the 4-8 season. The hiring of defensive coordinator Elko and special teams coordinator Brian Polian has been made official by the University. Memphis offensive coordinator/tight end coach Chip Long also is a reported hire, but it has not been yet made official by Notre Dame.
• As a freshman, Rees replaced Crist early in the Tulsa game when Crist suffered a torn ACL. The Irish dropped to 4-5 after that loss, but the Irish then won all four of Rees’ starts to finish 8-5. It was capped with a 33-17 Sun Bowl win versus Miami in which Rees completed 15 of 29 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns.
• Crist received the starting nod in the 2011 opener, but after the Irish fell behind 16-0 at halftime in the opener versus South Florida, Rees started the second and nearly rallied the Irish to victory before losing, 23-20. He started the final 12 games in the 8-5 campaign.
• Golson took over as the starter in the 2012 opener — in which Rees was suspended — but Rees came off the to lead the game-winning drive against Purdue the next week, provided a steadying hand in the final three quarters of a win against Michigan after two first-quarter interceptions by Golson put him on the bench (Rees also scored his lone career TD in that game), led the drive that put the game into overtime against Stanford, and then threw the game-winning scoring pass to T.J. Jones versus the Cardinal. When Golson was injured, Rees also was the starter against BYU when Notre Dame rallied from a 14-7 deficit to a 17-14 win.
• Rees started all 13 games as a 2013 senior after Golson was removed from the team that fall . Notre Dame finished 9-4 and No. 20 in the Associated Press poll while Rees threw for 3,257 yards, 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
If the hiring does occur, Rees would become the third former Notre Dame quarterback to coach the same position for his alma mater the past 25 years. The others were Tom Clements (1992-95), who started from 1972-74 and led the 1973 national title run, and Ron Powlus (2007-09), who started from 1994-97 and is currently Kelly's director of player development.
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