Tom Rees Impressed With Brandon Wimbush This Spring
Notre Dame quarterbacks coach Tom Rees is preaching consistency to junior Brandon Wimbush this spring.
Physically, there’s not much that the 6-1, 226-pound Wimbush can’t do at quarterback. But learning the offense and running the show on a full-time basis has been the challenge in his first year as a starter.
“He has never had to take this many reps since he’s been here,” Rees said after Wednesday’s practice. “It’s understanding coming to work each day and having the consistent approach every day and not getting too high or low.
“That’s the big thing right now. You’re going to get a ton of reps during practice, now you’ve got to go from one play to the next and understand that if we don’t execute this play, it’s fine, we’ve got another rep coming.”
Wednesday morning’s workout was the ninth of the spring for the Irish, who will hold the annual Blue-Gold Game April 22 in Notre Dame Stadium.
After that, coaches are limited in what they can do with the players until practice begins in August. On-field coaches are given eight hours per week to interact with players during the summer, with up to two of those hours available for football-related meetings or film review.
That means Wimbush and the other quarterbacks will have to lead the offense, a challenge Rees said the Teaneck, N.J., native, is up to.
“Being able to go out there without [coaches], telling the backs, ‘Hey, this is what you’ve got.’ Telling the receivers, ‘Hey, this is what you’ve got,’” Rees said of Wimbush’s responsibilities this summer. “Having a big picture conceptually of what we’re trying to do and being able to coach those guys on the finer details of the offense.
“Can he go out there and execute his stuff right now? Absolutely. But when we’re not out there with him and he’s running a seven-on-seven period with just the players, can he teach those finer details, can he teach the concept to those guys?”
Rees, who turns 25 in May, is currently in a graduate assistant role while he waits on the Division I Council for final approval of a 10th full-time assistant in mid-April. The new rules were intended to take effect immediately. Now the council will first vote on the amendment to push back just the addition of a 10th full-time coaching position. The new proposed effective date would be Jan. 9, 2018.
Regardless, Rees said he will be with the Irish this fall.
“It’s out of my control,” said Rees, who isn’t sure whether he’ll coach from the sidelines or press box this fall. “No doubt, I’m not going to leave these guys. I’ll be here.”
Rees, of course, knows the challenges of being a Notre Dame quarterback. He played for the Irish from 2010-13, and completed 627 of 1,048 passes (59.6 percent) for 7,670 yards with 61 touchdowns and 37 interceptions. He then went on to become a graduate assistant at Northwestern in 2015 and was hired as an offensive assistant by the San Diego Chargers last February.
Though young, he’s taken that knowledge and tried to pass it on to Wimbush and the team’s other quarterbacks this spring. Each of the quarterbacks, including backups Ian Book, Montgomery VanGorder and walk-on Nolan Henry learn in different ways he said. It has made for a challenging but fun experience, Rees said.
“That was one thing that when I first got here, I took a step back and said, ‘You need to make sure that these guys understand it,’” Rees said. “Just because it makes sense to you doesn’t mean it’s going to click for them. You’ve got to understand how they learn and understand the different ways.”
Wimbush, though, has a better grasp of new offensive coordinator Chip Long’s offense than the team’s other signal-callers. After playing limited snaps as a backup in 2015, he redshirted last year.
Now, Wimbush will head into the summer as the leader of the offense. Rees said he used those player-only practices over the summer — particularly the offseason after he enrolled early — to pick up the offense.
Rees said this summer is a “huge opportunity” for Wimbush and the quarterbacks to grow. Even this spring, Rees said Wimbush has handled practices with an impressive maturity.
“He doesn’t really beat himself up,” Rees said. “He understands if it’s a small thing, we’ll move on to the next one, we’ll correct it in the film room. He also understands that it’s April, right, it’s spring ball. These are teaching and learning moments for him, it’s his first time taking a significant amount of reps. He understands all that.
“Is he competitive, does he want to win? Of course, he’s out there competing every day and trying to make every play work. At the same time, he has enough maturity to understand let’s go to the next play and move past that. That it’s April and it’s a teaching moment, let’s move past that.
“He has much more of a calm demeanor than I probably had in terms of that. He’s great with the guys and lifting them up. He’s not a huge rah-rah guy, but he has a great presence that guys really respect.”
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