Tommy Rees Talks Phil Jurkovec, Notre Dame Quarterback Situation
There are currently two streaks of seven at the Notre Dame quarterback position.
The first is that in the seven straight years from 2011-17, the Fighting Irish signal-caller who started the opener the year prior did not do so the following season.
Brandon Wimbush will attempt to snap that streak in 2018 while Ian Book, who rallied the Irish to victory over LSU in the Citrus Bowl, will try to win the starting assignment and move the streak to eight years.
The second is that every quarterback Notre Dame has signed since 2011 redshirted: Everett Golson (20011), Gunner Kiel (2012), Malik Zaire (2013), DeShone Kizer (2014), Wimbush (2015, although as a sophomore in 2016), Book (2016) and Avery Davis (2017).
Will Phil Jurkovec, deemed by many the crown jewel of Notre Dame’s 2018 haul, be next? Or is he going to be thrown right into the competition? After all, if the western Pennsylvania product is as good as advertised, one should believe it would be a bonus to have him on campus for four seasons, never mind five.
Coincidentally, the lone quarterback recruited in head coach Brian Kelly’s first eight seasons at Notre Dame who did not take a redshirt year is Tommy Rees, his current quarterbacks coach.
The three-star Rees enrolled the same season (2010) as four-star prospect Andrew Hendrix, who also redshirted as a freshman. A combination of Rees’ high football IQ, getting a head start with 15 spring practices as an early entrant and the lack of QB depth (former walk-on Nate Montana was No. 2 in the spring behind Dayne Crist), enabled Rees to start the final four games that year, all wins, after a season-ending injury to Crist.
Rees would start more games (30) and pass for more yardage (7,351) than any other Irish quarterback under Kelly, although it was his excellent work off the bench in 2012 during a 12-0 regular season that was even more valued.
Although it has been less than a decade since Rees was recruited, he is amazed at the changes that have occurred on that front, especially via social media with twitter, texting, instagram … That is why to Rees the most impressive aspect of the 6-5, 204-pound Jurkovec is not necessarily the physical but more so as “a breath of fresh air.”
“He’s really a throwback,” Rees said. “He’s all about football and wanting to help with recruiting and wanting to help to get a grasp of the offense and do things the right way. He’s not caught up in stars, camps, numbers … He just wants to learn football and to get to know his teammates and familiarize himself with Notre Dame, the university. He’s been a pleasure to work with and I can’t say enough about his family.
“He’s a humble kid who in this day and age doesn’t need to be humble. When a kid chooses to be humble like that, it speaks volumes to who he is.”
That’s not to say the physical traits don’t jump out as well, especially in basketball where Jurkovec has been a four-year starter at Pine-Richland High.
“On the basketball court he’s the best athlete by a mile,” Rees said. “He guards the other team’s best players. There is not a lot he can’t do.”
Unlike Rees in 2010, Jurkovec will not have the benefit of enrolling early and getting the 15 spring practices to get a grasp of the offense. The competition at quarterback also will be much greater for Jurkovec because both Wimbush and Book have now tasted success and getting celebrated — plus the inevitable failure to which no one is immune.
Nevertheless, Rees said another notable change in recent years is how much more college freshman quarterbacks are at grasping coverages and the mental aspect of the game. A true freshman QB (Jalen Hurts) led Alabama to the national title game in 2016, and another (Tua Tagovailoa) came off the bench to help win the 2017 national title.
On the other side of the 2017 title game was another true freshman in Georgia’s Jake Fromm.
It definitely helped that Hurts, Tagovailoa and Fromm were surrounded by tremendous talent and experience (unlike Jimmy Clausen in 2007 at Notre Dame during a 3-9 season as a freshman), but Rees said the proliferation of quarterback camps, such as the Elite 11, and better coaching, such as the one Jurkovec received while finishing 16-0 and winning a state title as a senior, go a long way.
“Guys are coming in a little more prepared than they get credit for,” Rees said. “The high school coaches do a great job of focusing on the mental aspect of the game. You can tell. You come from a good program in the high school level, you have a pretty good grasp of coverage and what’s going on.”
When Jurkovec arrives on campus this June, Rees knows where the instruction has to begin.
“You have to get a benchmark on where he’s at in terms of recognizing coverage,” Rees said. “How well does he learn things, how well is he able to retain things in the meeting room and translate them to the field? That’s always the biggest leap.
“It’s really not the physical part; it’s the mental aspect, especially at the quarterback position. For an offensive lineman, it’s a little different because of the physicality. At quarterback the game starts to slow down for you when you mentally start to be able to grasp things.”
For Rees, it will be about expanding the library for Jurkovec as he tries to adapt to more sophisticated coverages and disguises in college defenses. Many times a fledgling quarterback will recognize what is going on but can’t identity it.
“That’s where you teach, rep, watch film leading up to camp, and give them projects, and you have older guys help them through it,” Rees said.
“… When you worry about him coming in here and mentally fitting in — that’s the least concern you have, because he is such a strong-willed individual.”
In his first year as a coach at Notre Dame, Rees said the most pleasant surprise was the daily interaction with the players and how they view him as a mentor, especially after having played quarterback at the school.
“It was little surprise the comfort level they had to come to me with everything,” Rees said. “The next part is — this isn’t surprising — but you face ups and downs throughout the year. I can be the first one to tell you that. The way you handle that with your teammates, it’s just as important as a coach that you handle it the right way as a player. That’s something that I learned throughout the whole year — you always need to stay positive to give them the best outlook, so that even when things aren’t going perfect, they know that you have their back and you’re in their corner."
Rees laughs at the notion that he was perceived as an even-keeled quarterback, which is why Kelly trusted him so much.
“The even-keel thing, it’s always kind of followed me through my career — and it’s not always been the case,” Rees said. “I gave that perception because you have to be at this position. You can’t be a roller-coaster. You need to be consistent and steady.
“When it comes to just practice, in the meeting room or outside the game day, there is fire and there is passion, and that’s something I’ve tried to resonate with the guys in the room. As a player, a lot of guys have always said ‘You’re so even keeled,’ but if you talk to some of my closest teammates or closest friends, they’ll be the first to tell you that’s false.”
As a coach, Rees agreed that the even-keel demeanor is vital, and it’s one he wants his pupils to emulate in the huddle.
“You need to be the same person every day,” Rees said. “When you step into that meeting room, they need to know who they’re getting and who to expect. My biggest thing was to be consistent for them so that there are never any surprises. I think they reacted well to that. I want to keep pushing them, their competitive fire, their energy levels and continue to grow them that way.
“Year 2 you’ll see more of a step forward in that direction just because of the comfort level and the experience they learned this year.”
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