Tommy Rees reveals what it meant for Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson to stay amid questions at QB

This offseason, new Alabama offensive coordinator Tommy Rees has been leading the Crimson Tide offense through a huge quarterback competition. In that process, he brought in a transfer quarterback, Tyler Buchner, from his previous school, Notre Dame.

During the Alabama Football Media Day, Rees shared his thoughts on incumbents Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson choosing to stay and compete with this new addition, rather than transferring out.

“Yeah, I think they’ve both improved greatly from the spring,” Tommy Rees said. “I think there’s been an extra buy-in since Spring ball ended, and they’re just doing more or doing extra to get themselves prepared.”

Importantly, Rees added that the decision to stay shows that both of them are competitive and that they want to be a part of the Alabama program.

“You know, I think it shows a great amount of character, a great amount of competitiveness from those two guys, but it also shows a love for their teammates and a love for being here,” Tommy Rees said. “And honestly, it speaks volumes about the program that guys want to stay here, and so I think it’s really special that in this age of college football, especially at the quarterback position when guys are so eager to leave, that two guys looked at an opportunity to stay here, to care about their teammates, to continue to improve.”

Tommy Rees knows that Milroe and Simpson staying is huge for Alabama. It helps build a strong quarterback room. However, he also thinks it helps them as players.

“And ultimately we’re trying to build as healthy of a room as we can, and they understood that competition can bring out the best in them and they’ve been great the entire process, throughout, and I don’t expect that to change.”

Tommy Rees on bringing in Tyler Buchner

Tommy Rees recruited Tyler Buchner to Notre Dame and was his offensive coordinator for the last two seasons. Now, he’s pulled back the curtain on bringing him in to compete for the starting job at Alabama.

“When he went into the portal, we looked at it as an opportunity to bring competition to the room. Competition at all positions and try to bring out the best and add an extra layer of development. It’s going to help rise with the competition. One thing we’re trying to do to get the whole quarterback group to understand is where one person has success, you look at it as shared success. We want to be a group. We want to leave practice and say that the quarterback group had a great day,” Rees said.

“The other thing we want to see is when one quarterback has success, it’s going to challenge the rest of the group and when we do that, it can raise the level of play in the room. [Buchner] is a guy that I recruited at a young age, I spent two seasons with him. I think he provides a bit of a veteran presence in the room and adds some competition,” Rees said. “I think he has hit the ground running with the rest of the team, especially with the quarterbacks. It’s been a very healthy transition.”