Brian Kelly provides insight into continued relationship with Tommy Rees amid new rivalry

Brian Kelly and Tommy Rees go way back, and they’ve done just about everything you can do together on a football field.

While their longtime link at Notre Dame came to an end last season when Kelly bolted for the LSU Tigers, Rees continued to prove his mettle under Marcus Freeman, and it’s led to him following Kelly to the SEC as the brand new offensive coordinator of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Rees loves the Fighting Irish, but the opportunity to work under Nick Saban was too good to pass up.

While Rees will now be trying to defeat Kelly’s team, he hit his former boss up for some advice before he took the job in Tuscaloosa, as the LSU leader explained to the media during an appearance at SEC Media Days on SEC Network.

“Well I think what I can share is the first thing is, we have a great relationship that we’ve kept since I recruited him, and he played for me. I think that, you know for him, he wanted to make sure that this was the right move in his career, and I felt like it was. I thought it was going to be a great move,” explained Kelly. “Now it was ultimately his decision, he didn’t make it because I told him to do it, he did it because he felt like it was right. But you don’t get a chance to work for Nick Saban very often, and when you do, good things generally happen. As a matter of fact, mostly all the time, so that’s not a hard track record to look at.

“So if you get a chance to work for Nick Saban, if you get a chance to work at a place like Alabama, that has the type of kind of obviously, unparalleled success, this would be a great opportunity. He felt the same way, and I’m happy for him. I’m going to be happy for him, except for one weekend. Or if there’s implications of a tie, or something.”

That’s pretty awesome to hear that there’s no hard feelings between Kelly and Rees. It would’ve been a shame if their decade-plus relationship was ended over Kelly taking the job in Baton Rouge.

Now Brian Kelly and Tommy Rees will be fighting it out in the SEC for years to come, taking pivotal roles in one of the biggest rivalries in all of the sport. It’s going to be fascinating to see how these two former Notre Dame leaders fare over the next couple of seasons where it just means more.