Alabama hiring Notre Dame OC Tommy Rees to same role
With now former Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien recently announcing his decision to return to the New England Patriots, the Crimson Tide were in need of a replacement play-caller. Well, it looks like coach Nick Saban has found his man in Tommy Rees, who previously held the same position at Notre Dame.
Rees doesn’t have extensive coaching experience. He was a quarterback for the Fighting Irish from 2010-13 before spending exactly one week on an NFL roster with the now Washington Commanders. Then in 2015, he moved on from his playing career and joined Northwestern’s staff as a graduate assistant.
From there, things moved rapidly for Rees. He only spent one year with the Wildcats before leaving to be an offensive assistant with the San Diego Chargers in 2016. Once again, he only held that role for one year before heading back down to the college level to join up with his alma mater.
Rees began as the quarterbacks coach, spending from 2017-19 in that role.
Brandon Wimbush was his first starter, but then sophomore Ian Book emerged as another potential option. By early 2018, Book was Notre Dame’s starting quarterback and showed tremendous growth from the 10 games he had played in during the 2017 season.
In 2018, Book completed 214-of-314 pass attempts (68.2%) for 2,628 yards, 19 touchdowns and only seven interceptions. He also added another 280 yards and four scores on the ground. From there, Rees helped turn Book into one of the top quarterbacks in college football.
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The 2019 season saw Book total 3,580 yards (3,034 passing, 546 rushing), 38 touchdowns and only six interceptions in 13 games. Rees was then promoted to offensive coordinator for the shortened 2020 season, and Notre Dame made it to the College Football Playoff with Book as a veteran starter.
Obviously, his numbers took a slight dip due to playing less games, but I thought Rees did a nice job of adjusting his approach and leaning more on his running back Kyren Williams to create more balance offensively. That season, Williams turned 246 touches into 1,438 total yards (1,125 rushing, 313 receiving) and 14 scores.
Book also still managed to throw for 2,830 yards, 15 touchdowns and only three interceptions while adding another 485 yards and nine scores on the ground. Sure, there were some inconsistencies to the offense, but it was an impressive job by Rees, who was only 28 years old at the time.
Drew Pyne did some good things for Notre Dame at quarterback this season as well, but there will always be limitations in South Bend that he won’t have to deal with in Tuscaloosa. If you want to know more about why I believe Rees was an intriguing hire for Alabama, you can check out my latest article.
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