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Notre Dame offensive recruiting primed for a big spring led by ‘energized’ Tommy Rees

Singer headshotby:Mike Singer•02/19/22•

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Notre Dame offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tommy Rees (Photo: Blue & Gold)

Notre Dame has nine early commitments in the 2023 class, a group that ranks No. 2 nationally according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking.

Seven of the nine commits are on the defensive side of the ball, though. Is it time for the offense to make a run of new verbals? It certainly appears so.

Notre Dame will have key wide receiver recruits on campus in March and April. The Irish typically have an offensive lineman or two committed by this point in the cycle, and it appears there are some blockers up front who are on the brink of committing. Notre Dame is the heavy favorite according to the On3 Recruiting Prediction Machine for top-100 four-star offensive tackle Charles Jagusah at 92.5 percent.

Of course, Notre Dame has four-stars Sedrick Irvin Jr. (RB) and Cooper Flanagan (TE) committed. The Irish need a signal-caller to get them the ball, and on Friday, Blue & Gold logged a prediction for Detroit Martin Luther King’s Dante Moore, the nation’s No. 17 player and No. 4 quarterback, to land at Notre Dame.

And the man who is leading the charge for Notre Dame in these recruiting efforts on offense? It’s Tommy Rees, who is going on his third year as the Notre Dame offensive coordinator and his seventh consecutive season as the team’s quarterbacks coach.

There’s new blood in the Notre Dame football program with just four assistant coaches from last year’s team still on staff. And with that new blood has brought new energy for Rees. We’re seeing it play out on the recruiting trail with his contact ramping up with key 2023 targets, too.

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“I’m extremely energized by the hirings,” Rees told the media on Wednesday. “The thing that has been so fun – and I mean that – is we go into the room, study our offseason cut-ups as a staff and there a new ideas and conversations. It’s not just the same five guys sitting in a room trying to check a box and have stale conversations. How do we enhance? How do we get better? … Everybody has a hand in that.”

The new Notre Dame offensive staff – Deland McCullough (RB), Chansi Stuckey (WR), Gerad Parker (TE) and Harry Hiestand (OL) – who Rees hired have been getting after it on the recruiting trail in the weeks after being officially hired. There’s an energy on the staff that the coaches are feeding off of.

“Meetings you used to roll your eye at; I can’t wait until 1 o’clock hits,” Rees continued. “Coach [Marcus] Freeman has been in there when he can, and I’m sure it’s his favorite part of the day, too … Having new ideas and new people in there is unbelievable. The energy and excitement – I don’t get that riled up but I think you can hear it [in my voice]. It’s been a really fun experience to sit there and see how this thing can develop and grow.”

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