Notre Dame football: How long can the Irish keep Tommy Rees?
By Brad Weiss
The Notre Dame football program has a budding talent in offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, but how long can they keep him on staff?
Tommy Rees had an interesting playing career for the Notre Dame football team, starting 30 games, appearing in nearly 50, and helping the team to a BCS title game. However, despite his successes in South Bend, he went undrafted, spending a season in Washington before ending his playing days.
After a stint at Northwestern on their coaching staff, and then the NFL’s Chargers, he returned to South Bend to coach the quarterbacks. From there, he blossomed into a legitimate coaching candidate, working his way up to be promoted by former head coach Brian Kelly to be the team’s offensive coordinator.
When Kelly bolted for LSU, he tried to take Rees with him, but he showed his loyalty, sticking with new head coach Marcus Freeman, the team’s defensive coordinator from a year ago. Now, Rees is a legitimate star in terms of the college rankings of assistant coaches, which begs the question, how long can the Irish keep him?
Rees is only 30 years old but is going into his eighth season on the sidelines, and the noise around him is starting to grow louder. There is a good chance he could be offered a head coaching job as early as next offseason, especially if he can get this Irish offense to succeed with a first-year quarterback and big questions at wideout.
If I had to guess, I would think Rees will be with Freeman and the Irish for at least a few more seasons.
Notre Dame football has an elite coaching staff in 2022
As a whole, the Irish have an elite coaching staff, as the group is solid in terms of game-planning, as well as recruiting. They have hit the recruiting trail hard, bringing in an elite class for 2023, and have already inked a five-star quarterback for 2024.
That quarterback, CJ Carr, has a great relationship with Rees, so maybe that keeps the young offensive coordinator around for a few more years.
It has been an incredible journey for Rees to get to this point, and he has close ties with the school and felt his duty to come back and join Freeman’s staff. Notre Dame is a special place, and Rees has done some incredible things with the program, so why not keep the party going a while longer?