Tommy Rees Can Change Notre Dame's Quarterback Fortunes
Ever since Jimmy Clausen departed following the 2009 season, quarterback play at Notre Dame has been at best inconsistent. Even in the good years the play from the Irish signal callers has not been good enough to allow Notre Dame to be a legitimate national title contender.
Recruiting is often blamed as the culprit, but when your list of quarterbacks in the last decade includes Everett Golson, Malik Zaire, DeShone Kizer, Brandon Wimbush, Phil Jurkovec and Tyler Buchner you won't convince me that talent has been an issue.
Development and production have been the problem, and the culture that was developed held the position back. The driver of that culture is gone and now resides in Baton Rouge. The person that will now be the primary molder of that culture is offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.
Rees has been a bit of a lightning rod for criticism as both a player and coach, much of it undeserved or far harsher than deserved.
The fact that Notre Dame's most productive and successful quarterback the last 12 years was Ian Book, and the quarterback with the second best quarterback rating during that span was Jack Coan should tell you a lot about Rees as a quarterbacks coach.
With all due respect to both players, none had the physical tools of the other players mentioned above (or Buchner), yet they were the program's most productive. The one constant with that duo compared to the rest of the quarterbacks is who coached them ..... Rees.
Three of Notre Dame's best quarterback rating seasons since 2010 came with Rees as the quarterbacks coach (2019, 2021, 2018).
Rees now gets a chance to do work without Brian Kelly looking over his shoulder, sending a different message or creating a toxic culture within the program, and especially the quarterback room. Unlike the last 12 years, the quarterbacks now get to have just one voice in their ears (and head), and that is Rees.
That means there is now no one else to blame but Rees should things not turn around, but that's not what I think will happen. Will Notre Dame go from what it has been the last 12 years to being on the same level as Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma in just one season? That's asking a lot. Can Rees get the quarterback position to start trending in the direction it needs to go? I would argue he already has, and with the most talented quarterback since at least 2015 ready to take the helm, there's a chance over the next two seasons we could see the Irish close the quarterback gap in a big way.
Not only will Rees have a talented starter (assuming Buchner wins the job), but he'll have without question his best supporting cast of coaches since he was promoted to offensive coordinator. Notre Dame has also upgraded its overall skill talent in recent seasons, and in 2022 it will have arguably the nation's best tight end on the roster.
Over the next seven months Rees gets a chance to dramatically change the course of the Notre Dame quarterback position in two very important ways. Getting Buchner rolling in step one, and landing Dante Moore is step two. Do those things and the "quarterback issues" that have plagued the program for so long become a thing of the past, and Notre Dame will enter a new reality.
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