Watch: Tommy Rees tells Notre Dame team he’s BACK

Watch Tommy Rees tell Notre Dame football team he’s coming back (in person).

Tommy Rees is back as Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator.  He’s not going to Baton Rouge and joining the LSU coaching staff.

Rees didn’t waste any time getting that message across to his team as he addressed them Wednesday night.  Notre Dame’s social media team was there to catch it, quickly fade out some four letter words, and get it out to the masses.  Watch it below as he says no less than three times how important it is for him to tell the team in person.

“I love you guys, I love this place, and I believe we can win a national championship here.” – Tommy Rees

Reports have Marcus Freeman becoming Notre Dame’s next head coach but we have no video of any that…yet.  Stay tuned.

Related:

Notre Dame coaching staff wish list

 

Breaking: Marcus Freeman to be next Notre Dame head coach

Ladies and gentlemen: We got him.

Monday night Notre Dame was dealt a tough blow when Brian Kelly shocked the college football world and took the LSU head coaching job.  Not even 48 hours after that it appears the Irish have their next head coach.

Defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman will be Notre Dame’s next head coach according to a report from On3.

Freeman was hired from the Cincinnati staff last January and made an instant splash in the recruiting game for Notre Dame while also having a stellar year calling the defense.

Earlier Wednesday night news broke that Tommy Rees was returning as offensive coordinator that led to much speculation about Freeman.

We will have much more through the night and coming days on this massive story.

Related:

Notre Dame coaching staff wish list

Breaking: Tommy Rees to remain at Notre Dame

Touchdown Tommy is staying home!

Despite efforts from Brian Kelly to bring Notre Dame offensive coordinator and play caller Tommy Rees with him to LSU, Rees is staying in South Bend.

Since the announcement of Kelly’s departure came there have been rumors and speculation as to if Rees would join him in Baton Rouge.  After a few days of thinking and negotiations we have the answer as Tommy Rees will remain at Notre Dame to be the Fighting Irish offensive coordinator.

This is obviously huge but could indicate something much bigger as we discussed Tuesday.

Stay tuned as there is certainly plenty more to come with Notre Dame football.

Related: Notre Dame coaching staff wish list

Former Notre Dame great endorses Marcus Freeman

Who do you want to be Notre Dame’s next head football coach and why?

If you’ve spent any time on social media recently and follow seemingly any current Notre Dame football player then chances are high you’ve seen the support they’ve thrown behind Marcus Freeman.  It isn’t just current Notre Dame players rallying behind the current defensive coordinator though, there are former Fighting Irish football players who are fully onboard as well.

One of those players is one of the best to ever wear a gold helmet, linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, now of the Cleveland Browns.  In an unsurprising development the 2020 Butkus Award winner is turning into quite the player at the next level.

Owusu-Koramoah took to Twitter on Wednesday to endorse Marcus Freeman:

With the Browns on a bye week, Owusu-Koramoah then announced he’ll be making a quick road trip:

In case you were curious, it is just over a four hour ride to get from Cleveland to South Bend.  Stay tuned to see if the former Irish star does end up on campus.

Related:

Notre Dame football coaching staff wish list

10 potential head coach candidates for Notre Dame

Brady Quinn blasts Brian Kelly

Will Brian Kelly try targeting Notre Dame commitments?

Welcome to big boy college football, all.

A day after Lincoln Riley shocked the college football world and left Oklahoma for USC, Brian Kelly dropped another figurative bomb by exiting Notre Dame for LSU.  The move clearly surprised many and now Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick is tasked with handling a head coaching search that seemingly nobody saw coming.

In a matter of just days we’ve seen Riley flip former Oklahoma commitments to USC, would be possibly see the same thing from Kelly to current Notre Dame pledges?

Kelly was asked about that during his introductory press conference at LSU on Wednesday:

“The most important thing in recruiting is to take care of your base first,” he said. “My focus will be on those who have made a decision to come to LSU. We’ll be reaching out to those young men first and foremost.” -Brian Kelly

When asked a second time:

“No, I think what my comments would be relative to recruiting is first and foremost: Let’s take care of our base,” he said. “Let’s recruit those young men that have already pledged themselves to Louisiana State University.”-Brian Kelly

Please notice how he didn’t say he wouldn’t do it, but instead changed the focus to something else.  It’s big-time college football and anything clearly goes in that whether you like it or not.

In this case though it’s probably good for Notre Dame that the best recruiters on their 2021 staff are still all in South Bend.

Related:

Notre Dame coaching staff wish list

Notre Dame’s 2022 recruiting class commitments

10 potential replacements for Brian Kelly at Notre Dame

Notre Dame Football Coaching Staff Wish List

The next Notre Dame football coaching staff dream team…

Notre Dame is looking for a new head coach after Brian Kelly bolted to Baton Rouge to head the LSU football program.  Where does athletic director Jack Swarbrick look after the tidal wave Kelly left in his wake?

The good news is Swarbrick shouldn’t have to travel very far to fill the suddenly open spot and that the program was clearly left in a great place.

So what would a dream Notre Dame coaching staff look like at the end of this coaching search?

Here’s the Notre Dame dream team that Swarbrick can start to piece together:

Hear It: Brian Kelly’s farewell speech to Notre Dame football team

Hear the actual audio here:

Unless you’re living under a rock by now you’ve heard the stunning move that Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU despite his Fighting Irish team still being alive in the College Football Playoff chase.

The report that LSU was pursuing Kelly came out Monday evening and roughly two hours later reports of him actually accepting the LSU offer were known.  Shortly after that he sent a group message to the Notre Dame football team apologizing for the news being leaked and called for a 7 a.m. meeting Tuesday morning.

We knew Tuesday that team meeting was very short but audio from of Kelly’s entire farewell address to the team that can be viewed below:

According to The Athletic, Kelly didn’t give any handshakes or hugs afterwards but instead simply exited the room and that was that.  Kelly was then on a plane bound for Baton Rouge early Tuesday afternoon and posing for pictures with the LSU mascot before the sun was even down.

Kelly is set to be introduced as LSU’s new head coach at a 1 p.m. ET press conference Wednesday.

Related:

Who replaces Brian Kelly?  10 potential candidates

Notre Dame players react to Brian Kelly’s departure

Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick discusses coaching search

 

Brady Quinn blasts Brian Kelly

Brady ain’t happy

There are ways for a person to leave a job with respect, class, and dignity and then there is Brian Kelly.  He did it previously at Central Michigan when he left for the Cincinnati job.  Then he did it again when he left Cincinnati for Notre Dame.

Although the news was shocking, the act and how he went about it certainly shouldn’t be, considering who you’re dealing with.  It’s probably fitting that Kelly took the LSU job because after all, tigers don’t change their stripes.

Former Notre Dame star quarterback and Heisman Trophy finalist Brady Quinn was none too pleased with the way Kelly exited.

“This was about money. This was about ego. Him looking at LSU and saying, ‘I’ve played against them. I know the hurdles you have to jump over at Notre Dame vs. LSU to recruit and I want to try and go win a National Championship.’ And he might feel like he has a better chance there, but the irony of it is his team could literally be playing for one this year and really the next two years. And I think the way he did it was more about his ego and how he feels he was treated at times at Notre Dame…

At the end of the day, you don’t leave the way he did, leaving a recruits house after this news breaks, and having other coaches out there who are on the road recruiting; you don’t leave in a classless way like that, after becoming the all-time winningest coach, unless there’s more to it and you want to try to spurn, or try and do this in a conniving way.”

Brady Quinn on 2 Pros and Cup of Joe

I did a couple interviews Tuesday in regards to Kelly and the question about his exit came up.  He certainly doesn’t look good in this and a lot of people again feel burned.  That will happen when someone takes a job, something he’s certainly allowed to do, but on his third time leaving a head coaching job I would have expected it to be handled perhaps be a little more smoothly.

Related:

10 possible replacements for Brian Kelly at Notre Dame

Updated College Football Playoff Rankings

Players react to Brian Kelly’s departure

Oklahoma State passes Notre Dame in new College Football Playoff rankings

Who should be ranked higher: Notre Dame or Oklahoma State?

I know it’s hard to believe based off the whirlwind 24 hours it’s been but believe it or not, there is actually still football to be played this season and Notre Dame still technically has a chance to win a national championship.

Yes, the team who just had their head coach bail after breaking up with them over text message, has a chance at the College Football Playoff (CFP).  Following their 45-14 victory at Stanford on Saturday the Irish finished the season 11-1 and now await things to play out both ahead of and behind them in the CFP rankings.

The CFP committee released their latest rankings on Tuesday night and here is how they go:

See It: Brian Kelly arrives in Baton Rouge

“Stop. Don’t. Comeback.” – Willy Wonka

After meeting with who used to be his players at 7:00 a.m. ET for somewhere between two and 11 minutes, former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly sped away from campus and prepared for his journey to LSU.

Related: 10 possible replacements for Brian Kelly at Notre Dame

If you’re interested in seeing any of Kelly’s trip from South Bend to Baton Rouge the LSU Football Twitter account has posted a variety of different pictures and we tried our best to provide a few captions to those the best way we saw fit below: