When Tommy Rees finished his Notre Dame playing career, he didn’t take long to get into the coaching profession. His foray into the NFL was short, after going undrafted, Rees signed with the Washington Football team for all of a week. He would later land in Evanston, as an offensive graduate assistant for Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern. A move back to the NFL, this time as a coach, saw Rees on the San Diego Chargers staff as an offensive assistant in 2016.
Rees came back home in January of 2017, as the quarterbacks coach before being elevated to the offensive coordinator before the Pinstripe Bowl last year. The meteoric rise among the coaching community has turned heads, today Rees was among 247Sports top 30 under 30 set of coaches.
At just 28 years old, Rees is among the youngest coordinators in the country, but one with incredible upside. “He’s one of the fastest-rising coaches in college football,” said 247Sports, as Rees made the list for a second consecutive year.
While his first game this year didn’t get as well as people would have liked, the Irish offense is still growing and the sample size is very small. Rees will find a groove, like the offense did late in the win against Duke. The potential for a high-powered offense is evident, there just needs to be other playmakers to step up aside from running back Kyren Williams.
Looking forward to what might happen with the Irish, Brian Kelly could be grooming Rees as his predecessor. Kelly just signed an extension through the 2024 season, which would put him at 62 years old when his agreement is set to expire. Kelly has hinted that he would like to hang it up soon, actually dodged questions about his pending retirement after the extension announcement was made. Last year Kelly hinted that he had 5 more years of coaching in him, which the new extension leads him up to.
If you look at some major programs with succession plans, they have gone very well. Oklahoma is in good hands with Lincoln Riley, same at Ohio State with Ryan Day. They were groomed to be the next guy up, at one point they were quarterback coaches, to offensive coordinators, to the guy.
There could ultimately be a similar path that Rees takes to become the head coach in South Bend. If he shows over the next four years, that he can consistently recruit at a high level, while running the offense also at a high level, the Irish might not have to look far for their next leader when Kelly rides off into the sunset.