Clark Lea, by the logo on his polo, shared a commonality with Tommy Rees while they were both employed by the University of Notre Dame. However, by their positions on the coaching staff, there was a natural competition of sorts that would arise between the man who would go on to become an SEC head coach at Vanderbilt and one who was just hired to be an NFL offensive coordinator with the Browns.
Lea, who just concluded his fourth season as the Commodores’ head coach, was the defensive coordinator for the Fighting Irish from 2018-20. His final season in South Bend coincided with Rees’ first season as the offensive coordinator, while the two coached together from 2017-19 while one and/or the other was a position coach: Lea with the linebackers in 2017 and Rees with the quarterbacks from 2017-19
During his time as defensive coordinator, Lea — 11 years older than the now-32-year-old Rees — formed what he called “The Breakfast Club,” where his defensive coaches would get together early in the morning during the summer to talk football. One of the regular attendees of those get togethers, though, was Rees.
“Tommy would show up and we would just sit in there and talk ball and he would provide an offensive perspective and we’d ask him about coverages,” Lea told the Beacon Journal Wednesday. “And I think that shows that curiosity. He was always asking good questions and interested in finding ways to beat our structure. And so I felt like, again, going against him in practice every day I was learning about where the gaps were in our defense and the things that teams would do to best attack us. He was looking to do that on his side.”
‘Confident’ Tommy Rees not afraid to ask questions, even of defensive coaches
Lea acknowledged it wasn’t necessarily common to see offensive coaches spend all of that time with colleagues on the other side of the football. You may get some questions here or there, but there was something else that it said of Rees to Lea.
It spoke of a confidence and a self-assuredness within Rees. It’s that confidence which allows for him to be able to stand up in front of a room full of players and/or coaches and get his point across.
“Tommy’s very confident, too, so anytime he’s presenting to a room, I mean, he believes in what he’s doing and he has confidence,” Lea said. “I think this combination of being in search for answers and being willing to ask why and how, and again, that being in search, I think that actually leads to foundational confidence because you’ve done the work ahead of time. A lot of coaches have the confidence but aren’t always willing to lead with the questions, and I think it is something that’s unique to him. … I think that’s a reason for his ascension in coaching is the fact that he is curious, he leads with questions, he wants to find the answers, and then when it comes to the play performance, very confident in believing in what he is and what he’s doing.”
Tommy Rees had an ‘NFL mindset’ even while as Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator
Gerad Parker has sat in the meeting rooms with Rees, the offensive coordinator. It may have only been for one season at Notre Dame, but that one season of exposure showed him how the mind worked for the rapidly-ascending Rees.
Parker, who is coming off his first season as the head coach at Troy University, was the tight ends coach for the Fighting Irish in 2022, the final season Rees was their offensive coordinator and Marcus Freeman’s first season as the head coach. Freeman would then tap Parker to be Rees’ replacement as Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator in 2023 before leaving for Troy.
“I would say this, and this is not just coach talk or whatever, he has an NFL mind, and I felt that way and getting around him and being him around the year we had,” Parker told the Beacon Journal Wednesday. “What I mean by that is there’s all kinds of different ways to gain yards and score points, but the way we had to play and the way he played at Notre Dame and then, of course, called it and became a coordinator there, there’s a certain brand of football, of forming a football huddle, coming out and playing in multiple formations/personnel groupings and finding numbers and angles and matchups to get the job done.
“Of course, in that league, that’s a huge exclamation point that you have to do in that league because you’re finding every way necessary to either add gaps to the run game or to find matchups on personnel and people to score because it’s so damn hard to score in that league, or it certainly appears that way.”
‘Find what fits you best was Tommy Rees’ offensive approach
Both Lea and Parker spoke of a flexibility within Rees’ philosophy that made him difficult to pin a specific schematic approach to him. However, what made him attractive to Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski is what ultimately became the way Notre Dame — as well as Alabama in his one season there in 2023 — played offensively.
For the Fighting Irish, it was developed out of the pool of players they were working with. That included a deep and talented tight end room that includes current NFL players Michael Mayer, Cole Kmet and Tommy Trimble, along with a seemingly always-strong offensive line.
“He’s smart enough to realize, Hey, look what’s going to be effective and let me fit the scheme to the tools of the offense,” Lea said. “We were a team that had some high-level tight ends. We had a physical offensive line, we had a good run game, a physical run game, that set up our play-action pass game. It was very complementary that way. I thought he used the running back in creative ways. I thought he was ahead of the curve that where you started to see the running back really featured in receiving roles.”
Tommy Rees has ‘been through the fires’ as OC at Notre Dame, Alabama
Stefanski is likely to be the one ultimately calling the plays next season for the Browns. It’s part of what earned him a pair of NFL Coach of the Year awards and helped Cleveland to a pair of 11-win playoff seasons.
Rees, though, understands the pressure that comes with holding the play sheet and having mere seconds to come up with the next call. Even if he does end up calling the plays, he understands the weight that comes with being the one with the title of being an offensive coordinator.
Being an NFL coordinator may be a new experience. Being an offensive coordinator with extreme expectations on him is nothing new for Rees.
“I think Tommy doing it to the level he did, I mean you think about where he’s been a coordinator and how he’s done it and been through the fires,” Parker said. “He’s battle tested for all this. He’s done it at Notre Dame, Alabama and now as an offensive coordinator in the NFL. So I think it’s awesome for him. He’s been through the tough and all the things that come with it, the many blessings that come with it, but also there, there’s a piece of it too that’s not easy.”
Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Tommy Rees’ former Notre Dame colleagues recall curiosity, NFL mindset
