Notre Dame Notebook: Tommy Rees Talks Offensive Evolution, Tobias Merriweather and More

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The quarterbacks have been the main offensive topic of conversation at the start of Notre Dame’s 2022 fall football camp, but Fighting Irish offensive coordinator Tommy Rees addressed a slew of other themes after Saturday’s second practice in his first media opportunity of the fall.

THE OFFENSE

Notre Dame’s leading rusher, Kyren Williams, and leading wide receiver, Kevin Austin, from a year ago are both gone to the NFL. There are question marks at both positions this season, but Rees doesn’t sound concerned.

“I think we have a lot of guys that can make plays for us,” Rees said. “I’ll start up front. I think that we have a healthy amount of players that can help us win football games up front and we’ve got a great guy in the front of the room in (offensive line) Coach (Harry) Hiestand. I think our skill positions, there’s a number of guys cross-positionally that can do a lot of things.”

“So, with that, we’re able to do a little bit more, be creative and have some things that can present defenses challenges," Rees continued. "We’re going to continue to put guys in positions that might not be perfect and see how they handle it. That’s something that Coach Freeman is constantly striving to do and continue to ask guys to do things and find out what they’re capable of and then what we need to scale back.”

EVOLVING THE OFFENSE

Rees is entering his third season as offensive coordinator and he’s used distinctly different looks in his first two seasons at the helm. From a tight end/run heavy look in the 2020 College Football Playoff Season, to an offense that adjusted on the fly last year to suit the strengths and weaknesses of the quarterback and the line in front of him.

Rees does his best to keep up with trends around the county, in both the pro and college game, to keep making his own adaptations of the Irish offense.

“There’s always trends, year-in and year-out, defensively that we’ll spend a good deal of time on in the offseason to understand, because usually it’s a two-year buffer period,” Rees said. “You see something one year, the second year that’s when everything’s going to start happening. We saw that with the 3-5-3 and 3-3-5 defenses over the last couple of years. That will evolve.

“I watched a ton of opponent film, probably more college this year than in the past," continued the Irish offensive coordinator. "I’ve always kind of trended myself toward watching more NFL games and more of that type of system. Like last year, I watched every snap of every NFL team, but this year, that wasn’t the priority. There (were) other things that we were prioritizing. We want to constantly try to find new ways and we have a great staff that brings ideas that all have other areas to study and collaboratively, we try to find new ways to enhance what we’re doing.”

THE COLLEGE GAME

In addition to NFL tendencies, Rees has kept his eyes on what’s going on with other college programs and how they’re doing things. He didn’t name any specifically, but he did discuss which side of the ball he spent time watching.

“Defense, we focused on a couple that were very specific and then offenses, there were probably six or eight that you dive into and probably six or eight more NFL teams that you try to do a study on and find what fits you and find what doesn’t,” Rees said. “It’s fun. I don’t know, maybe not for everyone, but there’s worse things to be doing with your time.”

Rees added that he didn’t visit any schools to pick other coach’s brains this offseason, but there were “five or six” teams that visited Notre Dame that he collaborated with.

RED ZONE

Notre Dame’s offense spent the first two days of training camp working in the red zone. Rees shared some thoughts on what he’s seen so far.

“I think we’re gonna have the ability to be creative down there with personnel packages,” Rees said. “We’re gonna have the ability to be strong up front – strong in our protection and our run scheme there. Then we’ve got guys that can make plays for us. The obvious ones are obvious, but we’ve got younger guys coming on that when they have a chance to be one on one or they have a chance to be in space, they’ve made some plays that have opened up some of the things that we can do.”

ON TOBIAS MERRIWEATHER

If there’s one receiver that gets a near unanimous five-star rating so far this fall, it’s freshman Tobias Merriweather. The 6-4 former top recruit has opened the eyes of the media and his coaching staff. Rees started with what stands out about the explosive pass catcher.

“I think his talent,” Rees said. “You see him and you’re like ‘This kid’s got a chance’. It goes way deeper than that. He’s got an unbelievable work ethic. He got himself ready in two months to start repping in camp, which is a testament to his work ethic, a testament to a couple guys on our staff that have helped get him ready.”

“Obviously , (wide receiver) Coach (Chansi) Stuckey’s done a tremendous job with him, but he’s a kid that’s hungry for it," Rees noted. "He’s going to do more. That’s kind of innately who he is. He’s going to want more and learn and ask questions and prepare the right way. As a young player, to have a chance, you’ve got to have that to play right away and I think he possesses that and we’ll find some consistency as camp goes on.”

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