Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees has emerged as the top target for Alabama to fill its vacant offensive coordinator position, according to ESPN’s Chris Low.
Rees reportedly has spoken with Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban and will be on campus in Tuscaloosa on Thursday as Alabama looks to replace Bill O’Brien, who departed to accept the Patriots‘ offensive coordinator job last week.
Rees, who is a former quarterback at Notre Dame, came up through the coaching ranks as an assistant under Brian Kelly in South Bend. Rees then became Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator and reportedly had an offer on the table to become the SEC’s highest-paid coordinator under Kelly at LSU last offseason. Following Kelly’s departure to LSU in November 2021, Rees was one of the assistants Kelly was hoping to bring with him to Baton Rouge.
Rees instead chose to stay in South Bend, and he went viral in a video posted by the team’s social media account in which he said that he “believed they could win a championship [at Notre Dame].”
However, when Coach Saban comes calling, that is a tough offer to turn down. Rees is one of the country’s top young offensive coordinators, and Saban has a track record of turning coordinators into head coaches, which is likely on Rees’s mind as he mulls his decision.
