Alabama Football: The ‘Long’ reason Nick Saban hired Tommy Rees

Alabama Football has a new Offensive Coordinator. Nick Saban pulled Tommy Rees away from Notre Dame where he both played and coached.

Rees passed for over 7,000 yards in his four-season, Fighting Irish playing career that ended with the 2013 season. He is 30 years old and has seven seasons of coaching experience at Northwestern and Notre Dame, along with one season with the NFL Chargers. For the past five seasons in South Bend, Rees has been the QB coach, and also the Offensive Coordinator in the three most recent seasons.

Details of his Alabama Football contract have not been disclosed. It had been rumored Notre Dame planned to match any offer made by the Crimson Tide.

Though Rees is generally not well known to Crimson Tide fans, he is well known by Nick Saban. It is debatable whether former Notre Dame coach, Brian Kelly or former Irish OC, Chip Long have done the most to shape Rees’ coaching career. Nick Saban has often praised Kelly and it is believed Saban tried twice to hire Chip Long.

A few seasons ago, Long was one of the hottest names among college offensive coaches. Rees and Long coached together for three seasons in South Bend. After Brian Kelly decided to part ways with Long, he has been on the Tennessee, Tulane and Georgia Tech staffs. He chose to leave Tulane and became a casualty of program meltdowns in Knoxville and Atlanta.

The point is, Tommy Rees has been tutored by coaches Nick Saban respects. As such, he is no average 30-year-old assistant. Greg McElroy recently stated Rees’ offensive philosophy matches what Saban wants the Crimson Tide to return to.

"you’re going to get a downhill rushing attack, a la 2009, a la 2010, a la 2011 and 2012"

But Rees brings more than a power-running philosophy. Add in RPOs, deep balls off play-action, lots of tight end motion, and a precise short passing game. It will not be the same Alabama football offense as 2009-2012. Tempo will be used when the situation warrants. But like those Crimson Tide glory seasons, power will be a feature of goal-line possessions.

It will still be Nick Saban’s offensive system with Saban’s goals and objectives, using terminology Saban never changes. Some potential OCs might have wanted more control and freedom to change Alabama’s offense. That is not expected to be an issue for Tommy Rees.

For those that don’t know, Chip Long is from Birmingham and played college football at North Alabama. In the last few days, it is expected that Long received phone calls from Saban and Rees.