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Tommy Rees in retrospect
Posted on 7/20/24 at 5:55 pm
Posted on 7/20/24 at 5:55 pm
Some key questions.
1. If Jalen had a seasoned coordinator like Kiffin or Sarkisian would his growth as a passer have been expedited to where he wouldn’t have needed THIS season to fully realize his potential?
2. Are Jalen’s limitations based more in mechanics or experience? Its certainly not talent.
3. Tommy Rees is retained as a hypothetical. Is this a stagnation, a step backward or something that could work out the more experience Tommy got as a coordinator based on what you observed in games?
4. What was his (Rees) best game from a scheming standpoint?
1. If Jalen had a seasoned coordinator like Kiffin or Sarkisian would his growth as a passer have been expedited to where he wouldn’t have needed THIS season to fully realize his potential?
2. Are Jalen’s limitations based more in mechanics or experience? Its certainly not talent.
3. Tommy Rees is retained as a hypothetical. Is this a stagnation, a step backward or something that could work out the more experience Tommy got as a coordinator based on what you observed in games?
4. What was his (Rees) best game from a scheming standpoint?
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Posted on 7/20/24 at 6:18 pm to Vulcan Materials
Jalen Milroe was an under-developed talent at quarterback because Bill O'Brien was just trying to ride Young's coattails back to the NFL. He didn't invest in Jalen at all. Actively belittled him at times My conjecture is BOB didn't really want to invest in the depth the way an OC would if he was doing right by his employer even if he knew he was a short timer. Of course, BOB is a well documented a-hole so no surprise there.
Tommy Rees was never a great hire. He was clearly a backup choice after striking out on Ryan Grubb. But Alabama has been saddled with mediocre offensive coordinators before in the Saban era and generally got much more competent performance than what we saw in 2023.
I think that inconsistency on offense was due to Kevin Steele's health issues that emerged at some point in 2023 that seem to have required Saban becoming more hands on with the defense. The defense was not all that better statistically compared to 2022 but they did make more clutch stops than 2022. Of course, notably, until the lack of offense busted them in the Rose Bowl late.
Saban could not be the type of CEO he needed to be and Rees suffered for it. Rees was just not up to the moment like other coordinators could've been when required to take on more autonomy with the offense. I think this is why Saban hung 'em up. He just couldn't hire a staff where there were few enough on-field staff "fires" that he could triage them with his personal touch.
Tommy Rees was never a great hire. He was clearly a backup choice after striking out on Ryan Grubb. But Alabama has been saddled with mediocre offensive coordinators before in the Saban era and generally got much more competent performance than what we saw in 2023.
I think that inconsistency on offense was due to Kevin Steele's health issues that emerged at some point in 2023 that seem to have required Saban becoming more hands on with the defense. The defense was not all that better statistically compared to 2022 but they did make more clutch stops than 2022. Of course, notably, until the lack of offense busted them in the Rose Bowl late.
Saban could not be the type of CEO he needed to be and Rees suffered for it. Rees was just not up to the moment like other coordinators could've been when required to take on more autonomy with the offense. I think this is why Saban hung 'em up. He just couldn't hire a staff where there were few enough on-field staff "fires" that he could triage them with his personal touch.
Posted on 7/20/24 at 6:28 pm to Diego Ricardo
quote:
Saban could not be the type of CEO he needed to be and Rees suffered for it. Rees was just not up to the moment like other coordinators could've been when required to take on more autonomy with the offense.
The biggest/worst example of this was against Michigan when Milroe was getting killed on those straight drop backs and the following drives Rees kept calling.. you guessed it.. straight drop backs.
Literally any creativity in play-calling and 'Bama puts that one away.
Posted on 7/20/24 at 6:34 pm to Marktastic86
Alabama got somewhat better on offense in that Rose Bowl when they just committed to running the ball against all those zone blitzes but they'd always manage to step on their own dick when Rees would give Milroe enough rope to hang himself with poor blitz recognition and not letting the ball go.
Posted on 7/20/24 at 6:52 pm to Vulcan Materials
Rees was vanilla and not creative enough. We started games so slowly because he always fell into the same basically patterns in playcalling.
Then halftime came and whoever that analyst was would create a new gameplan and we would stomp teams until Rees playcalling got away from whatever changes they made at the half.
When some of us called him out on it.. we caught shite for that.
As average as Rees was, he was better than BOB who is horrendous and yet again was defended so much on here.
I have literally no fear of OSU because BOB will render OSU impotent against any decent defense.
Then halftime came and whoever that analyst was would create a new gameplan and we would stomp teams until Rees playcalling got away from whatever changes they made at the half.
When some of us called him out on it.. we caught shite for that.
As average as Rees was, he was better than BOB who is horrendous and yet again was defended so much on here.
I have literally no fear of OSU because BOB will render OSU impotent against any decent defense.
Posted on 7/20/24 at 7:56 pm to YStar
Rees didn’t understand how to play offense outside of the big ten. He was used to 12 personnel and just a lack of creativity. It wasn’t a good match for him or for us. I can think of about three or four brilliant play calls he made all year. The big one was the wheel route touch JAM had against UGA. He called that one earlier in the year and it wasn’t successful against Texas. You will see our offense look totally different this year.
Posted on 7/20/24 at 7:59 pm to Vulcan Materials
It’s hard to judge Rees because he was put in a similar situation as Daboll, where the playcalling was limited by deficiencies in the quarterback. We didn’t have the benefit of pre-snap reads or Milroe shifting the line after picking up a blitz. We also abandoned the middle of the field passing game after the disaster that was Texas.
I actually think the second half of the Michigan game was his best called all year. MgoBlog did a deep dive into the offensive playcalling and were pretty high on the halftime adjustments made. You can also see how the offense adjusted after the initial struggles in the first half.
LINK
I’m curious to see where Milroe’s developed this fall and also see how DeBoer schemes with him. We have a lot of talent on offense so I’m hoping we can utilize it fully this year
I actually think the second half of the Michigan game was his best called all year. MgoBlog did a deep dive into the offensive playcalling and were pretty high on the halftime adjustments made. You can also see how the offense adjusted after the initial struggles in the first half.
LINK
I’m curious to see where Milroe’s developed this fall and also see how DeBoer schemes with him. We have a lot of talent on offense so I’m hoping we can utilize it fully this year
This post was edited on 7/20/24 at 8:04 pm
Posted on 7/20/24 at 8:42 pm to Vulcan Materials
Kiffin has never been a great developer of talent so much as he is great at highlighting the strengths of his personnel. He would have made Milroe more productive, but a better player? Not sure about that. Sark would have though.
His mechanics need work, but so much of the bad with Milroe was the result of having absolutely no clue how to figure out where the pressure was coming from pre-snap. The OL was a total shite show and certainly made their own contributions, but he got himself sacked probably 1-2 times a game by not being able to identify blitzers.
A step backwards or stagnation. If he becomes a good OC it's going to take some time. I think he can be because he'd occasionally string together a really good series of plays, but it wasn't nearly often enough for a championship caliber program.
UGA easily. Saban knows Kirby like the back of his hand though, so I'm sure he did a lot of heavy lifting on that gameplan.
His mechanics need work, but so much of the bad with Milroe was the result of having absolutely no clue how to figure out where the pressure was coming from pre-snap. The OL was a total shite show and certainly made their own contributions, but he got himself sacked probably 1-2 times a game by not being able to identify blitzers.
A step backwards or stagnation. If he becomes a good OC it's going to take some time. I think he can be because he'd occasionally string together a really good series of plays, but it wasn't nearly often enough for a championship caliber program.
UGA easily. Saban knows Kirby like the back of his hand though, so I'm sure he did a lot of heavy lifting on that gameplan.
Posted on 7/20/24 at 9:01 pm to UhOhOreo
It's not the QB, it's the playcalling.
I mean you realize with a good to amazing playcaller they can make the worst QB effective?
Yet so many excuses for Rees when the reality is he called a dull offense that catered to the B1G.
If he were any good he wouldn't have needed half a season to adjust to his personnel. If he were any good he wouldn't need whoever it was at halftime who would change our complete playcalling (until Rees screwed things up and went back to his bland easy to defend stuff).
He's a bland playcaller and had been at Notre Dame, hence why their fans celebrated when he left and brought his QB from there to Alabama with him (QB was really bad as well).
I mean you realize with a good to amazing playcaller they can make the worst QB effective?
Yet so many excuses for Rees when the reality is he called a dull offense that catered to the B1G.
If he were any good he wouldn't have needed half a season to adjust to his personnel. If he were any good he wouldn't need whoever it was at halftime who would change our complete playcalling (until Rees screwed things up and went back to his bland easy to defend stuff).
He's a bland playcaller and had been at Notre Dame, hence why their fans celebrated when he left and brought his QB from there to Alabama with him (QB was really bad as well).
Posted on 7/20/24 at 9:59 pm to Vulcan Materials
Jalen held onto the ball for far too long and never took a check down. Yeah Tommy Reese sucked frickin arse but it goes both ways.
Posted on 7/20/24 at 10:21 pm to UhOhOreo
quote:
It’s hard to judge Rees because he was put in a similar situation as Daboll, where the playcalling was limited by deficiencies in the quarterback
But Simpson and Buchner were also arse under Rees.
Posted on 7/21/24 at 12:32 am to Vulcan Materials
quote:
Tommy Rees
Couldn't consistently move the chains. frick Bill O'Brien.
Posted on 7/21/24 at 3:22 am to Diego Ricardo
quote:It was pretty well known it was 2 years for BOB and back to the league. Hard to blame a dude to put effort into developing a kid who he wouldn’t be coaching. Hiring and retaining the right guy is the HC job and doing that became incredibly difficult for Saban. As much as ppl want to talk about NIL and transfer portal, I will forever believe not being able to hire and retain his preferred coordinators is why he retired.
Jalen Milroe was an under-developed talent at quarterback because Bill O'Brien was just trying to ride Young's coattails back to the NFL.
Posted on 7/21/24 at 2:33 pm to Vulcan Materials
Rees was ok. Not great, not bad, but ok. Some games were better than others. I thought he got better as the season went on.
He was also working in a tough situation with a QB with a really unusual skillset with Milroe. I mean how many times do you get a guy like that? Brilliant down field passer but can't hit the easy throws. Absolutely incredible runner past the line of scrimmage but zero feel behind it. He was a walking oxymoron last year.
I don't think negative of Rees at all, but I do think this staff will be a big upgrade, and Milroe will finally get the best opportunity to develop this offseason of his entire career.
He was also working in a tough situation with a QB with a really unusual skillset with Milroe. I mean how many times do you get a guy like that? Brilliant down field passer but can't hit the easy throws. Absolutely incredible runner past the line of scrimmage but zero feel behind it. He was a walking oxymoron last year.
I don't think negative of Rees at all, but I do think this staff will be a big upgrade, and Milroe will finally get the best opportunity to develop this offseason of his entire career.
Posted on 7/21/24 at 2:43 pm to Crimson77
Rees didn't do a good job because Saban wouldn't let him. Saban kept his damn fingers in the pie.
Posted on 7/21/24 at 3:55 pm to Dick Tracy
quote:
Rees didn't do a good job because Saban wouldn't let him. Saban kept his damn fingers in the pie.
Then you'll have to explain why, in 40 games at Notre Dame, Rees' offense only surpassed the 40 point mark eight times (50+ twice) and was held to under 20 points against half the ranked teams ND played.
We had more explosive plays (30 yards or more) in 2022 than Rees had in 40 games at ND.
Did Brian Kelly have his hand on the pie, restricting Rees' offensive genius too?
This post was edited on 7/21/24 at 3:57 pm
Posted on 7/21/24 at 4:15 pm to Crimson77
quote:
QB with a really unusual skillset with Milroe. I mean how many times do you get a guy like that? Brilliant down field passer but can't hit the easy throws
Nothing “brilliant” about Milroe’s downfield throws. He’s so deficient in passing that downfield was the “best” aspect of his passing game. Even still, it was often poorly thrown to a wide open receiver.
In addition, he is NOT a natural runner. He basically has good straight line speed but he’s not instinctual.
Posted on 7/21/24 at 4:39 pm to TS1926
quote:
Nothing “brilliant” about Milroe’s downfield throws. He’s so deficient in passing that downfield was the “best” aspect of his passing game. Even still, it was often poorly thrown to a wide open receiver.
Disagree, strongly. He's a really good downfield thrower. PFF grades are not my favorite, but he had the 2nd highest downfield throw grade in the country last season behind Daniels.
Though I will give it to you that we drew up an inordinate amount of shot plays for him because he couldn't hit anything intermediate.
quote:
In addition, he is NOT a natural runner. He basically has good straight line speed but he’s not instinctual.
Disagree here as well. He's great once it's a pure tuck and run. The problem is navigating the pocket and reading blocks/keys behind the line. So sure he doesn't have great "instincts" if that's how you define instinct.
Posted on 7/21/24 at 8:21 pm to Vulcan Materials
Milroe haters, like myself, tend to give him more blame than he deserves. The opposite it true for Rees. I hope Milroe plays faster and with better instincts this year, and run the ball, kid.
Posted on 7/24/24 at 1:13 pm to Dick Tracy
quote:
Rees didn't do a good job because Saban wouldn't let him. Saban kept his damn fingers in the pie.
Funny, considering the season took a distinct turn for the better once Saban got more hands-on with things.
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