I'm working my way through the transcript of Notre Dame offensive coordinator Tommy Rees' press conference with local writers Tuesday evening.
Questions may be paraphrased. Answers aren't.
TOMMY REES
What went into the decision to use the quick huddle against Clemson?
“We kind of had two different ones; one we’ve used, one was new. There’s a certain amount of gamesmanship when you play Clemson, to say it lightly. A couple years ago we huddled pretty much the whole game. We used some of the quick stuff then. We wanted to be able to change the picture on them as much as we could. They’re formation-ally based.
“The quick huddle stuff: the Rams did it a couple of years ago and they threw something to the receiver out of the backfield, and Ohio State did it to Clemson after we played them in ’20. That was a little bit of the influence. Then trying to find how it fits us and who we are. Trying to break it late and not allow them to get a beat on what tempo we’re playing with and some of the formation-based stuff of that nature.”
Was there a certain point where you felt we’re dominating this team physically?
“That drive to end the half, probably. You felt like, ‘OK, we have some explosive runs in here.’
I’ll be honest — I don’t mean this to sound maybe how it’s going to — I actually thought after the first series. I went on the headset and on the phone and said ‘Hey guys, we’re going to be able to run the ball on them.’ We got four on the first play. It felt like there was a certain push that our guys were crossing the line of scrimmage.
“I remember coming on the phone with Drew and on the headset with the coaches. I think we had five plays on the first drive. It was just, ‘We’re going to be able to run the ball on them. We have to stay with it.’ Certainly, that happened. We wanted to change the picture and change the looks as much as we can to keep them off balance. But at the end of the day, you have to block the man ahead of you, and we did that.”
How much did you anticipate that going in? Not 263 yards worth?
“Not quite that much. I thought we’d be able to run it. I did. Our guys have a lot of confidence in a couple of our run schemes right now. I thought we’d be able to run it. I thought those guys up front had a little more pass-rush mentality, which gave me the thought. But again, I watched the D-coordinator's press conference. I watched the head coach’s press conference to hear what they say. It was all about physicality, so you knew they were going to bear down.
“They have a lot of really good players. Teams don’t see that style every week. I’m proud of our guys. It was a hard-fought game. But 263? I don’t know. I thought we’d have to make a couple more plays in the pass game to open it up. The factors of the wind, factors of our ability to run the ball, it never really came to that point.”
Why is the duo blocking scheme good for you guys?
“We’ve been running it for years. The crux of it was it gives you one-high (safety) answer for run game. If you’re in 11 or you’re in certain run looks and they want to load the box with a safety, you’re going to be short a hat in zone schemes. Duo, you have the ability to crack the safety, and the ball can get bounced onto a corner and that’s a matchup that we will take. There are times where it plays out, you have to cram it.
“Our backs have become unbelievable at reading it. Our line has a ton of belief in it. You have to have the tight ends to run it. That is such a critical spot. I think Mitch (Evans) has made an impact on our running game more than people probably want to acknowledge. Mitch’s ability to be in there and own the point of attack has been a huge — not that Kev (Bauman) wasn’t — but just a huge plus for our ability to run that play. It’s an easy read for the backs, but based on how they play it, you should be able to make them wrong more times than not.
“JT (Jayden Thomas) and Matt (Salerno) and Zo (Lorenzo Styles) have done a good job of being those crackers. We’ve created ways to get them involved in it. We have to continue to find ways to make it roll.”
In the spring it, you or Gerad Parker said that Mitch was ‘surviving’ in the blocking game. How has he gotten better?
“I’ll be honest, I don’t remember saying it. I definitely could have. Mitch is a big kid, obviously. But he’s very athletic and flexible. His ability to get on people but also react to movements and recover when things aren’t perfect makes an impact. I don’t know how many snaps he played, probably in the 40s, but that’s a huge bulk of the game.
“Before the season when we thought this was going to be the tight end room, we had said, ‘Hey, we’re going to play a lot of 12 personnel heading in.’ Because Mitch also has the athletic ability to be a receiving threat, which we haven’t really gotten to yet. It’s really the size, but it’s more the athletic ability to recover and bend and match some of those long, movement-range athletes that he has to block on the edge.”
What did it mean to get down on the field early to celebrate with the offense? Had you done that very often?
“No. Syracuse was the first time I’ve ever done it. That was a little more because of the box situation of trying to get through the fans. Coach Parker, to his credit, twice now has said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come down and share this with us?’ That’s been pretty cool for him to say that. Rare opportunity Saturday night. There was a couple minutes left, and I said ‘Hey guys, screw it. I’m coming down.’ I told Park, ‘Hey, if I’m not down in time, call duo until you can’t speak. I’ll be down there in a couple minutes.’
“You’re isolated in the box. You’re in this own — being on the field is a whole —it’s like two different ecosystems going on. Getting down there, you kind of feel the rush of the game again. A moment like that in Notre Dame Stadium is about as great as it’s been in terms of the atmosphere and the feel and the players. Just being able to share all those moments with them was cool and something I’ll remember for a long time. I don’t plan on making it a habit. But it was pretty special Saturday night.”
Was Drew Pyne the first person you went to?
“I was looking for him. I think I saw Mike (Mayer) first. You kind of go down the line. I fired up the O-Line first. You make your way down and quarterbacks are usually on the further end. Drew worked his tail off all week, had a great week of prep, was calm and really confident throughout the game and knew exactly what we were trying to do, how we wanted to attack them. Controlled the tempo. Controlled the line of scrimmage.
“There’s a lot more on his plate than throwing the ball. Run game, he has a read. He doesn’t just go up there and snap the ball. He’s making points and checks and making sure there’s motions that aren’t automatic. He handled the game as well as he can. He’s doing a really nice job in those situations for us. He was in a great spot Friday, Saturday leading up to the game. You felt really good about his ability to go out there.”
Your predecessor, Chip Long, called plays on the field. What did he like about that? Can you imagine doing that?
“I don’t know. I don’t want to speak for Chip. It’s hard. I’ve been down there a few times. I like being up, because you can see it and you have everything in front of you. It’s probably easier to adjust to some things in games, because you have a better vantage point and you have the time to kind of map things out. Chip had a lot of success calling it from the field. A guy like Sark (Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian) has a lot of success. Guys call it. Everybody in the NFL calls it from the field. Clearly, it’s doable. I just haven’t had the experience doing it. We do it in practice, I guess, but it’s not the same.
“Every time I go down there, I just remind myself like, ‘Gosh, this is —.” I love the environment but like calling it is a whole different deal.”
How badly did you want to call the pass to Mayer at the end?
“That’s a funny story. We installed it Thursday. We had it up early in the week. We didn’t rep it until Thursday. It was an ‘MC’ on my call sheet which means ‘must call.’ I have another word for it, but I can’t share that. It’s a must call.
“To be honest with you, Coach Free was the one who brought up throwing it. Not that play, but he said, ‘Hey, do you have a pop? Do you have something?’ If you want to, you have the green light. So we called it in, Drew did the triple take. Coach Free gave us the green light. We had been running the ball really well that the slip worked by Mike.”
Were you surprised you got the green light to do it?
“He told me on the third down earlier ‘Hey, if you need to throw it to get it, throw it.’ I said, ‘I don’t really want to.’ So we ran it. And then I think I re-asked. ‘Hey, are you good if we …?’ We still got the green light.”
What are Drew Pyne’s next steps?
“There’s some footwork stuff that’s technical that we really need to improve on. The pre-snap recognition of ‘Hey, we got the look, We know where we want this ball. Let’s find a way to get it done.’
“There have been some plays this year where maybe he’s late on it with his eyes or he doesn’t see it with his eyes. It’s, ‘Hey, this is the look we want. This is what it looks like.’ I have to make sure we see it during the week. ‘This is why we like it. Let’s find a way to get it done.’
“If we do some of those things, we’ll continue to evolve offensively. He’s taking those steps. Just have to continue to get him those looks to make sure he can.”
(end)
Questions may be paraphrased. Answers aren't.
TOMMY REES
What went into the decision to use the quick huddle against Clemson?
“We kind of had two different ones; one we’ve used, one was new. There’s a certain amount of gamesmanship when you play Clemson, to say it lightly. A couple years ago we huddled pretty much the whole game. We used some of the quick stuff then. We wanted to be able to change the picture on them as much as we could. They’re formation-ally based.
“The quick huddle stuff: the Rams did it a couple of years ago and they threw something to the receiver out of the backfield, and Ohio State did it to Clemson after we played them in ’20. That was a little bit of the influence. Then trying to find how it fits us and who we are. Trying to break it late and not allow them to get a beat on what tempo we’re playing with and some of the formation-based stuff of that nature.”
Was there a certain point where you felt we’re dominating this team physically?
“That drive to end the half, probably. You felt like, ‘OK, we have some explosive runs in here.’
I’ll be honest — I don’t mean this to sound maybe how it’s going to — I actually thought after the first series. I went on the headset and on the phone and said ‘Hey guys, we’re going to be able to run the ball on them.’ We got four on the first play. It felt like there was a certain push that our guys were crossing the line of scrimmage.
“I remember coming on the phone with Drew and on the headset with the coaches. I think we had five plays on the first drive. It was just, ‘We’re going to be able to run the ball on them. We have to stay with it.’ Certainly, that happened. We wanted to change the picture and change the looks as much as we can to keep them off balance. But at the end of the day, you have to block the man ahead of you, and we did that.”
How much did you anticipate that going in? Not 263 yards worth?
“Not quite that much. I thought we’d be able to run it. I did. Our guys have a lot of confidence in a couple of our run schemes right now. I thought we’d be able to run it. I thought those guys up front had a little more pass-rush mentality, which gave me the thought. But again, I watched the D-coordinator's press conference. I watched the head coach’s press conference to hear what they say. It was all about physicality, so you knew they were going to bear down.
“They have a lot of really good players. Teams don’t see that style every week. I’m proud of our guys. It was a hard-fought game. But 263? I don’t know. I thought we’d have to make a couple more plays in the pass game to open it up. The factors of the wind, factors of our ability to run the ball, it never really came to that point.”
Why is the duo blocking scheme good for you guys?
“We’ve been running it for years. The crux of it was it gives you one-high (safety) answer for run game. If you’re in 11 or you’re in certain run looks and they want to load the box with a safety, you’re going to be short a hat in zone schemes. Duo, you have the ability to crack the safety, and the ball can get bounced onto a corner and that’s a matchup that we will take. There are times where it plays out, you have to cram it.
“Our backs have become unbelievable at reading it. Our line has a ton of belief in it. You have to have the tight ends to run it. That is such a critical spot. I think Mitch (Evans) has made an impact on our running game more than people probably want to acknowledge. Mitch’s ability to be in there and own the point of attack has been a huge — not that Kev (Bauman) wasn’t — but just a huge plus for our ability to run that play. It’s an easy read for the backs, but based on how they play it, you should be able to make them wrong more times than not.
“JT (Jayden Thomas) and Matt (Salerno) and Zo (Lorenzo Styles) have done a good job of being those crackers. We’ve created ways to get them involved in it. We have to continue to find ways to make it roll.”
In the spring it, you or Gerad Parker said that Mitch was ‘surviving’ in the blocking game. How has he gotten better?
“I’ll be honest, I don’t remember saying it. I definitely could have. Mitch is a big kid, obviously. But he’s very athletic and flexible. His ability to get on people but also react to movements and recover when things aren’t perfect makes an impact. I don’t know how many snaps he played, probably in the 40s, but that’s a huge bulk of the game.
“Before the season when we thought this was going to be the tight end room, we had said, ‘Hey, we’re going to play a lot of 12 personnel heading in.’ Because Mitch also has the athletic ability to be a receiving threat, which we haven’t really gotten to yet. It’s really the size, but it’s more the athletic ability to recover and bend and match some of those long, movement-range athletes that he has to block on the edge.”
What did it mean to get down on the field early to celebrate with the offense? Had you done that very often?
“No. Syracuse was the first time I’ve ever done it. That was a little more because of the box situation of trying to get through the fans. Coach Parker, to his credit, twice now has said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come down and share this with us?’ That’s been pretty cool for him to say that. Rare opportunity Saturday night. There was a couple minutes left, and I said ‘Hey guys, screw it. I’m coming down.’ I told Park, ‘Hey, if I’m not down in time, call duo until you can’t speak. I’ll be down there in a couple minutes.’
“You’re isolated in the box. You’re in this own — being on the field is a whole —it’s like two different ecosystems going on. Getting down there, you kind of feel the rush of the game again. A moment like that in Notre Dame Stadium is about as great as it’s been in terms of the atmosphere and the feel and the players. Just being able to share all those moments with them was cool and something I’ll remember for a long time. I don’t plan on making it a habit. But it was pretty special Saturday night.”
Was Drew Pyne the first person you went to?
“I was looking for him. I think I saw Mike (Mayer) first. You kind of go down the line. I fired up the O-Line first. You make your way down and quarterbacks are usually on the further end. Drew worked his tail off all week, had a great week of prep, was calm and really confident throughout the game and knew exactly what we were trying to do, how we wanted to attack them. Controlled the tempo. Controlled the line of scrimmage.
“There’s a lot more on his plate than throwing the ball. Run game, he has a read. He doesn’t just go up there and snap the ball. He’s making points and checks and making sure there’s motions that aren’t automatic. He handled the game as well as he can. He’s doing a really nice job in those situations for us. He was in a great spot Friday, Saturday leading up to the game. You felt really good about his ability to go out there.”
Your predecessor, Chip Long, called plays on the field. What did he like about that? Can you imagine doing that?
“I don’t know. I don’t want to speak for Chip. It’s hard. I’ve been down there a few times. I like being up, because you can see it and you have everything in front of you. It’s probably easier to adjust to some things in games, because you have a better vantage point and you have the time to kind of map things out. Chip had a lot of success calling it from the field. A guy like Sark (Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian) has a lot of success. Guys call it. Everybody in the NFL calls it from the field. Clearly, it’s doable. I just haven’t had the experience doing it. We do it in practice, I guess, but it’s not the same.
“Every time I go down there, I just remind myself like, ‘Gosh, this is —.” I love the environment but like calling it is a whole different deal.”
How badly did you want to call the pass to Mayer at the end?
“That’s a funny story. We installed it Thursday. We had it up early in the week. We didn’t rep it until Thursday. It was an ‘MC’ on my call sheet which means ‘must call.’ I have another word for it, but I can’t share that. It’s a must call.
“To be honest with you, Coach Free was the one who brought up throwing it. Not that play, but he said, ‘Hey, do you have a pop? Do you have something?’ If you want to, you have the green light. So we called it in, Drew did the triple take. Coach Free gave us the green light. We had been running the ball really well that the slip worked by Mike.”
Were you surprised you got the green light to do it?
“He told me on the third down earlier ‘Hey, if you need to throw it to get it, throw it.’ I said, ‘I don’t really want to.’ So we ran it. And then I think I re-asked. ‘Hey, are you good if we …?’ We still got the green light.”
What are Drew Pyne’s next steps?
“There’s some footwork stuff that’s technical that we really need to improve on. The pre-snap recognition of ‘Hey, we got the look, We know where we want this ball. Let’s find a way to get it done.’
“There have been some plays this year where maybe he’s late on it with his eyes or he doesn’t see it with his eyes. It’s, ‘Hey, this is the look we want. This is what it looks like.’ I have to make sure we see it during the week. ‘This is why we like it. Let’s find a way to get it done.’
“If we do some of those things, we’ll continue to evolve offensively. He’s taking those steps. Just have to continue to get him those looks to make sure he can.”
(end)
