Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Yet after all the dust has settled, the unheralded former three-star recruit — not-as-strong-armed, not-as-fleetfooted Rees — is the man again at the throttle for his senior year in 2013. • Crist was in line to be the starter from 2010-12, but after graduating from Notre Dame as Rees' backup, Crist used his fifth season of eligibility at Kansas in 2012. • Montana stayed ahead of Rees after a stellar 2010 Blue-Gold Game in which he completed 18 passes for 223 yards and tossed three touchdowns. The freshman Rees threw only two passes as the No. 3 option. Yet by midseason, Rees moved into the No. 2 role. Montana transferred to, ironically, Montana and then West Virginia Wesleyan. • Hendrix had the higher rating when both he and Rees were high school seniors, possessed a loftier ceiling and arrived from more famous Cincinnati Moeller. He was on the threshold of taking over as the starter at the end of 2011 — but just could not leapfrog Rees. • Prior to the 2012 opener, the combination of sophomore Golson — Notre Dame's projected quarterback from 2012-15 — the freshman Kiel and an opening-game suspension for Rees created more external perception that "we've seen the last of Tommy Rees." Nevertheless, Rees was a vital figure in Notre Dame's 2012 Cinderella regular season that earned a berth in the BCS National Championship Game. And now, with Golson sidelined in 2013 because of an academic transgression, and Kiel enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, Rees is at the forefront again. Like the most trusted relief man in baseball, Rees repeatedly made clutch "saves" in tight 2012 victories against Purdue, Michigan and Stanford, and even started and helped lead a fourthquarter rally against BYU's powerful defense that finished among the top three nationally. "Lucky for us we have Tommy Rees," fifth-year senior tackle Zack Martin, an All-America candidate, said in August. "Everyone is excited he's there right now. He's been an unbelievable leader, and the transition has been so smooth this summer." Beyond 'Plan B' Throughout his college career, Rees has been labeled a "caretaker," a "filler" or a "Plan B" option until somebody better arrives. That somebody was Golson last year, but both Kelly and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Chuck Martin noted that the perspective from the sidelines in 2012 assisted Rees' already strong mental acumen of the game. Now that Golson is shelved, there should be a payoff. "It's kind of a different viewpoint, and I learned a lot about the big picture and how to look at a defense and how to kind of see where the plays unfold," Rees said of his "mental reps" on the sidelines last year. "It's kind of a coach's viewpoint of where you've got to know what exactly needs to be done here and why we didn't do this, what happened here … I learned a lot about the game of football." He also learned plenty about himself and staying prepared. "I guess I never really expected all