Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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passing yards (7,351). He's played the savior role for Notre Dame in several different ways during that time. As a freshman, Rees replaced an injured Dayne Crist and held the offense together long enough to finish the season with four consecutive wins. The 2012 team's undefeated run to a national title bid would not have happened if not for Rees, who bailed out rookie quarterback Everett Golson several times during the year. He was especially valuable in wins over Michigan and Purdue, when a chorus of boos from the Irish student section and the rest of Notre Dame Stadium provided the soundtrack for his first snaps of the year. This fall, he wedged Notre Dame out of a jam again, leaping from one of the country's most valuable backups to the Irish starting job again when Golson was dismissed from school for academic reasons. "He's just someone that was able to come into situations and get the job done," fifth-year senior offensive guard Chris Watt said. "He was maybe criticized and not thought of as a person that was going to get the team through tough times, but I think that's what he's done." Rees helped to make a strong case for his critics at times. Along with his other career marks, he will also finish in the top three of the Notre Dame record book with at least 37 interceptions — roughly one for every 27 passes he has thrown. Many of those mistakes came at crucial times. He threw two interceptions in each of Notre Dame's four losses this season. His final regular-season pass, a deep ball that came up short of freshman wide receiver Will Fuller in the fourth quarter against Stanford, was a reminder of the underwhelming arm strength and lack of mobility that kept Notre Dame fans from ever accepting Rees as more than a placeholder for someone better to come. "He doesn't have those incredible skills, but he just puts his heart and soul into what he does," Kelly said, finally taking a stab at the dreaded legacy question after the loss in Palo Alto. "As a coach, what you appreciate is when somebody gives you all he has. He threw that ball as hard as he could throw it to Will Fuller. He can't get it any further than that. And that's just Tommy." In the end, Tommy's tangled yarn is a Rorschach test for college football fans — what you think of his time at Notre Dame says more about you than it does about him. There's no wrong answer, and Rees doesn't care how history will paint him. "To be honest, how outside people view it doesn't mean a whole lot," he said. "I know I have the respect of my teammates and my coaches. I respect them. They know how hard I've worked. That's all I care about." Kelly and former Irish offensive coordinator Chuck Martin let Rees know how they felt about him this season when they told him he should consider a career in coaching. Rees said he hasn't figured out his next step after Yankee Stadium yet, but he thinks coaching is probably in his future when he stops playing. Whenever that comes, he'll get to start writing his football legacy all over again. ✦