Alabama football: Rewinding Tommy Rees’ fall camp press conference

Alabama football: Rewinding Tommy Rees’ fall camp press conference

Alabama’s newest offensive coordinator has held his first press conference with the media.

New play-caller Tommy Rees stepped to the podium as part of the Crimson Tide’s trio of Sunday press conferences. Here are the key takeaways.

–”The people here have opened their arms and treated us well,” Rees said in his opening comment. He said there’s been a lot of “buy-in” from the team so far.

–Rees has felt like he’s “resonated” with offensive linemen through his career, joking he wasn’t a very good quarterback and missed that toughness that a pulling guard gets to play with.

–Rees said it was “surreal” to get the call from Saban asking him to be the Tide’s offensive coordinator.

–”I think it’s the right way to do it,” Rees said of Saban bringing in offensive coordinators to learn the Tide’s offense as opposed to implementing their own.

“It wasn’t a steep learning curve at all,” Rees said.

–”The people have been really warm for us,” Rees said of adjusting to the South. He said 10 neighbors brought over welcome baskets while he moved in.

–”We had an opportunity to add competition to the room,” Rees said of Tyler Buchner’s transfer from Notre Dame, where Rees recruited him. He went on to say he’s added a veteran presence to the group.

–”I think they’ve both improved greatly since the spring,” Rees said of Jalen Milroe and Ty Simpson.

–”We have a great blend of guys who could do a little bit different things. … We’re a little bit spoiled at that position,” Rees said about the running backs.

–”Any wrinkle is personnel driven,” Rees said when asked about adding in some of his concepts from Notre Dame. “ … There’s different personnel. There are different strengths.”

–”We’re repping five guys right now,” Rees said of distributing work between Buchner, Simpson, Milroe and the two freshmen Dylan Lonergan and Eli Holstein.

–”You got to relate with people. You have to be honest with them,” Rees said of developing a relationship with a quarterback. “… You show them you want to build to trust. … They got to be an extension of what we’re trying to do as a staff.”

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].