Breaking:Tommy Rees broke shape for Scratch Saban’s hostile organizers at Alabama
PASADENA, Calif. — About the only thing Nick Saban has had more of than national championships at Alabama is offensive coordinators.
As Saban stares down what could be his seventh national title with the Crimson Tide, he does so with his seventh offensive coordinator in the past 11 years and his ninth overall. Remarkably, Saban has won national titles with five different offensive coordinators.
Enter the new kid on the block, 31-year-old ex-Notre Dame quarterback Tommy Rees, whose hiring in February might have raised a few eyebrows because of his age and lack of ties to Saban and the SEC. But now, with Alabama going from debilitated to dynamic offensively on its way to 11 straight wins and a showdown with Michigan in Monday’s College Football Playoff semifinal at the Rose Bowl Game presented by Prudential (5 p.m. ET, ESPN), any eyebrows being raised are the result of the job Rees has done in his first season at Alabama.
“I think back to where we were, all the questions about our quarterbacks, whether we were good enough and what our identity was on offense, and you’ve got to give Coach Rees a lot of credit for pushing the right buttons with everybody, not just me,” said Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe, who went from being benched in Week 3 to finishing sixth in the Heisman Trophy voting.
He was in the middle of that storm with us and led us out of it. I’m not saying it was easy, but you never saw any panic or anything that made you feel like he didn’t have the answers to get us where we are right now
It’s no secret that calling plays for Saban on offense isn’t for everybody, and it’s certainly not for the weak at heart. But when Saban went searching for his new OC last year, he eventually found his way to Rees, who wasn’t necessarily Saban’s first choice. Washington’s Ryan Grubb flew to campus to interview in late January, but the Huskies’ OC decided to stay in Seattle. There were others, too, as Saban routinely casts a wide net when talking to candidates.