(Eds: Updates throughout. With AP Photos.)
By RICK GANO
AP Sports Writer
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – No wonder Tommy Rees has no fear about starting Saturday’s game against Michigan. It’s just another big-time venue for the sophomore quarterback with a cool demeanor to check off his list.
Notre Dame Stadium, Yankee Stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Add in the Sun Bowl Stadium and Rees has won games in all four of those notable locales as a starter for the Irish.
Now it’s off to Ann Arbor for the first night game ever at the Big House where a crowd in excess of 100,000 will be watching to see if Rees is ready for perhaps his biggest challenge of all.
“I asked him if he was scared and he said, `No,’ which didn’t surprise me,” Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. “He won’t be caught up in the atmosphere.”
Rees was supposed to be the backup this season, even though he led the Irish to four straight wins to wrap up last season after replacing the injured Dayne Crist.
But Crist was declared the winner of a training camp competition, only to have his stay as No. 1 end after one dismal half. With the Irish trailing South Florida by 16-0 at the break last Saturday, Crist was pulled. Rees came in and the offense started to move. Notre Dame still lost 23-20, but Kelly made the switch permanent on Monday.
Now the 19-year-old Rees, who comes from football family and said he’s been breaking down tape of defenses since he was 11, is back as the starter.
“He’s a gym rat,” offensive coordinator Charlie Molnar said. “He just loves football and he loves not only the physical execution of it, but he loves the strategic part of football and the tactics that are involved.”
Tight end Tyler Eifert says watching tape with Rees is a different experience.
“I think he’s learned a lot from his dad how to watch film. … He sees the defense as a whole instead of just watching one guy,” Eifert said.
His father, Bill, spent 15 years as a scout and player personnel director in the NFL, and another 15 years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at UCLA. Bill Rees was Northwestern’s assistant director of football operations last season before returning to the NFL as a scout with Tampa Bay this summer. Tommy’s brother, Danny, was a punter and holder at UCLA.
“Football is such a huge part of my life, something I really take seriously and I want to succeed in,” Tommy Rees said.
Rees left Lake Forest (Ill.) High School early to enroll at Notre Dame in January 2010. The first time Eifert met him, he thought Rees was “a dork.” Other teammates have jokingly commented on Rees’ ability to dress down, a casual look with sandals and shorts.
But they’ve come to respect what he can do on the field at such a young age.
And so far, when Rees starts, the Irish win.
“He’s a pretty serious kid when it comes down to business. Off the field you wouldn’t think the pressure of being the Notre Dame quarterback was on him. He doesn’t really let that get to him,” Eifert said
Kelly said his first impression of Rees was that he knew a lot of football but also needed to build up his body.
“As I’ve said before, he looked like a high school student. I guess he was,” Kelly said. “He physically needed to develop, but mentally I thought he was well beyond his years.”
Rees, who is now 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, has a quick release and his ability to hook up with star receiver Michael Floyd – who made 10 of his 12 catches Saturday with Rees throwing – is a big plus.
Several Notre Dame players said they don’t care who the starter is, expressing no preference between Rees and Crist, the senior who overcame two serious knee injuries and surgeries. They just want to see production.
Rees’ first college action came early last season when Crist was shaken up and he was put into the game against the Wolverines. He threw just two passes and one was intercepted before Nate Montana took over for him.
“That was kind of my `welcome to college football’ moment,” Rees said.
Rees had to wait six weeks to get back on the field. During mop-up duty in a lopsided loss to Navy, he completed 6 of 7 passes, helping his confidence. And when Crist was hurt early against Tulsa, Rees wound up attempting 54 passes. He threw four TD passes but was intercepted in the end zone in the closing second of a difficult loss.
Michigan coach Brady Hoke said his team wouldn’t change its preparations despite Notre Dame’s quarterback switch.
“You look at the last four games of last year and you look at what he did. He played with a great deal of composure. He has a very good arm,” Hoke said of Rees. “I think he understands conceptually Brian’s offense.”
So how does a guy with such a cool head lead a team and get loud sometimes, something a quarterback must do?
“I don’t know if we expect him so much to be that vocal leader, because I think there’s some guys on the offensive side that can take control of that, like me,” Floyd said. “And just as long as he executes and makes the right plays and the right calls, that’s what we want him to do.”
Rees does discuss strategies with his teammates and he has their back. He tried to take the blame last week when one of his passes hit receiver TJ Jones, who wasn’t turned in time, and was picked off. Kelly went ballistic on the sidelines, screaming at Jones.
“It was on me,” Rees said. “I threw the ball too early.”
Rees is eager to play in front of another big crowd, but promises it won’t determine how he goes about running the team.
“It should be a great atmosphere there at Michigan for the first night game,” he said. “But at the end of the day it’s just a football game. … You can’t get caught up in what is going on outside of the game.”
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