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Clark Lea, by the logo on his polo, shared a commonality with Tommy Rees while they were both employed by the University of Notre Dame.
However, by their positions on the coaching staff, there was a natural competition of sorts that would arise between the man who would go on to become an SEC head coach at Vanderbilt and one who was just hired to be an NFL offensive coordinator with the Browns.
Lea, who just concluded his fourth season as the Commodores’ head coach, was the defensive coordinator for the Fighting Irish from 2018-20. His final season in South Bend coincided with Rees’ first season as the offensive coordinator, and the two coached together from 2017-19 while one and/or the other was a position coach, Lea with the linebackers in 2017 and Rees with the quarterbacks from 2017-19
During his time as defensive coordinator, Lea — 11 years older than the now 32-year-old Rees — formed what he called “The Breakfast Club,” where his defensive coaches would get together early in the morning during the summer to talk football. One of the regular attendees of those get togethers, though, was Rees.
“Tommy would show up and we would just sit in there and talk ball and he would provide an offensive perspective and we’d ask him about coverages,” Lea told the Beacon Journal Wednesday. “And I think that shows that curiosity. He was always asking good questions and interested in finding ways to beat our structure.
“And so I felt like, again, going against him in practice every day I was learning about where the gaps were in our defense and the things that teams would do to best attack us. He was looking to do that on his side.”
‘Confident’ Tommy Rees not afraid to ask questions, even of defensive coaches
Lea acknowledged it wasn’t necessarily common to see offensive coaches spend all of that time with colleagues on the other…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/clark-lea-gerad-parker-recall-215030568.html
Author : Akron Beacon Journal
Publish date : 2025-01-15 21:50:00
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