When it comes to a running game that can impose its will on opponents, Tommy Rees does more than just preach.
You want physical football? Alabama's new offensive coordinator doesn't just call the plays that grind a defense down for a second-half submission.
He breathes them. And at the tender age of 30, his style might befit a coach twice his age.
"Tommy is like an old man trapped in a young man's body," Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea told The Tuscaloosa News.
Lea coached with Rees for four seasons at Notre Dame when the two were assistants under Brian Kelly,
and has seen up close the way Rees' personality resonates with players.
Rees was a quarterback at Notre Dame, but by all accounts, a football player first.
A quarterback with a mentality more suited to a linebacker; aggressive and fearless and unafraid of contact at a position .
where the modern player is taught to slide feet first to avoid being tackled. We're talking about a guy whose best friend in college was an offensive guard.
A guy known to intensify pickup basketball games by throwing an elbow or two and diving for loose balls.