The Cleveland Browns could be next in line to be impacted by a unique coaching carousel offseason. In a short amount of time, the following events cascaded to create an opportunity for tight ends coach Tommy Rees to get a head coaching job
Boston College HC Jeff Hafley accepted the Green Bay Packers DC job
Bill O’Brien, hired by The Ohio State University as OC this offseason, accepted the Boston College head coaching position
UCLA HC Chip Kelly accepted the job to replace O’Brien at Ohio State
The final link led to the Rees to UCLA rumor but was also the most shocking of all. Breaking it down simply, a Big 10 head coach left his job to become a Big 10 offensive coordinator.
There are a lot of other details to that but now UCLA is looking for a new head coach.
Tommy Rees, 31, is a native of Los Angeles with strong links to UCLA thanks to his brother Danny’s Bruins career and father Bill’s 15 years of employment under Terry Donahue. Rees most recently accepted a position as the tight ends coach and pass game specialist with the Cleveland Browns, having previously spent three seasons as offensive coordinator at Notre Dame and one at Alabama.
It’s already interesting that an offensive coordinator for two major college schools chose a position coach job in the NFL with Rees, as it is with the rest of the crazy coaching carousel. Given his roles at Alabama and Notre Dame, it makes more sense for him to be hired as the head coach of a large collegiate program.
Not long after joining the Crimson Tide, or in this case, the Browns, they lost their new coach. Ryan Grubb was the Washington Huskies offensive coordinator last year, followed Kallen DeBoer to Alabama then accepted the OC job with the Seattle Seahawks mere weeks later.
The rumors are just that—rumors—for now. However, there were reports that O’Brien and Kelly were taking on new roles.
