Tommy Rees regrets the F bombs, but nothing else.
Addressing a viral clip of NBC cameras catching him telling Fighting Irish quarterback Drew Pyne to "Do your f***ing job" during last weekend's win over Cal, the Notre Dame offensive coordinator explained that, other than the F bombs, that's the best way for him to get through to Pyne.
"Certain guys need certain types of coaching in certain moments," Rees said, via IrishIllustrated. "I'm not proud of the language I used, but I know with Drew, he seeks out and can handle tough coaching and the things that kind of light a fire and create a sense of urgency. In that moment we felt it was the right thing for the right player. He responded the way we counted on and we're proud of him for that. Not proud of my language, but proud that Drew and I have a relationship where this is an immense amount of trust and he knows that when urgency needs to be reiterated, it can be and there is trust between us."
“Do your f**king job. The whole f**king team is counting on you. Now f**king step it up.”
— CFB Kings (@CFBKings) September 17, 2022
Things are going swimmingly in South Bend. pic.twitter.com/Wg8S5eRH2K
Making his first start, sophomore quarterback Drew Pyne completed 17-of-23 passes for a modest 150 yards with two touchdowns in the Irish's 24-17 defeat of Cal.
On Wednesday, Rees said the words in the clip were to motivate Pyne, not to degrade him.
"It was a little bit of a turning point and a breaking point for us," Rees said. "He was disappointed. It was more trying to get him to kind of not bat an eye. If I'm lighting a fire under him, it doesn't give him time to get down on himself, reflect about previous plays and to just keep things moving forward and keep doing our job for our team and understanding that he's one of 11 offensively. If we have 10 guys doing theirs and we're not, we got to make sure we keep things moving forward."