Welcome to the latest episode of the shamrock. I'm Pete Sampson, joined as always by Matt

Fortuna, my co-host of Chicago. Today, a special guest, Notre Dame offensive coordinator

Tommy Reese. You remember him from his playing days and his coaching career here in South Bend.

Tommy, thanks for taking some time in a pretty wild busy offseason.

I guess I'm curious how you sort of manage this summer because it's been unlike anything

you've ever had before from a recruiting perspective, but also, you know, grad transfer quarterback,

you know, quite a bit of roster turnover.

There's a lot to, there's a lot to manage in an offseason that is really, really unique.

Yeah, I think, first of all, thanks for having me on.

But, yeah, I mean, June was obviously the month that everyone's talked about. And it's been a, it was a crazy month with visitors and recruiting and, you know, your players are getting back on campus and you're trying to see them and you have new people, you know, visiting every single day. But at least in June, it was a little more structured and you knew, hey, I'm working these days. I'm in the office. And then we go on break and you just finished June.

And it's like, well, it's not really break because you're still recruiting and you're still having to close out of class and get a jump start on the next class. And that part never sleeps. And then in the back of your head the whole time, it's like, okay, well, we're three weeks away from camp and we're two weeks away from camp. And it just keeps creeping closer and closer until your mind starts to shift a little bit.

Okay, so what are my duties to the current players?

What are my duties to the team right now?

How can I make sure that they're getting the most out of their summer and building relationships?

And then on top of all that, you bring in a brand new batch of freshmen that you really didn't get to spend a ton of time with because of COVID. And now they're on

campus and you're trying to make sure that you're there for them and being supportive in their

opening months. So it's been a balancing act. And I think the last part of it is you're trying

to find a little bit of time for yourself too, because this is the only time we get. So it's been a balancing act, and I think the last part of it is you're trying to find a little bit of time for yourself, too, because this is the only time we get.

So it's been a balancing act for sure trying to manage all of that.

But we have a pretty good system in place, and we have a lot of people pitching in there.

So it's gone somewhat smoothly here over the last three weeks, but this July is definitely more ramped up than a normal

July and a normal season. Tommy, on top of that, I mean, you're entering your fifth season back

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