I didn’t know Tommy Rees as a player at Notre Dame because I didn’t follow the program until 2017. I’ve only known Rees as a quarterbacks coach and a sometimes-beleaguered, sometimes-brilliant offensive coordinator. That means my opinion of Rees isn’t corrupted by his athletic limitations that (so I’ve gathered) drove fans nuts.
Regardless, I imagine the treatment of Ian Book and Drew Pyne was very similar to what Rees experienced as a player. But since I’ve only seen the former two in action, I can only judge Rees by what he did coaching them. From that perspective, the general consensus among reasonable minds seems to be that Rees got as much as he could out of Book and Pyne.