Takeaways from Tommy Rees, Kevin Steele's first 2023 Alabama football press conferences

Alabama football offensive and defensive coordinators seldom make public appearances, but Sunday was one of those days.

As is tradition, each spoke with reporters for media day on the first Sunday of fall camp. There was no lack of intrigue this season with both coordinators different from a year ago.

Defensive coordinator Kevin Steele is new, but also not really; This is his third stint at Alabama over Nick Saban's tenure. Steele was Saban's first defensive coordinator. Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, however, is new. He joined from Notre Dame, his alma mater, this offseason.

Here are takeaways from their first and last press conference until the postseason.

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Kevin Steele's makes clear what he expects of his defense

He reiterated several of the same characteristics: Relentless effort, toughness and do your job. Steele mentioned each on multiple occasions in his press conference. His players have no doubt heard it, too.

"They’re very coachable to that, which is positive," Steele said. Oh, and he also noted one more: Dominate your opponent.

"It’s just simple principles," Steele said.

Tommy Rees understands the value of a tough offensive line

Rees played quarterback at Notre Dame, but don't let that fool you; he prefers a physical brand of football.

"There's a toughness to this game that I always felt like I missed by playing quarterback, and something that I kind of longed for," Rees said.

There's a story former teammates tell of Rees that matches this — In the Notre Dame locker room a decade ago, a question was posed: If you could come back as another position, what would it be? Rees said a pulling guard.

"That physical part of the game has always resonated with me," Rees said. "I think the offensive line is a group that can be unsung a little bit. Really without that group of five in front of you, it's hard to do anything well, not just run the football, not just throw the football, but really, you face an uphill battle."

Any coach worth anything knows the success of an offense starts up front, but Rees made clear how important he views the O-line. Time will tell if he will get the quality offensive line play he respects and covets.

Tommy Rees' offensive decisions going to be personnel-driven

Rees' past offenses could give a slight flavor of what to expect this season, but he didn't have the talent then that he has now at Alabama. He made clear Sunday his offense is going to be tailored to the tools he has.

“I do think we’re probably going to look different than when I was elsewhere because our personnel is different," Rees said. "There's different strengths, there’s different areas that we can take advantage of. We don’t have a system, or I don’t have a system that says, ‘Hey, you have to fit into these squares.’ It’s more about how can I fit what you do and what you do really well and to enhance in our offense."

Rees said there won't be any major wholesale changes to the offense. That "would be foolish" he added. "This offense has been prolific over the past decade."

Rees noted Enhancements and alterations might occur, though.

Kevin Steele has had a minimal learning curve

Steele didn't have to do much to get freshened up on the Alabama defensive system.

"80% of what is done here defensively, that’s what I was doing at other places," Steele said. "Even the words were the same, so I didn’t have to bring in a dictionary. There are some nuances that have changed since I left. They primarily still stay essentially within the base of what we were doing, just the application of the concepts. In that regard, we’re always evolving.”

Expect Tommy Rees to deploy a variety of tight ends

Rees said there's plenty of talent in that room, and he sounds like someone who's planning to use a good variety of it. There's a veteran such as CJ Dippre, whom Alabama added from Maryland in the transfer portal. Robbie Ouzts is another. Then there are younger players such as Danny Lewis and Amari Niblack.

"We have different body types in that room," Rees said, "which allows us to mix and match the personnel and use them in different roles."

Nick Kelly covers Alabama football and men's basketball for The Tuscaloosa News/USA TODAY Network. Reach him via email: nkelly@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_NickKelly.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football: What we learned about Tommy Rees, Kevin Steele