Parsing Roof's Record

Roof has DCed 11 years.

GT
1998 Before Roof Total D was 82
1999 Roof's first year 100
2000 22
2001 37

DUKE
Year before he got there 115
2nd year 86
3rd year 76

Minnesota
Year before he got there 116
1st year 60

Auburn (used yds/play b/c Malzan's offense means more plays against Roof's D on the season)
Yr Before he got there 29
Yr 1 39
Yr 2 47
Yr 3 79
Yr after he left (Van Gorder was DC) 79

PSU
Yr before he got there 23
Yr 1 29

Conclusions:

--GT - Took over crappy defense and improved it by a lot. Note that George O'Leary and Billy O'Brien who both worked with him during this time both hired him after Auburn (he only worked at UCF for a month). This suggests they believed Roof was responsible for the improvement after observing firsthand.

--Duke - Showed he could get more out of crappy talent. Not DC long enough to see if could take further.

--Minnesota - Showed he could get more out of crappy talent. That is a huge improvement. Not there long enough to see if could have improved more.

--Auburn - Failed to maintain a top 30 defense. 1st two years were not way out-of-line with what they'd been doing, then tanked 3rd year. However Ex-UGA and Falcons DC Brian Van Gorder got the exact same result the following season. Plus Chizik's whole team sucked and he got canned. Seems like they should have had talent though.

Not sure what to make of the time at Auburn. Seems inconsistent with his work at other 4 schools.

--Penn St - Showed he could maintain a top 30 defense, not underachieve with good talent.

Seems pretty conclusive he can take a horrible defense and make it better. Can he make it really good though? Hard to tell as he never DCed anywhere longer than 3 years. Plus GT, Duke, Minnesota aren't known as talent hotbeds. One can't say he is incapable of fielding a top 20 D though the fact that he has never done so is nonetheless concerning.

Auburn remains a concern and a big WTF, though I like that Van Gorder couldn't do any better.

I like him following up with a solid season at PSU.

All in all I think his record is actually a lot better than folks' impressions of him as a DC. Anything can happen, however it seems from the record the most likely outcome is he'll improve the defense at least some and over the long haul bring in more of the 4* guys we need.

It's possible if Roof does well enough to stay at GT and get defensive talent upgrade he might field a top 20 defense at some point. As with everything nobody knows and we'll see.

Originally Posted by InsideLB

Roof has DCed 11 years.

GT
1998 Before Roof Total D was 82
1999 Roof's first year 100
2000 22
2001 37

DUKE
Year before he got there 115
2nd year 86
3rd year 76

Minnesota
Year before he got there 116
1st year 60

Auburn (used yds/play b/c Malzan's offense means more plays against Roof's D on the season)
Yr Before he got there 29
Yr 1 39
Yr 2 47
Yr 3 79
Yr after he left (Van Gorder was DC) 79

PSU
Yr before he got there 23
Yr 1 29

Conclusions:

--GT - Took over crappy defense and improved it by a lot. Note that George O'Leary and Billy O'Brien who both worked with him during this time both hired him after Auburn (he only worked at UCF for a month). This suggests they believed Roof was responsible for the improvement after observing firsthand.

--Duke - Showed he could get more out of crappy talent. Not DC long enough to see if could take further.

--Minnesota - Showed he could get more out of crappy talent. That is a huge improvement. Not there long enough to see if could have improved more.

--Auburn - Failed to maintain a top 30 defense. 1st two years were not way out-of-line with what they'd been doing, then tanked 3rd year. However Ex-UGA and Falcons DC Brian Van Gorder got the exact same result the following season. Plus Chizik's whole team sucked and he got canned. Seems like they should have had talent though.

Not sure what to make of the time at Auburn. Seems inconsistent with his work at other 4 schools.

--Penn St - Showed he could maintain a top 30 defense, not underachieve with good talent.

Seems pretty conclusive he can take a horrible defense and make it better. Can he make it really good though? Hard to tell as he never DCed anywhere longer than 3 years. Plus GT, Duke, Minnesota aren't known as talent hotbeds. One can't say he is incapable of fielding a top 20 D though the fact that he has never done so is nonetheless concerning.

Auburn remains a concern and a big WTF, though I like that Van Gorder couldn't do any better.

I like him following up with a solid season at PSU.

All in all I think his record is actually a lot better than folks' impressions of him as a DC. Anything can happen, however it seems from the record the most likely outcome is he'll improve the defense at least some and over the long haul bring in more of the 4* guys we need.

It's possible if Roof does well enough to stay at GT and get defensive talent upgrade he might field a top 20 defense at some point. As with everything nobody knows and we'll see.

Nice work. All these facts are gonna confuse the board though.

So, if you take the years as a DC and calculate the average of the national rankings you get 57. Now, if you look at the average level of talent that he had to work with over the years it would probably be about equal to what he can expect to work with at GT. 3 years were GT, both AU and PSU would probably be slightly better, while Minn and Duke slightly worse. This year, when it was all said and done, GT finished 65th (after a very strong finish relative to the rest of the field). So what does this all tell us? I have no idea.

I guess it is kind of like recruiting players to fit a system. We can take players who are marginal candidates for other teams and make them really productive players in our system. Perhaps Roof fits well with what we need to do. Right now we need a DC who is passionate about tackling fundamentals and will force his position coaches to do the same. There is actually a lot of talent on hand, perhaps more than ever in the back 8. Maybe if we just turn them loose in a simpler but aggressive scheme and teach them to win the one on ones in the trenches, get of blocks, and tackle correctly, we will be OK. I think CTR fits that bill. The guy knows how to tackle. I can promise you that. He was a really really tough kid back in college and I don't say that lightly.

He's never had a Top 10 Defense
Not even at Auburn (he stunk)
Why he keeps bouncing around?
His passing stats are atrocious

Originally Posted by Atllove

He's never had a Top 10 Defense
Not even at Auburn (he stunk)
Why he keeps bouncing around?
His passing stats are atrocious

Yes. Why didn't CPJ just go ahead and hire a DC who had a Top 10 Defense?

Originally Posted by Lexjacket

Yes. Why didn't CPJ just go ahead and hire a DC who had a Top 10 Defense?

Once again, Nick Saban was the only acceptable DC for GT.

Seriously, thanks Inside for putting this together. For Auburn you used yards per play. What stat did you use for the other teams? It would be helpful to see the two years before and after each of his years to be able to see more what the steady state was for that school. But it is really hard to know something absolute with so many other things affecting how the D does.

It is what it is. I hope we really start kicking some people around, starting with VT next year.

Originally Posted by dressedcheeseside

Chisik ran a no huddle offense and needed a defense that stayed on the field long enough to give his offense a blow. Attacking defenses are not conducive to this plan, so he mandated a "bend-don't break" style which is not Roof's style. You can see how different Roof's defense performed at Penn State where he was allowed to do what he wanted, attack and go man coverage.

I'd like to read about that if you know of anywhere I can find info.

It sounds a little weird actually. I'd think you'd want to get the other team's O off the field ASAP so you could run as many plays as you can against a gassed defense that's confused and has as little time as possible to make adjustments on the sideline.

Originally Posted by InsideLB

I'd like to read about that if you know of anywhere I can find info.

It sounds a little weird actually. I'd think you'd want to get the other team's O off the field ASAP so you could run as many plays as you can against a gassed defense that's confused and has as little time as possible to make adjustments on the sideline.

I asked CPJ if he considered running a no-huddle with our offense. Seemed to me that a defense, having to concentrate on assignment football, would have heads spinning if faced with a hurry-up version of what we do. He agreed that the idea had merit, and didn't rule it out, but added that the problem with those offenses is that they can put your own D back on the field quickly if a possession went three and out. If your defense hasn't got depth, it can create a problem.

That said, if you're Oregon, no problem. If you're Auburn, post Cam - problem.