Ted Roof hired as Tech coordinator
Ted Roof, once a Georgia Tech star linebacker and later an accomplished assistant, is returning to Tech once more.
Roof has been hired as the Yellow Jackets’ new defensive coordinator as the full-time replacement for Al Groh, fired in October. Roof leaves Penn State, where he had coached one season, for his alma mater.
In his only season at Penn State, the Nittany Lions ranked second in the Big Ten in scoring defense (19.1 points per game), fourth in total defense (356.3 yards per game) and first in sacks (34).
“I’ve known Ted for a long time and I’m excited that he has decided to come back to Georgia Tech,” coach Paul Johnson said in a statement. “He’s one of the most respected football coaches in the nation.”
Roof served as linebackers coach for former Tech coach George O’Leary for one season (1998) and then defensive coordinator for three. He left to become defensive coordinator at Duke in 2002 with the changeover in head coaches. During that time at Tech, he worked with Bill O’Brien, now Penn State’s head coach.
He later became Duke’s head coach 2004-07, getting fired after a 1-11 season. He was coordinator at Minnesota for one season, then coordinated the defense at Auburn 2009-11, helping the Tigers to the 2010 national championship. He left Auburn to become coordinator at Central Florida for O’Leary, but left shortly after for Penn State.
Roof used a 4-3 defense at Penn State. He said last August that “the main core is I want us to be aggressive. I want us to play fast. I want us to be physical.”
In 2009, while at Auburn, he described his philosophy as using 4-3 some of the time.
“We’re pretty multiple in what we do,” he said. “You have to have a system that’s adaptable to different types of people — especially if you’re coming into a new situation. It’s one thing if you’ve been at a place several years and you recruit to a specific system. It’s another thing when you come in, you’re new and you have a system that’s broad enough and diverse enough to handle whatever personnel. This league, you don’t trick people. You have to out-hit people. There won’t be much tricking going on.”
With the departure of interim coordinator/secondary coach Charles Kelly for Florida State, Johnson still has one more opening on his staff to fill.
Ken Sugiura, Georgia Tech blog
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355 comments Add your comment
Tokyo jacket
January 9th, 2013
7:56 pm
@ramble, actually I meant WF in 1999. Plus, two interceptions. Loss to Wake CTR’s d only gave up 26.
NOD
January 9th, 2013
7:57 pm
Great hire CPJ, now we’ll only lose to UGA by 40points.
JimmyJack
January 9th, 2013
7:58 pm
Let’s face it. This hire could go either way. As c w points out, we will once again undergo a fundamental restructuring of our personnel on D and, in the meantime, must force fit Groh’s 3-4 players to Roof’s schemes. As for his years under O’Leary, it was widely known at the time that Roof’s hands (as a first-time DC) were tied by O’Leary, and he was forced to play a bend-but-don’t break style that wasn’t very successful. In recent years he has shown himself to be a seasoned coach with good results. But an immediate turnaround with Tech’s D may be a tall order.
Wet Willie...keep on smiling
January 9th, 2013
7:59 pm
Good hire for Tech.
Moving Forward
January 9th, 2013
8:03 pm
Good hire. I definitely believe we can win 9 or 10 a year with CPJ/Roof and the level of talent that we have now… And then we’ll go from there.
Glad to have him back and glad to have Groh and Wommack further behind us.
Tokyo jacket
January 9th, 2013
8:06 pm
Honestly, I honk we’ve got good talent for a 4-3. Along the line, we’ve got kallon, gotsis, green, dieke, Cummings on the line. Hunt days, watts, and Attouchu at lbs. watts and sneezy can cover and hunt days can hit. This is a big, fast 4-3 defense coming in next year. Hopefully it will work out.
hit a single
January 9th, 2013
8:06 pm
Good hire! Now maybe the rivalry will get back to just that, a rivalry because us Dawg fans had kind of got bored with the way it was.
GT1985
January 9th, 2013
8:12 pm
Welcome back Ted!
crackbaby
January 9th, 2013
8:13 pm
“you don’t trick people. You have to out-hit people. There won’t be much tricking going on.”
If CTR can get us to do that alone, GT will be much better. Aggressive, disruptive defenses are far more exciting to watch.
GO JACKETS!
Jacket Fan
January 9th, 2013
8:14 pm
Great hire. He knew it was time to skeedaddle from the loveliest village on the plains; have you ever been to State College?
dawgEd
January 9th, 2013
8:15 pm
Hate to say it, but this is a good hire for Tech, mainly because it will give them a solid, natural alternative to CPJ in a year or two. Oddly enough, if CTR fields a decent defense next year, it may keep him from getting the bigger job.
Paul in NH
January 9th, 2013
8:16 pm
Ted Roof was DC from 1999 – 2000 after being LB coach in 1998.
GT defensive players drafted:
2001 – Zero
2002 – Nick Rogers LB (6th round); Chris Young S (7th round)
2003 – Zero
2004 – Daryl Smith LB (2nd); Anthony Hargrove DE (3rd); Key Fox LB (3rd)
2005 – Zero
GT Alum
January 9th, 2013
8:18 pm
Funny how those who are ripping on Roof for the defense in ‘99 – his first year as a DC at a FBS (then I-A) school – don’t give him any credit for the Godsey years in ‘00-’01, when the defense stepped up and made up for the fact that the offense wasn’t as prolific as it had been the past couple of years with Hamilton. The defense was better those 2 years than it was in ‘98. He also improved the defense at Duke and Minnesota. Honestly, Auburn is the only place he’s been a DC and not been pretty successful.
It’s not a sexy hire, but I don’t think it’s the train wreck some people are making out.
HighTech
January 9th, 2013
8:21 pm
Welcome home, Ted.
GT Alum
January 9th, 2013
8:26 pm
Paul in NH -
Well, you can look at that a couple ways. You can say he didn’t get more of his players drafted or higher draft picks, or you can look at it as he did pretty well without great players. To really put this in context, I think you’d have to look at how his players were viewed when they were recruited. That would help determine if he coached his guys up, down, or if the draft results were pretty much entirely based on the players’ abilities and his coaching didn’t impact them much at all.
BirminghamJacket
January 9th, 2013
8:28 pm
Terrible hire.
Anyone who applauds this hire doesn’t remember “The Leaky Roof” days when Fridge and Godsey were scoring 40+ per game and the games were still close or we lost.
Not surprising though that Paul Johnson would mess up the hire, like everything else.
lance manion
January 9th, 2013
8:33 pm
The ardent naysayers here would not be happy if God himself was hired. Roof is a great hire. Let’s get behind our team. Welcome back coach and Go Jackets!
Jacket Man
January 9th, 2013
8:34 pm
For everyone who has doubts about Ted’s abilities as a Defensive Coordinator, look back to what he was able to get his defense to accomplish against Oregon’s daunting offense in the National Championship game in 2010. They only scored 19 points against the Tigers that night. They had been averaging 49.6 points/game that season.
Ted’s been successful everywhere he’s coached, and it’s great he’s coming home.
George Stein
January 9th, 2013
8:35 pm
Definitely not the hire I had hoped for, but I’ll try to be open-minded.
On a separate matter, has anyone else found loading the sports page brutal on an iPad?
Maurice (Jeff) Jefferson
January 9th, 2013
8:41 pm
Great hire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BirminghamJacket
January 9th, 2013
8:46 pm
@ Jacket Man
LOL…
How many of those Auburn football players from 2010 are in the pros now?
I’ve never coached or even played the game, but I think I would have been successful with that group!
GT1990
January 9th, 2013
8:51 pm
THIS IS NOT A GREAT HIRE! Some of you TECH people have no clue!
George Stein
January 9th, 2013
8:52 pm
You likely would have failed miserably, Birmingham. Nonetheless, your point is well taken. The Auburn title team had the least imposing defense of the BCS era (for champions, as the 2008-2012 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have fielded the worst defenses in the history of the game).
Kicking it with Cremins
January 9th, 2013
8:52 pm
I always felt that if Joe Hamilton had a D his senior year, we wouldve had a great chance to go undefeated, chance for the NC & he wouldve won the Heisman. That was Roof’s first year as DC & we gave up leads time & time again. How many Joey miracles we had to depend on? Tech fans are skilled in playing the “what ifs”.
Bad hire, disappointed, hope I’m wrong. THWG!
1 4 GT
January 9th, 2013
8:52 pm
@ the half….NCSU 37…GT 38!!!! Good 1st half….channel 36 out of ATL
GT1990
January 9th, 2013
8:52 pm
Reminds me alot of the west stands!
Kicking it with Cremins
January 9th, 2013
8:57 pm
or watch online @ the accnetwork.
Uncle Mike
January 9th, 2013
8:58 pm
Biff is a tool, just as he was a bravo….TOOL!
davidinloganville
January 9th, 2013
9:01 pm
Good luck with the hire!
Paul in NH
January 9th, 2013
9:02 pm
“How many of those Auburn football players from 2010 are in the pros now?”
1 – Nick Fairly (1st round, 2011)
There was been one other Auburn defensive player drafted – Zach Clayton (7th round, 2011) – but he is not on an NFL roster.
Auburn did not win the MNC because of their defense – they gave up 26 to Ark State, 34 to UK and 31 to Ole Miss FFS
Paul in NH
January 9th, 2013
9:06 pm
@GT Alum
You make a good point about how highly ranked were GT’s defensive recruits when Roof was DC but one of GT’s problems right now is lack of playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. Smith and Fox were certainly playmakers for GT but there is a lack of them rght now – although Hunt-Days looks very promising
Biff Pocoroba
January 9th, 2013
9:08 pm
Yes I’m a tool but I was smart enough to not get tickets to watch this year’s awful defense and I certainly won’t spend money to watch Roof and crew give up 40 a game again. Bad bad hire but PJ doesn’t want a strong defense so he can try to win with offense instead to help his ego.
GT GRAD
January 9th, 2013
9:08 pm
GREAT hire!
Welcome back Mr. Roof!
Paul in NH
January 9th, 2013
9:10 pm
@George
Since you are keeping an open mind, you are definitely a better man than me. I think Roof is a very disappointing hire. I would hate to think GT hired anybody because they are an alum – I want the best peron for the job.
George Stein
January 9th, 2013
9:11 pm
I’m hopeful Chris Milton can be one, Paul. In limited experience on special teams, he has been all over the place.
Joe
January 9th, 2013
9:12 pm
bwahahahaha, thanks Coach Johnson for the comedy gold…why doesn’t Gtu just move to 1AA where they belong?
Delbert D.
January 9th, 2013
9:13 pm
I think there may have been some influential alumni pressure to hire Ted Roof. Johnson set a deadline, and there is now a DC. Now focus on getting some recruits in the door.
Joe
January 9th, 2013
9:14 pm
There is obviously no dedication to even trying to win a championship. Seems like Paul Johnson must have wanted a yes man more than a great DC. Heck, maybe Al Groh was right?
Delbert D.
January 9th, 2013
9:14 pm
Paul – Looks like we were thinking the same thing.
George Stein
January 9th, 2013
9:15 pm
I’m a better man than very few, Paul. But I agree, I’m not thrilled. I suppose part of that disappointment is based in my idea that we needed an ace recruiter – for offense and defense – and a simple system. I’ll never understand why Johnson allowed a complex defense for almost five years (he had the same criticism of Wommack’s defense) when he runs such a simple but effective offense. Use the same principles on defense and be successful.
I keep coming back to the idea that we needn’t have a dominant defense. Just a competent one would have had us at 10 wins each of the past two seasons.
dawgfan
January 9th, 2013
9:15 pm
This is about the most Tech could expect, so congrats I guess. I doubt he’ll be invited back to the SEC anytime soon. He’s D’s at Auburn weren’t that great.
gtkenz
January 9th, 2013
9:25 pm
Very good player, fair defensive coach at Tech, lucky opportunity in year one at Auburn, terrible in year two, actually good to very good at PSU this year all things considered. Not my first choice, more so becuase I question his ability to recruit and that is what we need more than anything, but he’ll probably be an improvement. Duke doensn’t count even though Spurrier won at Duke. With what he has returning, it will be a better defense under Roof’s leadership. Here’s hoping that NC at Auburn left Mr. Roof wanting another one more than anything else in life, i.e. Nick Saban. Time to go to work.
ahsoisee
January 9th, 2013
9:26 pm
Huge mistake. Paul Johnson needs to go. He cannot even evaluate an effective or innefective assistant. Ted Roof was here once already and was not effective. He is very poor in pass defense. Paul Johnson has made a huge mistake in thinking the recruits at GT are equivalent to the last place Roof coached. Tech should never, never, never, never, never, etal get a coach from a school who recruits the high star athletes. Ted Roof will be no better than Groh, nor the coach who was here before Groh. Paul Johnson has provent that he does not know how to hire assistants.
Jacket
January 9th, 2013
9:29 pm
Enter your comments here
Ignition
January 9th, 2013
9:29 pm
Sneezy is the rover edge rusher for a 3-4 linebacker who will be rendered useless in a 4-3
We’ll see but Ted Roof in my opinion is a good recruiter but horrible DC.
TechMate
January 9th, 2013
9:32 pm
Good hire. If he can work with the existing staff and get another one of his own, this is good news for the Jackets. Going to a 4-3 is also good news. I don’t think you will really be able to judge him for a few years until he gets more of the kind of athletes he wants. He will recruit some great kids because he knows the state. And the current group of players will take to him quickly. Good hire, CPJ.
Jacket Detective
January 9th, 2013
9:32 pm
Basketball team only down by two at 53-51 to NC State.
Folks who threw the team under the bus ought to be embarrassed.
Jacket Detective
January 9th, 2013
9:34 pm
Roof should be a good hire for us.
We aren’t Bama and have the funds and rep to get whoever we want.
ahsoisee
January 9th, 2013
9:34 pm
Now, I understand why Kelly left Tech. He is much better than Roof. I don’t blame him for leaving after he found out Roof would be selected. I feel sure he would not have felt the same if a very good defensive coordinator was chosen over him.
Jacket Detective
January 9th, 2013
9:35 pm
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