I was not a fan of Roof when he coached here under O'Leary, and I certainly didn't like it when he was hired again. I have been a BIG critic over the past few years, and I still cringe from time to time, but overall I am eating crow, and frankly it doesn't taste too bad....LOL We still don't have a GREAT defense (probably never will, no matter who the DC is), but we finally have a GOOD defense, and the credit goes to Roof. I just hope he can repeat it next year. If he can, then the future looks good.
Consider the following passage from Wikepedia on Roof:
"After spending the first season coaching the
Yellow Jackets linebackers, Roof was promoted to defensive coordinator. He was nominated for the 2000
Broyles Award, an annual honor given to the nation's top assistant coach, when his defense finished the season ranked 12th in the nation in rushing defense and 20th in scoring defense. The following season, the Yellow Jackets were again one of the top defenses in the nation, ranking 23rd nationally in total defense and 32nd against the run".
Obviously omitted is the 1999 season (Roof's first as a DC), during which he took over a defense that ranked 88th the prior year. In 1999 we were 100th in total defense, so in that first year we improved very little. However the next two years Roof was very good. But since our O was #1 in 1999 folks only remember 1999 and what could have been had we had a better defense. Seems like Roof took over a crappy situation and had a crappy first year, then did a lot better.
He also turned around bad D's at Duke and Minnesota. At Penn St. he took over a top 30ish type D that remained top 30ish in his one year there. O'Leary tried to hire him again as DC at UCF prior to his going to PSU. Only at Auburn did his D appear to regress.
His second stint at GT he took over a crappy defense again. While his defenses have tended to show improvement in the latter half of the season they have mostly been crappy until this year. In particular lack of pass rush has been a constant issue as DL have had trouble winning battles 1-on-1.
I am not sure if we have turned the corner or not. I do think defensive recruiting, and particularly on the DL has improved. Glanton and Henderson are quick, Adams is hard to move, Owens looks promising, St. Amour has come on, and our top 6 highest ranked recruits are all defenders. We have a lot of good looking D back types and guys like Alexander, Mitchell, and Jordan-Swilling look like solid additions to the front 7. We have Gray coming back and a lot of good looking D-back types.
I am cautiously optimistic on our D and Roof going forward. At times I feel he's been rather vanilla, and I've hated the way we've played shotgun spread teams. But I think now he may have more of the quick type DL that he prefers to run the kinds of slants and stunts he likes. Hopefully he's learned to keep it simple against the fast offenses and can continue to be more aggressive with quicker personnel.
