Roof

[Augusta_Jacket]

Were they actually in prevent in those situations this year? I would have to go back and watch film, but I thought they were just in the nickel.

Against Miami, on that final drive, our safeties were 15+ yards off the LOS at the snap. That's prevent D.

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

It's been said by far more knowledgeable people than I, but the only thing a prevent defense does is to prevent you from winning. I agree that it's not unique to Roof, but I bet fans of other teams hate it as much as I do.

 

[Jmonty71]

FYI, TK Chimedza (currently committed 4-star defensive tackle) is entirely a Roof product. We wouldn't have him committed without Roof in the picture. This also applies to the Swillings, one of which was an Army All-American and consensus 4-star. They also committed because of Roof. Along with them, Jaquan Henderson was a 4-star who whose main recruiter was Roof. Beyond those, TD Roof, Xavier Gantt, and currently committed Malachi Carter are all high-ceiling highly-regarded Roof recruits that I can name off the top of my head. He's also had us in the discussion with several high-profile recruits that Tech didn't end up landing, but wouln't have had a shot at without him. We're only now starting to see the benefits Roof is providing us in recruiting

How long as Roof been DC??? We are just "NOW" seeing the benefits? Maybe my level of expectations are off.

 

[tech_wreck47]

The D is improving. It's miles better than last year. It's just not improving fast enough to suit people.

The D went right back to its old ways the end of the season. There was very minimal improvement, and improvements vary year to year. This D has been up and down over the years, that imo is not improvement. JMO though, but I do respect yours.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

How long as Roof been DC??? We are just "NOW" seeing the benefits? Maybe my level of expectations are off.

Roof took over a D recruited and staffed to run a 3-4, and began recruiting and staffing it to run a 4-3/4-2-5 hybrid. This was his first senior class, and they showed vast improvement. As he continues to build quality depth, I imagine we'll see better results.

Or, we could just keep firing people and starting over every couple of years...

 

[tech_wreck47]

I'll just address this question since you asked it, but I'm just here to provide insight, not get sucked into the thread. If we had a different defensive coordinator, there's no predicting what guys we would or would not have gotten. I entirely believe, however, that without Roof neither of the Swillings would be here, and we wouldn't have the strong connection to Buford and Gwinnett County that we do currently (Gantt, Roof, and David Curry are all Buford products and Roof recruits, and Roof is the area recruiter for Gwinnett County, which has long-been a talent-rich area and only recently has GT started to have success recruiting the area)

I also disagree that the defense isn't improving - yards per play, yards per game, and 3rd down conversion percentage were all improved this year for the defense. The only reason points per game didn't improve is because we routinely gave the opposing team great field position via special teams blunders. Obviously, everything - offense, defense, special teams - started to go downhill after the Virginia game and collapsed entirely for the last 2 games of the season, but that was just as much the players giving up as it was coaching and scheme. What I saw during the Duke and Georgia games was a team that was broken in spirit and gave up on themselves and one another. That's on coaching, absolutely, but the players have to take some responsibility. The coaches can put them in the right positions, but if they can't make the play then it's not a fault of the scheme, which to my understanding is everyone's sore spot with Roof. That's just my personal opinion on some thoughts over the defense, since you asked if it matters if we are bringing in better recruits if the defense isn't improving

Thanks for the reply, I know sometimes messages seem rude, but I wasn't trying to be that by no means in my original message. I also thought you were saying we more than likely wouldn't have any of those guys if Roof wasn't here, but you answered that.

As far as the D improving, I'll agree it has happened. I'll also add that the D had been better in prior years under roof compared to last year though, so to me that's just part of a fluctuation in our D. I will also say the offenses were nothing compared to last year, so a better D should be expected. IMO after 5 years the D should be better.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

The D went right back to its old ways the end of the season. There was very minimal improvement, and improvements vary year to year. This D has been up and down over the years, that imo is not improvement. JMO though, but I do respect yours.

Stat line by stat line, this defense is miles better than years past. Had our offense and ST been anywhere close to as efficient as last year, we'd most likely be sitting at 9-2 right now.

 

[gtpi]

That's more than fair, and a complaint I have as well. That, along with red-zone defense, didn't seem to improve all year, but on the whole the defensive unit improved from last year to this year, and if it weren't for our breakdown at the end of this season it wouldn't be as nearly hated and talked about as it is right now. It's much easier to talk about the program when you win and things go your way, and harder when you end on a sour note

count me as one person who has always been a roof fan. however... his D during the miami game final drive opened up my eyes a bit. mark richt kept running the same play when he saw coach roof lining up the d the same after every play. that coach roof reacted way too late was disappointing to me.

if i remember right it was cpj that told roof to do something different???????

 

[tech_wreck47]

Stat line by stat line, this defense is miles better than years past. Had our offense and ST been anywhere close to as efficient as last year, we'd most likely be sitting at 9-2 right now.

Yes, and in prior years our D was better than last year. Wouldn't that just mean our D fluctuates year to year? offenses were way better last year as well. Pitt, Duke, Clemson, VT, and UNC all had better offenses last year. I'm not denying that the offense didn't play great this year, but if you want to go by stats they were miles above the D in efficiency. Offense going into the UGA game was 24th and the D was 61st.

 

[gtpi]

How long as Roof been DC??? We are just "NOW" seeing the benefits? Maybe my level of expectations are off.

keep in mind we changed d schemes from when coach groh was d coach. it is just now that coach r is getting the players to run his d. if i remember right the d that groh ran required recruiting the players we have a hard time recruiting. the big uglies.

 

[tech_wreck47]

keep in mind we changed d schemes from when coach groh was d coach. it is just now that coach r is getting the players to run his d. if i remember right the d that groh ran required recruiting the players we have a hard time recruiting. the big uglies.

What we do now requires big uglies. It's not very "deceptive" so it's pretty much line up and beat your guy at the punch. That's why imo we aren't very good on D. To do that you must have guys that are dominat at all positions, so they can win those battles. When you are exotic in coverages, and blitz packages you can confuse the OL on who they have which means more free running defenders. You also can confuse the QB on what coverages are actually being ran and bait him into throws he shouldn't throw.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

Yes, and in prior years our D was better than last year. Wouldn't that just mean our D fluctuates year to year? offenses were way better last year as well. Pitt, Duke, Clemson, VT, and UNC all had better offenses last year. I'm not denying that the offense didn't play great this year, but if you want to go by stats they were miles above the D in efficiency. Offense going into the UGA game was 24th and the D was 61st.

Not shocking, but again, we have a coach who has built quality depth on O for 10 years now, so even a down year is pretty efficient. Maybe we should consider allowing the D the chance to keep improving, since it is trending up?

 

[tech_wreck47]

Not shocking, but again, we have a coach who has built quality depth on O for 10 years now, so even a down year is pretty efficient. Maybe we should consider allowing the D the chance to keep improving, since it is trending up?

I get what you are saying, I just don't see the trending up thing. I see a D that has fluctuated up and down over the years and even though they were better this year compared to last year, they weren't facing the same power offenses. I also don't think our D style fits the athletes at GT, so unless we start getting the highly recruited kids more often I don't see us climbing up better on our D. JMO and I hope I'm proven wrong.

 

[Animal02]

I’m still not convinced any of the players “quit”. They were still putting forth too much effort to say they laid down and quit. I do however, feel like they had their asses handed to them and there was absolutely ZERO they could do about it.

I don't think they quit either..........but they seemed to have lost that "spark"

 

[Supersizethatorder-mutt]

Not shocking, but again, we have a coach who has built quality depth on O for 10 years now, so even a down year is pretty efficient. Maybe we should consider allowing the D the chance to keep improving, since it is trending up?

Not relevant to this thread, but did you notice that panther's post calling me an idiot, your response to that post, and my response to your post have all been deleted from the "Fire CPJ" thread?

 

[slugboy]

keep in mind we changed d schemes from when coach groh was d coach. it is just now that coach r is getting the players to run his d. if i remember right the d that groh ran required recruiting the players we have a hard time recruiting. the big uglies.

For Groh, yes. There are other D-Coordinators that run a 3-4 that they can run with smaller D-linemen (one gap). However, we might have 4 LB's caught up in the wash in that scheme instead of 2. The 3-4 also has the advantage that you only need 3 defensive linemen.

(looks around as the conversation goes even more sideways...)

 

[gtg936g]

I am not on the “Roof must go bandwagon”, but I can’t say that I am on the “Roof must stay” bandwagon either. I am on the “our scheme must change” bandwagon though. The way I look at it is that we have implemented, simplified, focused on 2 minute defenses, and attempted to be more aggressive as the season went along. Why are our capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses such a mystery on defense when the season starts?

It just doesn’t seem to be yeilding enough positive results for me to say we need to stay the course. We need some scheme changes in the offseason to decide what we are on defense. There is no excuse for going into game 3 of the season and starting to simplify, or get aggressive, or adding 2 minute coverages. Tweaks here and there based on opponents, sure. We should know what gives us the best chance at stopping other teams with the people we have going into the season.

 

[Milwaukee]

I'd be upset if we lost Roof tbh. I'm not opposed to giving him another title and bringing in a new DC. That's what I truly would like to see.

 

[Lavoisier]

Honestly, our 4 star defensive guys on Rivals like Step, Kallon, and Jordan Woods have seemed to either been busts or just ok. Lots of 2 stars from that 2016 class balling out on both sides while some of the top guys have already left the program (on their own or for other reasons). We don't seem to be that great at evaluating the top guys right now anyway, I don't know if that's the coaches or lack of analysts or what.

 

[stech81]

Honestly, our 4 star defensive guys on Rivals like Step, Kallon, and Jordan Woods have seemed to either been busts or just ok. Lots of 2 stars from that 2016 class balling out on both sides while some of the top guys have already left the program (on their own or for other reasons). We don't seem to be that great at evaluating the top guys right now anyway, I don't know if that's the coaches or lack of analysts or what.

Going by this part of the statement we seem to be evaluating the players fine to me.