Roof's D Style: Perfect Spread Option Compliment?

[InsideLB]

When Roof was first hired as DC my initial reaction was shock and worry. Like many fans I just remembered Woody Dantzler scoring again and the year we were #1 in O and #100 in D.

Then I set that aside did some more objective examination of Roof's record and scheme.

I found at GT (ranked 88th before Roof's first stint), Duke, & Minnesota Roof had taken over terrible defenses and improved them markedly. At GT his last two years he had D's ranked in the 20's and 30's and he was up for the assistant of the year award one of those years. And when he got canned at Auburn I noticed that two coaches he'd coached with before--and who are known to be good coaches--GOL and Bill O'Brien both hired Roof (though Roof never coached a down for UCF). That got my attention

I thought hmmmm that's interesting. What is Roof's defensive philosophy and how might it fit in at GT? And how will it stand up in today's college game with the fast-paced offenses?

Examining the stats for Roof's defenses it is obvious that regardless how they line up their absolute top priority is stopping the run. The second priority is stopping the run. The third priority is stopping the run. Thou shall not run seems to be the creedo...even at the expense of giving up massive amounts of passing yardage. Great I thought....folks are going to throw all over us.

Then CPJ's statement that outrushing the opponent ususally results in a victory came back to me. Commentators always say the way to beat Johnson is to beat him at his own game: run on him and possess the football. Either that or try and deliver a quick knock out and make GT play from behind (but you still must run the ball to eat the clock!). Roof's style appeared tailor-made to compliment the spread option.

Still I felt uneasy with being willing to let teams pass their way down the field. But then I realized what Roof is trying to do is get stops not keep yardage totals low. When teams are forced to pass it is a lower percentage proposition than running. Penalties (holding, false starts), bad throws, drops, and big negative plays via sacks make it hard to consistently maintain drives despite racking up yards. Then there are INTs and fumbles if you can get to the QB.

If you still can't get a stop you can toughen in the red zone where there is less room to pass, and it's hard to get 7 if you can't run it in. With a consistent offense like ours the other team often needs to get 7 to keep up. And when they don't keep up and we go on death marches anxiety goes up, the other offense gets cold, and it's even more difficult for opponents to come on the field and rhythmically move the ball down the field passing without pressing/making mistakes/etc.

I also think perhaps that in today's college game which features HUNH offenses and rules that seem to favor offenses moving the football that giving up yardage but making the offense take greater risk to do it could make sense. Play for the turnovers & mistakes, don't let the other team run up TOP, and seek to stiffen in the red zone.

This year Roof's philosophy was on display. We got turnover after turnover. In the Orange Bowl MSU threw for all kinds of yards. But we did get stops via turnovers, penalties, incompletions, etc. And when we did we stuck it in the endzone for a convincing win.

Is this wishful thinking on my part or do we have a good sytlistic match? I guess it's less clear as this is Roof's first season and we had some serious pass rush/DL issues. Also seemed PJ had to lean on Roof to bring more heat during the season, and that it helped. What say you?

 

[InsideLB]

A possible negative with the Roof philosophy vs HUNH is that HUNH seeks to tire out a defense so it's easy to score in the red zone at the end of drives. If you use scorched earth vs HUNH a la Roof you may not be able to stiffen in the red zone and wear your D out. Seems we saw some of that last year too!

 

[SecretAgentBuzz]

IMO Roof was the perfect hire for CPJ. Knows (and loves!) GT, has a good track record and lots of experience, local ties for recruiting, smart guy. I am looking forward to seeing what CPJ/Roof can accomplish together over the next few years. I think the sky is the limit.

 

[Skeptic]

A possible negative with the Roof philosophy vs HUNH is that HUNH seeks to tire out a defense so it's easy to score in the red zone at the end of drives. If you use scorched earth vs HUNH a la Roof you may not be able to stiffen in the red zone and wear your D out. Seems we saw some of that last year too!

That certainly was Steele's problem at Clemson and why he objected. Don't have a problem with the rationale of the post, just a philosophical objection to the "bend-but-don't-break" defense, which I see as analogous to the prevent defense. Never could figure out why a defense that worked for 58 minutes is abandoned in the last two. Seems to me looking for a penalty or a turnover to help stop a drive is not a particularly good plan of action. Hoping some new recruits and getting JHD eligible will change the face of the defense.

 

[GTNavyNuke]

@InsideLB - well written and great thoughts that I agree very much in theory. What you describe is what we tried to do - stop the run. But our DL wasn't that effective last year.

Even though we had the ball for about 34:09 a game, our scoring D was still 53rd giving up 25.7 points a game. Being +11 in turnovers last year is what gave us so many wins.

I think the best D we have is our O being on the field..... and scoring. If we can get a D that gets more stops this year and only gives up 21 points a game average (top 20), I think we'll have a very good year especially considering the SOS. I think we are getting more talent on the DL than we have had and should see marked improvement in the next two years.

Roof's persona / style is what I like best. He epitomizes a good D coach and has our players playing with confidence and swagger. He loves GT and I hope will be our next HC whenever CPJ is done.

 

[dressedcheeseside]

Passing yards will go down once we get a better pass rush. Int's will go up, as well. No matter what style you play, you still need players that can execute it. We have guys in the back end who can play, just need guys up front. I'm excited knowing we have some help coming (JHD, Whitehead, Henderson) and guys returning with room still under their ceilings (just about everybody else but especially Freeman, Gotsis, Kallon, Gamble, Simmons).

 

[Whiskey_Clear]

Agree that Roof focuses on stopping the run first. I think he also has shown a propensity for keeping pass plays in front of DBs, which can tend to create opponent drives consisting of lots of short throws and can lend to fan feeling of a prevent style. It is not prevent though and Roof does a good job, imo, of working in blitzes along the way to get sacks and disrupt the opponent passing game. Now those blitzes have not created enough of the pressure I think we need. But that's largely a personnel issue I think rather than a scheme issue. In fact, I think he would use more pressure at more random times if we were better at blitzing. At times last year we were bringing five to approximate the rush a good D can bring with four.

 

[Yaller Jacket]

Lot of truth here. Great review of Roof and his style.

Before this year I would have said that it was equally important to stop both run and pass. But I saw in some of our games and other bowl games how difficult it is to get TDs instead of field goals if you can't run it. We are all impatient, I guess, and some people still wanted to pick at Roof because the defense didn't get to level of stopping people cold. But when I think of how much we have improved since he has been at Tech, I think you have to be more patient. He will still have his critics when the other team moves the ball between the twenties, but those who look deeper will see our win totals go up and not worry about it.

I also agree with the poster who said he has a good persona for a DC. His aggressiveness, his energy. Then throw in that he's a great recruiter, he works well with PJ, and the fact that he is at GT by choice, and we know we are lucky indeed.

 

[Skeptic]

I will admit that Roof's defense has not been above the level of the first two DCs, defenses I liked best when they weren't playing. And it has created turnovers; that is unassailable. But still sometimes it has the feel of planning for your retirement by playing Powerball, and that any moment an FSU is going to break out. As long as we can win I can live with it, and maybe posters are right, it will get better.

 

[iceeater1969]

I went to senior bowl year before and there were 3 acc qb. This year there were ( I think )none. This year I saw an amazing number of un forced bad passes by our opponents. The bad passes could continue if the non pro style offenses lead to the QB not being that good at passing. At acc and Orange bowl the passes were completed, but many were late and low which took away the a much bigger gain. IMO we need to play 2ndand3rd quarter as we have played the 4th quarter. I hope that is his strategy

 

[Northeast Stinger]

What say you?

I say your analysis is spot on. Pass happy no huddle offenses are always going to wrack up lots of passing yards. It does them no good if the other team has the lead and is burning up clock.

Well done. And I too have changed my mind completely about Roof. Looking at what he did at Penn State got me thinking deeper about it and what it did this past season absolutely sold me. I loved it when a player was asked about turnovers on defense and he said, "We practice that all the time."

 

[Northeast Stinger]

Roof's persona / style is what I like best. He epitomizes a good D coach and has our players playing with confidence and swagger. He loves GT and I hope will be our next HC whenever CPJ is done.

Amen to this. Tech players never looked scared to me on defense. They played with confidence and hit hard. Any defense that does that is much more difficult to beat.

 

[Northeast Stinger]

I think he also has shown a propensity for keeping pass plays in front of DBs

Before he started work someone talked to him about his defensive philosophy and it is quite simple in some ways. Stop the run first and do not give up big plays. That is actually a formula for success as unsexy as it sounds.

 

[Fatmike91]

Good analysis here by the OP. Thank you.

In a limited possession game, getting stops matters.

Above all else, I would like to see us use timeouts when our opponent goes for it on 4th down. A 4th down stop is exactly the same as a fumble or an interception.

Please give Coach Roof the ability to call timeouts on D!!!


/

 

[potatohead]

The word is complement, his defense complements CPJ's offense.

Good points all around. I think we'll always give up a head scratching game on defense (both giving up yards to a crappy O and shutting down a great O), and we won't cover tight ends well, and those are hallmarks of GT defense regardless of coach or scheme.

What our defense did this past year with the personnel was very impressive. I think our defense sees a jump this year, nothing extraordinary, but hopefully more consistent and attack focused.

 

[Longestday]

Although I hated seeing the CB playing so far back, this approach made for some interceptions when they broke the pattern. So many times we seem to ignore the 1st down line on 3rd and +7 and played to prevent the TD and not the 1st down. This may be by choice and the right choice because I am no expert, but this drove me crazy.

 

[vamosjackets]

Stopping the run is priority #1. Pressure on the QB should probably be priority #2. Do those two things, and you're going to be a good defense. If you're bad at either one of those things, you're going to give up yards and points. We need improvement on both, and may see it this year.

 

[DrJacket]

Passing yards will go down once we get a better pass rush. Int's will go up, as well. No matter what style you play, you still need players that can execute it. We have guys in the back end who can play, just need guys up front. I'm excited knowing we have some help coming (JHD, Whitehead, Henderson) and guys returning with room still under their ceilings (just about everybody else but especially Freeman, Gotsis, Kallon, Gamble, Simmons).

This is absolutely the key-- the rising tide that will lift all boats. Obviously the run matters, too. But, I would love to see what we could do with better line play. Last year was good with what we had. Let's hope for more and things could get exciting.

 

[Nook Su Kow]

I can definitely say Woody Dantzler and Spencer Romine popped up in my head when he was rehired.

 

[PBR549]

Teds defensive philosophy as with any coach relies on his personnel. Ted does what he has to do to be successful. if he has the personnel to be aggressive he is as aggressive as anyone. hopefully some of these recruits will pan out so that we can be more aggressive.