thoughts on Coach Roof back at the Flatts

[GTFan62]

Question for the group: Would Groh still be here if we had 2-3 more wins last year?

 

[BainbridgeJacket]

CPJ had a very distinct expression on his face during the 2009 ACC Championship after Clemson's first drive. I saw that look during the Miami game this past year at some point during the 4th quarter comeback.

 

[GTrob21]

Count me as a person who never liked the 3-4. It takes more than a 360 pound NG to make it work. It takes a good, nimble and VERY strong 360 pounder to make it work. Other than that, when you look at the great 3-4 defenses, you will find that they all have very similar pieces, a Great MLB to take on the FB, big corners because they are typically man and usually that one DE that can wreak havoc in the backfield. Look at Alabama and that is what you will find. I firmly believe that the NG needed to make it work are few and far between and we were never going to recruit them to Tech.

I think the one-gap 4-3 scheme that Roof employed at Auburn and at Penn State will work here at Tech much better that what we have seen over the past years, our players in my opinion are better suited to this scheme anyway. Sneezy is a perfect rush end in a 4-3... Young is going to thrive this year when offenses try to attack our D with screen passes and short dinks, which they will because that is what you do to a 4-3. Well atleast that is what you do to a 4-3 that is holding the line of scrimmage... and that is My one concern this year... Our NT, I honestly think Gotsis will be great at the DT spot, but the loss of Shawn green is big. I am hoping we have 2 guys really step up or we could be seeing a lot of power running this year.

 

[ATL1]

Sneezy is a perfect rush end in a 4-3... Young is going to thrive this year when offenses try to attack our D with screen passes and short dinks, which they will because that is what you do to a 4-3. Well atleast that is what you do to a 4-3 that is holding the line of scrimmage... and that is My one concern this year... Our NT, I honestly think Gotsis will be great at the DT spot, but the loss of Shawn green is big. I am hoping we have 2 guys really step up or we could be seeing a lot of power running this year.

Sneezy is not a perfect rush DE, not at all actually. He is undersized, when/if he goes to the NFL it will be as a linebacker.
JHD says hi at middle linebacker.
This team has recruited for a 3-4 for around 2 years now, Kallon, Gamble, Gotsis, Chungong, Commisong, ect, these guys are monster big so they had/have the players for the scheme.

A couple of things I think went wrong with Groh:
1. Way to many audibles and check downs, which forced players to think and read to much on the field. This caused a lot of miscommunications and blown assignments.
2. Not enough substitutions, especially on the line. Barnes is not a guy that could tough it out or play consistently on 3rd down. I actually think he should have played more at the end position, since I feel Cross got better leverage, but honestly these guys underperformed.
3. Wasn't aggressive enough. Utah St., and Fresno St. have blitz crazy 3-4 "Steeler style" defenses. Stanford runs a 2 gap 3-4 D but they blitz a lot as well, (their "Party in the Backfield" sack ceremony) but when you have Attaochu, Watts, Nealy, and JHD at linebacker this team should of had blitzes coming from everywhere.

 

[Longestday]

3rd and 9 and Groh dialed up a prevent defense and killed us. How many third and longs did we give away to Clemson.

You never know what may have happened had we won 2 more games. CPJ does have a history of firing even after winning. I can see the possibility that even if we did outscore the other team, Groh's number was up.

 

[GTrob21]

ATL1, You and I will have to disagree then, I would point to Sneezy's production the last 6 games of the season when we went to a 1 gap scheme compared to the nearly 1 1/2 years where he played OLB in a 3-4. You will find his sack totals and pressures' went up drastically. I agree somewhat that this was a product of the play call of Groh which you pointed out was centered around "gap" control by the D-line instead of attaching. I am no Groh fan but in his defense when you don't have a D-line and are attacking with your LB's you will be picked a part.

Bottom line it's Groh's fault our defense was so bad, either he didn't recruit the right players for his system or he couldn't coach the concepts to the players level. Personally I think it was both and we will see a much better defense this year with simply a different scheme and attitude.

 

[ATL1]

ATL1, You and I will have to disagree then, I would point to Sneezy's production the last 6 games of the season when we went to a 1 gap scheme compared to the nearly 1 1/2 years where he played OLB in a 3-4. You will find his sack totals and pressures' went up drastically. I agree somewhat that this was a product of the play call of Groh which you pointed out was centered around "gap" control by the D-line instead of attaching. I am no Groh fan but in his defense when you don't have a D-line and are attacking with your LB's you will be picked a part.

Bottom line it's Groh's fault our defense was so bad, either he didn't recruit the right players for his system or he couldn't coach the concepts to the players level. Personally I think it was both and we will see a much better defense this year with simply a different scheme and attitude.

He also had other responsibilities other than pass rush as a OLB under Groh.

 

[GTrob21]

He also had other responsibilities other than pass rush as a OLB under Groh.

That was exactly my point, that when you simplified Sneezy's responsibility, i.e. in a 4-3 defense, the guy shines, hence he is made for the rush DE in that scheme, but when you put him in a 3-4, he is still good, but not as good as he will be in this new scheme.

 

[ATL1]

That was exactly my point, that when you simplified Sneezy's responsibility, i.e. in a 4-3 defense, the guy shines, hence he is made for the rush DE in that scheme, but when you put him in a 3-4, he is still good, but not as good as he will be in this new scheme.

How can you judge that when it's a different level of responsibilities? I not sure I'm following you here, I typed he is not a prototypical DE even on a college level due to his lack of size. One reason why he was recruited as a linebacker rather than end and another reason why he is also continues to workout as a linebacker in the off season because he knows that will probably be his position in the pros.

 

[gtfollower86]

Now the word I keep hearing all offseason is "intensity" CPJ reiterates that to u scountless times. My point is Coach Roof D should be a lot better than 12yrs ago when Coach O'leary wouldn't let Coach Roof run "his" Defense. But enough of that anyways do you suspect a change defensively this year or will it take a year or two to fully come to full-circle?

 

[John]

do you suspect a change defensively this year or will it take a year or two to fully come to full-circle?

This is what I'm worried about any time a new coordinator comes in. When Groh was hired, he was pretty frank about the 3 year milestone for his defense. For Roof, I would have to think he would need more than just one off-season to implement what he wants but at the same time, I expect one of the things that CPJ iterated to him as a "lesson learned" was to keep things simple for the players so that we aren't riding on a multi-year learning curve.

So just like we saw the defensive stats improve in the last 8 games of the 2012 season, I expect better defensive stats in 2013 when compared to the first six games of last season.

 

[xenoabe]

This is what I'm worried about any time a new coordinator comes in. When Groh was hired, he was pretty frank about the 3 year milestone for his defense. For Roof, I would have to think he would need more than just one off-season to implement what he wants but at the same time, I expect one of the things that CPJ iterated to him as a "lesson learned" was to keep things simple for the players so that we aren't riding on a multi-year learning curve.

So just like we saw the defensive stats improve in the last 8 games of the 2012 season, I expect better defensive stats in 2013 when compared to the first six games of last season.

I hope we're better by the UNC game. They will be a monster on offense and we can't reasonably expect another 68 point output.