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WarDamnEagle

WarDamnEagle

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Hi, Gopher nation.

I am curious as to what you think of your late DC, Ted Roof. Watching the Auburn spring game (linked in my sig), our defense looked absolutely terrible. Our freakin' roster is filled with 4* and 5* players, so what I saw was totally unacceptable. Albeit, we weren't using our first team the majority of the time (and our five most vital 5* starters were benched to get the offense in the groove), but there is no reason for holes to be opened up like that. We were also using a fair amount of walk-ons, but allowing the RB to sprint 70 yards to the endzone untouched is not Auburn football.

I'd appreciate an objective, honest assessment if possible. Do you want him back? Are you glad he's gone? I know he has an aggressive style much like Joe Kines, but were his blitz packages successful? Did he disguise his coverages well enough to fool the opposing QB? I know nothing about the defensive talent that Minnesota contains, so how did he use the talent to his advantage?

Sorry for the question, but I am ignorant to Big Ten football, and I'd greatly appreciate an unbiased, Gopher opinion.

Thanks in advance. :)
 

Ted Roof was the best defensive coordinator we have had in decades. Albeit his competition for that crown was brutal. Gopher defenses are annually awful. For a brief shining moment, our defense was pretty good.

Yes, late in the season our defense collapsed, but hell he at least gave us a stellar first half of the season. The offense completely fell apart (we had no oline) and our D was on the field way too much. We dont have a wealth of talent, but he maximized what we had and put our guys in position to create turnovers. He took over literally the worst (119th?) ranked defense in college football and actually turned it into a strength for a while. Maybe I am a bigger Roof fan than most, but I thought the guy was legit. His track record as a DC backs that up.

You'll be fine with Roof/Chizik, you have very bright defensive minds running your team. My advice is to enjoy the fact your offense actually did something because watching it the last couple years has been absolute torture (I doubt any Auburn fan would disagree). Did Cox finally graduate? He was trash.
 

What Up Guy said:
Ted Roof was the best defensive coordinator we have had in decades. Albeit his competition for that crown was brutal. Gopher defenses are annually awful. For a brief shining moment, our defense was pretty good.

Yes, late in the season our defense collapsed, but hell he at least gave us a stellar first half of the season. The offense completely fell apart (we had no oline) and our D was on the field way too much. We dont have a wealth of talent, but he maximized what we had and put our guys in position to create turnovers. He took over literally the worst (119th?) ranked defense in college football and actually turned it into a strength for a while. Maybe I am a bigger Roof fan than most, but I thought the guy was legit. His track record as a DC backs that up.
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Thanks for the reply. You have me feeling very optimistic about the situation. And I can relate to the D being on the field wayyyy too long. :mad:

What Up Guy said:
You'll be fine with Roof/Chizik, you have very bright defensive minds running your team. My advice is to enjoy the fact your offense actually did something because watching it the last couple years has been absolute torture (I doubt any Auburn fan would disagree). Did Cox finally graduate? He was trash.
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Torture would be an immense understatement.

Our offense sucked last year solely due to Neil Caudle (QB) being injured, thus leaving us dependent on Kodi Burns/Chris Todd behind center, who were equally atrocious. Can you blame them entirely though? Tuberville, while a good gameday coach, had the worst offensive assistants in the NCAA, not to mention an OC who showed up drunk to every game and embarrassed us in front of the media. As embarrassing as it may be, he actually got in a physical fight with the other assistants which eventually led to his premature dismissal five games into the season.... of course this created absolute chaos to say the least. :rolleyes:

Regarding the defensive incompetence from the Spring Game, I am too homeristic, so I tend to give the credit to Gus Malzahn who created the Wildcat formation (and is apparently ranked the #3 OC via Rivals.com), so I am finally not concerned about our offense anymore. :D

Regarding Cox, I've always been critical of him, but that doesn't change the fact that he was a winner through and through. While the most immobile QB in the history of the universe, he was deadly accurate and ended his college career with a 19-5 record as a starter. I still think he broke all sorts of school sack records, yet I admit I sure missed him last season. :eek:

But what's done is done, and it's good to hear a positive Gopher opinion about Roof. I wish Minnesota the best of luck in '09. Beat Wisconsin!!!

Wisconsin beat us in the Capital One Bowl a couple years back. :mad:
 

I do not agree that Roof was a very good, let alone great, coordinator. We got absolutely drubbed in our last two B10 games, including a 50-0 loss to Iowa. Our downfall started with the Northwestern game where we were utterly incapable of adapting to the cutback runs of the NW QB, who is an average run QB by B10 standards. While at first I was disappointed to see Roof leave, I now feel that we're much better off without him as our DC.
 

While I definitely think the defense took a step as the year went along (I'd attribute it to a few things: being out there too long, perhaps a bit of turnover luck despite the love for 'Takeaway Tuesdays', etc.) and you can say what you want about the performances against Michigan, Iowa & Kansas, the Gopher D gave up 0 2nd half points to Northwestern. I would say that being able to adapt to what Northwestern was doing offensively was one of the for sure things that the Gophers did in 2008.

WarDamnEagle: One of the general conclusions I've developed over the years of being a college football fan is that football coaches know A LOT more about football than any of us realize. Despite anything you saw during the spring game, Ted Roof will be fine. He did it at Georgia Tech. And he did it for a good portion of the season at Minnesota. The defense would have continued to improve if he would have remained here. I think you have yourselves a quality Defensive Coordinator.
 


I would have to agree with What up guy!! He turned the D around. proudgopher knows nothing about FB with the comment he made. We did give up alot the tail end of the season, but we were so thin and simply got beat up and ran out of gas. In another yr. or 2 Roof would have built a stellar D here at the U. WE WILL TAKE HIM BACK ANY TIME !
 

I'm surprised at some of these positive comments.

Roof was an average coach and a big time traitor. Brewster rescued his career after he got fired at Duke, and only asked for some loyalty in return so we could finally get some continuity and not have to change @#$ d coordinators every year. So what does Roof do? After one -- ONE -- year here, he takes the money and makes a lateral move to a middle of the pack SEC school that's blindly throwing money around to try and keep up with their better rivals.

As to our D's performance under him, we built up some good numbers early in the year against the likes of Florida International, Indiana, etc. but as soon as we started playing good teams our defense got steamrolled like it has most other years in recent memory.
 

WanderingGopher said:
I'm surprised at some of these positive comments.

Roof was an average coach and a big time traitor. Brewster rescued his career after he got fired at Duke, and only asked for some loyalty in return so we could finally get some continuity and not have to change @#$ d coordinators every year. So what does Roof do? After one -- ONE -- year here, he takes the money and makes a lateral move to a middle of the pack SEC school that's blindly throwing money around to try and keep up with their better rivals.

As to our D's performance under him, we built up some good numbers early in the year against the likes of Florida International, Indiana, etc. but as soon as we started playing good teams our defense got steamrolled like it has most other years in recent memory.
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Brew didn't "rescue his career". The D Coordinator job here helped Roof, no doubt. But he would have gotten another shot anyway. Roof has a good track record building defenses. He took a tough HC gig and sucked. That didn't diminish people's feelings about his D coaching abilities.

I was pissed with how he left too. But I don't think that means we should suddenly ignore that he did do some good things with our D. Our piss poor offensive performance contributed to our defensive failings too.
 

GoAUpher said:
I was pissed with how he left too. But I don't think that means we should suddenly ignore that he did do some good things with our D. Our piss poor offensive performance contributed to our defensive failings too.
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I agree with this. I don't like that he left after one season either. But I'm not going to put that against him regarding whether or not he is a good defensive coordinator, which I think he was.

I think him leaving & being a "traitor" is a different topic compared to his ability to teach & implement defensive schemes.
 



I've gotta agree with the majority who liked Roof. I mean, the guy took the worst D in the NCAA and made it average to slightly above average. Granted, he got a few players to help him with that (BPT, Lawrence, a healthy WVDS, etc.), but he had the guys playing pretty basic schemes that maximized their abilities to be in position to make plays.

I have no idea how he'll do at Auburn, but I expect that he'll do very well and I was very disappointed that he won't be back here this season because I thought he was one of the key guys, if not the #1 key guy in our turnaround from 2007 to 2008. I'm not mad at him either, like Wandering, because I don't think assistant football coaches owe anyone anything. It's a brutal business with no job security and constant moves, and for him to go to a higher profile job only makes sense. Good luck to him.
 

WanderingGopher said:
I'm surprised at some of these positive comments.

Roof was an average coach and a big time traitor. Brewster rescued his career after he got fired at Duke, and only asked for some loyalty in return so we could finally get some continuity and not have to change @#$ d coordinators every year. So what does Roof do? After one -- ONE -- year here, he takes the money and makes a lateral move to a middle of the pack SEC school that's blindly throwing money around to try and keep up with their better rivals.

As to our D's performance under him, we built up some good numbers early in the year against the likes of Florida International, Indiana, etc. but as soon as we started playing good teams our defense got steamrolled like it has most other years in recent memory.
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Actually, Roof was hired to coach linebackers at Louisville after he was fired. He didn't even coach there before making a move to Minnesota.
 

proudgopher said:
I do not agree that Roof was a very good, let alone great, coordinator. We got absolutely drubbed in our last two B10 games, including a 50-0 loss to Iowa. Our downfall started with the Northwestern game where we were utterly incapable of adapting to the cutback runs of the NW QB, who is an average run QB by B10 standards. While at first I was disappointed to see Roof leave, I now feel that we're much better off without him as our DC.
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I have to agree about the Northwestern game. That was the single worst bit of defensive coordinating that I've ever seen.
 

I think Roof was probablay OK but after only one year, who really knows for sure! He certainly didn't honor his contract or any loyalties that he had to Tim Brewster and for that, i wouldn't want him back. Our new DC I think will be here for some time, he has more Big 10 ties and most of the Gopher followers IF they are negative about Cosgrove, they are that way because of the failurs at Nebraska, which i think more more attributal to Calahan than to Cosgrove. Anyway, wish you lots of luck unless we hook up with you in a bowl of course, and i think you'll also see a much improved Gopher D this year as well, and THAT will be due to an improved offense...you can't continually go 3 and out and expect the D to win games.
 



go4rob said:
I think Roof was probablay OK but after only one year, who really knows for sure! He certainly didn't honor his contract or any loyalties that he had to Tim Brewster and for that, i wouldn't want him back. Our new DC I think will be here for some time, he has more Big 10 ties and most of the Gopher followers IF they are negative about Cosgrove, they are that way because of the failurs at Nebraska, which i think more more attributal to Calahan than to Cosgrove. Anyway, wish you lots of luck unless we hook up with you in a bowl of course, and i think you'll also see a much improved Gopher D this year as well, and THAT will be due to an improved offense...you can't continually go 3 and out and expect the D to win games.
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I wish it were true that the failures of Cosgrove at Nebraska could be attributed primarily to Callahan but they cannot. Callahan was and is an offensive guy and his offenses there were some of the most productive in college football, yet they lost because the defenses were that bad which were left to the control of Cosgrove. The level of defensive talent coming in also declined the longer Cosgrove was there. Callahan's greatest problem was his loyalty to Cosgrove. I think Roof did a solid job for being here one year and while I do agree Cosgrove will likely be here longer term(largely due to no other options), I do not know if that is a good thing or not, time will tell. Maybe in his year off he learned how to slow down a spread offense, though concerning that he couldn't learn this while still employed during the offseason. You shouldn't have to be unemployed or be fired to force yourself to learn new things.
 

Why does everyone say that Cosgrove is our new DC? Cosgrove AND Lee are our new DCs. Even BTN said just Cosgrove earlier this spring! If I was coach Lee, I'd want some of the credit if we did well.
 

I wasn't all that sad to see Roof go, although I'm not sure how the co-coordinator thing with Ronnie Lee is going to work out. Roof did as good a job as could be expected under the circumstances. It's hard to play defense when you can't get off the field thanks to your offense never getting past three plays and punt.

Having said that, it sounded like our spring game was pretty positive. More explosiveness on offense (due to better talent across the board) and the defense was very active and aggressive. I had heard that this is our most talented team in awhile on both sides of the ball, so as GopherGod has already said, we'll see.

I have no doubt that we'll be better on both sides of the ball, if nothing else because our overall talent is better than a couple of years ago. And of course, we have a bit beefier of a schedule this time around. Whether that means that Cosgrove and Lee will prove better than Roof I guess is up for debate.
 

A few players?

Simmons
Sherrels
Brock
Campbell at LB
Lawrence
Small in his second year ever at DT
Kirksey, Edwards for depth
Brown getting experienced
VanDesteeg healthy

The talent level in 2007 when Jones, Massey, Daniels, etc left was bottom of the barrel. Our talent level in 2008 was decent.

I think Roof is a good coach but he was in a no lose position. Withers showed this by doing decent at North Carolina but we played 3 true freshmen in the defensive backfield in 2007, didn't have VanDesteeg up front and Brown and Small were still learning.
 

I think Roof did an alright job here for the few months he was in town. But bags were packed and he lost all my respect when he left so quickly. I think it shows how shallow he is and unfortunately I hope he fails miserably with your squad.
 

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