Ted Roof Comments

[Appster99]

For those that know more than I do, why was Roof hired? Was there a specific reason we targeted him? Looking at his coaching history, I don’t understand why. Genuinely curious.

Not claiming to know more than you. My hunch from the beginning was that Drink hired him as sort of a security blanket. Drink is young with no head coaching experience.Roof is older with head coaching experience. If things get hairy for Drink he has someone on staff with head coaching experience to ask opinions of. Just my thoughts.

Drink said the only person on the staff that had never held the same position before was himself, as HC. He wanted experience. Nobody can argue that Roof does not have experience. Now the quality of his scheming using our players as the previous staff had built them for, that's another discussion.

[appbio91]

O yea, Charlotte out scores APP offensively today.

I loved that Sims called it like it was in the post game “the worst App defensive performance” he has witnessed.

[appbio91]

So let’s look at the numbers. Charlotte rushed for 240 yards on 41 carries. If you take away Lemays 58 yard run and Fingers 68 yard run, we held them to under 3 yards a carry. I infer from this that we don’t have a scheme problem but missed assignments. To the point made on the lack of adjustments on the slants, fair point, but you can only do so much. The game plan was probably stop the run and see if Reynolds could beat them. He played well enough to do it, with some nice dimes and he took advantage of our inexperienced corners. As a coach, you pick your poison and hope it doesn’t kill you.

Yeah let’s take away 58 and a 68 yard run up the middle ! It looks good now what the hell kind of post is this?

Take away an 87 and two special teams and we lost....

[The Rock]

So let’s look at the numbers. Charlotte rushed for 240 yards on 41 carries. If you take away Lemays 58 yard run and Fingers 68 yard run, we held them to under 3 yards a carry. I infer from this that we don’t have a scheme problem but missed assignments. To the point made on the lack of adjustments on the slants, fair point, but you can only do so much. The game plan was probably stop the run and see if Reynolds could beat them. He played well enough to do it, with some nice dimes and he took advantage of our inexperienced corners. As a coach, you pick your poison and hope it doesn’t kill you.

Good observation, but you are wrong. This is a scheme problem. When you play your linebackers that shallow., you are allowing the opposing team to engage the linebackers too early. Our strength is speed and now you are negating it. Second issue is, our defenders were getting into the backfield too early and the patience of a Benny Lemay gave them the opportunity to suck our defense in and then hit the gap with nothing in the middle. This is scheme, and it is a bad scheme because it plays Against our strengths.

I was trying to be optimistic about Roof, but a two game aggregate is showing me that this is a disastrous hire. We shouldn't be rebuilding, we should be retooling. Offense looks solid, not sure about the negativity towards that.... Defense was nationally ranked last season.....

So let me ask you this. And I respect your opinion and observation on matters of strategy and execution, so it isn’t meant to be argumentative; those weren’t the only times that we pressed the line with our linebackers. They were just the two that killed us with long runs. It seemed to work more often than not.

I get that the Roof hire wasn’t well received, but who were we going to get to come in and run the defense the way we were accustomed? Woody wasn’t going to come back. Ivey wasn’t an option.

I get why Drink hired him and I’m sure that he is being evaluated like the other coaches. The players love him and he has seen a lot. I know the players took the onerous on them for today’s play. Let’s see how they respond.

I'll answer the scheme part here, I'll address some other things in the Moose Lodge.

Roof's base package was a three man front with Gaither, most of time, as a 4th on the line. The reason why Roof is running this hybrid 4-3 is because he knows that our LB Corp is a strength of this team. He is definitely not dumb enough to not have all 4 of those LBs out there. But he wants to run a 4-3. The problems this creates are in multiple areas.
1. The big runs- as I noted earlier, when your LBs are playing on or that shallow to the line, two things happen: Our speed gets us in the backfield quickly when blitzing, but a patient runner or zone scheme can negate that perceived advantage. Benny Lemay exploited that today with patient running. Second thing is, you are allowing for offensive lineman to engage your linebackers before they can read and react. Our linebackers aren't built to shed blocks, they are built to have space and read and react with speed. Flory and Gaither put on a clinic with this last year in a true 3-4. Having Stout clog the middle helps make this style look even better.

2. The short slants in space- again, your linebackers are playing too shallow and with playaction or a dual threat QB, our linebackers are having to remain shallow, or are being sucked inside. This scheme is putting a lot of pressure on our Safeties and outside DBs, which aren't exactly our strengths. Typically, our safeties were stretching out to provide help outside, and or one would come down to fill a gap when we blitzed. ETSU and Charlotte kept reading this and would slant over the middle where the safety wasn't at or pull receivers across the field and create opportunities for wheel routes or WR screens.

The only times we were making this look good is when our guys were getting to the QB (we blitzed alot) or when our DBs/LBs made great individual plays. But more often than not, this hybrid scheme was putti g our guys in bad spots creating large gaps in coverage. With a 3-4 like we played last few seasons, we played a lot of zone/cover 2 where we forced teams to throw over the top or in between coverage. It's a tough scheme to play with our personnel.

1. I have no idea who you are.

2. Everything you said is exactly right.

3. I would dare say all of our hardcore fans already know (maybe in more simplistic terms) what the problem is and the necessity to run a 3-4 as to not leave coverage gaps.

4. Why would any defensive coordinator take over such a successful defense and try to change it period? Especially when so much of the personnel is returning?

5. Some posters here are heavy contributing alumni and therefore very friendly with leadership in our program. They refuse to place any blame on coaches or leadership. Same with Satterfield....I love sat but I also recognize his shortcomings and his part in our inability to beat top 15 programs. You cant give up 41 points (the 3rd most points weve given up in FBS) to Charlotte and pretend its okay.

6. We have 1 senior dl, 3 senior linebackers, 2 senior dbs, return 7 starters on defense, and 4 of last years 5 leading tacklers. There is 0 excuse for our defense to not be violently good.

7. A win is a win, offense scored 42 in both games and special teams has been excellent except stations missed fg. Get healthy, refocused, beat the damn Tar Heels.

Against FCS caliber defenses. UNCC let Gardner Webb score 4 td’s, and ETSU got worn down in 2nd half, which could be due to differences in depth due to scholarships.
I’ve seen too much dink and dunk stuff that hasn’t been successful against not great competition to feel to warm and fuzzy yet.
Not to mention ZT is getting pressured a lot, and with Drink limiting his mobility, good defenses are going to make it rough on us (more specifically him) if we don’t somehow improve our OL and let ZT run more to keep them defenses from blitzing him all the time .

[yosef69]

I am not joking at all when I say this: drink needs to be on the phone with woody by tonight and roof fired by tomorrow

[HkyMtneer]

O yea, Charlotte out scores APP offensively today.

I loved that Sims called it like it was in the post game “the worst App defensive performance” he has witnessed.

As soon as he said that I immediately began to wonder if Sims would be around to provide color for the UNC game.

[Mjohn1988]

Roof and Drink need to forget what they think they know about defense and spend the next two weeks reinstalling our defensive scheme from the past two years. I know we lost some players but the replacements can’t be that bad. Yesterday was embarrassing. Coach, get out the “tape” from last year, humble yourself, and get busy.

[NewApp]

Last I checked, Roof was not the only defense coach on the staff. App eats their own.

[yosef69]

Last I checked, Roof was not the only defense coach on the staff. App eats their own.

Hes the only one calling the plays

[89gradX2]

As many have said, this was the one hire that concerned me. In fact, didn’t like it at all. Now I understand schemes but our guys looked lost yesterday. And I believe we have great football players. The responsibility of looking lost starts at the top. That is all!

[Rekdiver]

Did we ever run the 3-4 yesterday?

[Rekdiver]

Here’s the mistake a first time coach has made. He failed to understand the totality of coaching responsibilities, concentrating on his offense while neglecting to understand his inherited defenses strengths. He abdicated his responsibility to someone he knew that was convenient. Drink does not understand defense and if he wants a career as a head coach he better learn it. At his coaches show he needs to acknowledge this, not be defensive and not be catty.

[Stonewall]

Did we ever run the 3-4 yesterday?

All day.

[Appster99]

Here’s the mistake a first time coach has made. He failed to understand the totality of coaching responsibilities, concentrating on his offense while neglecting to understand his inherited defenses strengths. He abdicated his responsibility to someone he knew that was convenient. Drink does not understand defense and if he wants a career as a head coach he better learn it. At his coaches show he needs to acknowledge this, not be defensive and not be catty.

He did acknowledge that he caught himself losing track of the defense against ETSU. I thought he took steps to own it. He said he needs to get better at that. If the D was playing App FB, this wouldn't be noticable. But we aren't, and it is painfully obvious. Next step is to fix it by whatever means necessary.

[appstatealum]

Did we ever run the 3-4 yesterday?

Haha. Yes. But it was a hybrid scheme where you line a 4th LB on the line. This is what was causing all of the problems.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

Thought it was a really bad hire in the beginning but got comfortable and talked myself into thinking it would be ok. I believed with what we lost on the defensive side and bringing in a new coaching staff, we’d digress on the D side regardless of who we hired and knew there were going to be games where we had to outscore our opponents (didn’t think Charlotte would be one). I have to remind myself of the Texas State game a few years ago. Also, our next game is UNC. I hope that we got caught looking ahead, expected Charlotte to be worse and we are not as bad as we showed yesterday. We are in fact Charlotte’s Super Bowl and got there best shot.

[asu1978]

Let's face it ,the defencive coaching has been TERRIBLE .Ok it SUCKS.It could be time for a change

[AppStFan1]

It is dumb to change now or during the year and would cause major confusion and basically start from scratch. Give him a few more weeks before we say for sure he has to go. If by week 7 things aren't better, than we know he has to go.

Bryan Brown was the coach I felt we would miss the most. Always thought Drink would be good on offense but never liked the Roof hire. Maybe he surprises us but who knows.

The one point about first post that is indeed different from previous regime is that we were installing a new defense and did not have the talent. All Roof had to do was copy the playbook and approach of Brown and he had a top 15 defense.

[yosef69]

It is dumb to change now or during the year and would cause major confusion and basically start from scratch. Give him a few more weeks before we say for sure he has to go. If by week 7 things aren't better, than we know he has to go.

Bryan Brown was the coach I felt we would miss the most. Always thought Drink would be good on offense but never liked the Roof hire. Maybe he surprises us but who knows.

The one point about first post that is indeed different from previous regime is that we were installing a new defense and did not have the talent. All Roof had to do was copy the playbook and approach of Brown and he had a top 15 defense.

I say we let his stupid ass sit in the booth and have one of the returning app guys call plays from the sidelines. Then fire him in December. 40+ points to charlotte should be unacceptable and that should be made clear to Ted

[AppStFan1]

It is dumb to change now or during the year and would cause major confusion and basically start from scratch. Give him a few more weeks before we say for sure he has to go. If by week 7 things aren't better, than we know he has to go.

Bryan Brown was the coach I felt we would miss the most. Always thought Drink would be good on offense but never liked the Roof hire. Maybe he surprises us but who knows.

The one point about first post that is indeed different from previous regime is that we were installing a new defense and did not have the talent. All Roof had to do was copy the playbook and approach of Brown and he had a top 15 defense.

I say we let his stupid ass sit in the booth and have one of the returning app guys call plays from the sidelines. Then fire him in December. 40+ points to charlotte should be unacceptable and that should be made clear to Ted

I know it sounds good. Just harder to make those choices. I'm telling you Roof has a mega ego. He will become a huge problem and storm out the door if we did that. The best thing to do would have been to never hire him to begin with. Everyone knew it but Drink.

As for giving up over 40 to Charlotte. You are indeed right. If I'm Charlotte I am completely happy with result. If Roof sticks around then they could definitely beat us next time.