David Cutcliffe's predecessor is bringing his new-look Georgia Tech defense to Durham.
Former Blue Devil head coach Ted Roof will be making his first appearance at Wallace Wade Stadium since he was fired following the 2007 season when Duke takes on the Yellow Jackets Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Now Georgia Tech's defensive coordinator, Roof admitted there would be a bit of nostalgia associated with the return to his old stomping grounds.
"I've got a lot of great memories from there," Roof said. "It's a lot of wonderful people and it's a great institution. I met a lot of good friends there."
Although Roof's tenure at Duke was littered with fond memories, it was not full of success on the gridiron. Roof was named the Blue Devils' interim head coach midway through the 2003 season when Carl Franks was fired, and led the team to a 2-3 mark to close the season.
After Roof was promoted to full-time head coach during the ensuing offseason, Duke managed just four wins in the next four years, including a winless season in 2006 when the team averaged fewer than 15 points per game.
"Looking back, one of the biggest takeaways is the relationships I had with the players there," Roof said. "Even though we were struggling on the field—and we were close and just couldn't get over the hump—they always came to work every day and always gave us their best."
Cutcliffe was brought in following the 2007 season, a 1-11 finish, and Roof departed for Louisville, where he served as the linebacker coach for two months before landing the defensive coordinator position at Minnesota. Roof helped to lead the Golden Gophers to a 7-6 season before taking the defensive coordinator job at Auburn, where he coached for three seasons and won the 2010 national championship.
Roof signed on to coach at Central Florida for a month in 2012, but quickly left to take the vacant defensive coordinator job for Bill O'Brien at Penn State. Despite facing the first year of significant sanctions following the Jerry Sandusky investigation, Roof helped the Nittany Lions to an improbable 8-4 season.
Now Roof is back at Georgia Tech, where he worked as an assistant coach from 1998-2001. He inherited a struggling Yellow Jackets' defensive unit, which parted ways with defensive coordinator Al Groh in the middle of the 2012 season after they allowed more than 40 points in three consecutive outings—including 49 points in a home loss to Middle Tennessee State.
Wasting no time to overhaul Georgia Tech's defense, Roof switched the Yellow Jackets' base from a 3-4 to a 4-3 and simplified the team's playcalling scheme. Jeremiah Attaochu, a preseason first-team All-ACC selection, moved from outside linebacker to defensive end, and Roof's adjustments paid instant dividends in a 70-0 shutout victory against Elon to open the 2013 season.
"Obviously I've followed Ted's career as an assistant and a head coach here and I think he's a really fine football coach," Cutcliffe said. "They're going to play hard and they're going to be really aggressive."
The Yellow Jacket defense was all over the field against the Phoenix, forcing four turnovers and returning two interceptions for touchdowns.
"What we take away from our first game is that we have so much room for improvement," Roof said. "We have so many things that we have to get better at as the level of competition increases, and certainly it's a huge jump this week."
When squaring off against Georgia Tech's spread-option offense, Duke will be forced to play 11-on-11 assignment football. But Roof said that playing assignment football will be the Yellow Jackets' greatest test on the defensive side of the ball due to the versatility of Blue Devil quarterback Brandon Connette.
"They have a good scheme where they spread you out and potentially isolate you in matchups," Roof said. "When you decide to get people out of the box, then here comes the quarterback run game. The thing about the spread offense with the element of the quarterback run game is it forces you to play 11-on-11."
Although Roof's return to Durham will provide the former Duke head coach with somewhat of a walk down memory lane, the Georgia Tech defensive coordinator said that his primary focus is taking out his former team.
"This is a football game between Duke and Georgia Tech. It doesn't have to do with Ted Roof," he said. "We're just getting ready to play a football game."
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