AU FOOTBALL: Roof learns from time at Duke

Ted Roof called his four-year stint as the head coach at Duke a lot of fun and a great learning experience.

But it sure was frustrating.

Roof, Auburn’s new defensive coordinator, compiled a 6-45 record with the Blue Devils before he was fired after the 2007 season. He picked up two of those wins when he served as the interim head coach after Carl Franks was dismissed with three games remaining in the 2003 season.

The Blue Devils won two more games in Roof’s first full season and picked up the others in 2005 and 2007. Duke went 0-12 in 2006.

“When you’re a competitor and you invest yourself into it, you invest your life into it, you invest your family into it, you want to have good results. And we did.” Roof said. “We just didn’t win enough football games.”

Football plays a distant second fiddle to basketball-crazy Duke and high academic standards make winning, let alone competing, at the ACC school highly difficult.

Roof, who speaks openly about the experience, said his time there wasn’t a complete wash. He piled up victories elsewhere.

“(I) can certainly take great pride in the other parts of the program that were very successful,” Roof said. “We were winning national championships in graduation rates and developing good citizens, but we didn’t win enough football games.

“But I think you can do all those things at Auburn.”

Roof, a 19-year coaching veteran, took over a different type of rehabilitation project in 2008, when he signed on as the defensive coordinator at
Minnesota — the worst statistical defense in the Football Bowl Subdivision the previous season.

The Gophers still struggled in 2008, ranking in the bottom half of the Big 10 in passing defense, rushing defense and total points allowed, but made definite strides on their way to a 7-6 record.

Minnesota finished the season 79th in the nation in total defense, a 40-spot jump from 2007.

Roof, 45, said he is a much better assistant coach now than before his rough time at Duke.

“You think that you understand it all as an assistant sometimes, but you really don’t — that the magnitude of every decision, every word that comes out of your mouth,” Roof said. “It was a great experience for me, because whatever did or did not come out of it, I have a skill set that nobody can every take away from me.”

Taylor waiting for a chance to move up
Wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor may have passed up bigger money and bigger titles to coach at Auburn, but he apparently found a boss willing to help him achieve his ultimate goal.

Taylor, who also serves as Auburn’s assistant head coach, said Gene Chizik has already brought in representatives from hiring firms to prepare
Taylor for the day when he interviews to be a head coach at a major college program.

“That tells me a lot, one that he’s comfortable with his own skin,” Taylor said. “A lot of coaches that I’ve worked with thought I was trying to get their job and so they weren’t trying to help that way.”

Taylor, 38, said he has been offered head coaching gigs at smaller schools, or “jobs that I didn’t think were the right fit for me.”

“I’m looking for the right opportunity, a fair opportunity and a place where you’re excited about being,” Taylor said.

For now, though, Taylor said he is happy at Auburn, where he serves as Chizik’s stand-in from time to time.

When Chizik is out of town or unable to attend a meeting, Taylor takes his place. He also has a hand in team disciplinary matters.

“Really, there is no substitute for experience,” Taylor said, “so getting that type of experience is huge for me.”

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