During his first press conference of the preseason, UCF defensive coordinator Ted Roof outlines his camp objectives, how they're working to utilize new technology, what it will take to stop the run and more.
Here's everything he had to say:
Second day of practice out there. How are things looking for the defense?
"I think we're getting better. You know, that's the goal. To establish the right mindset. To dominate and to attack and to attack each day, each rep. You know, just establishing the right mindset.
"We're not there by any stretch of the imagination. And to develop some competitive depth. Because as you know, in order to have a good season or a great season, you've got to win your one-possession games.
"And in order to win your one-possession games, you've got to be able to execute and win at the end of games. Win on the last play of the game. And that's what we have to prepare to do and develop leaders at every position.
"We're only going to go as far as the leadership takes us on this team. The teams that I've been a part of, the teams that I've been fortunate to be a part of that were extremely successful, were all player-driven. I know you guys hear that from every coach. I know that.
"But that's what it is. And then the last thing, because now with the evolution of the transfer portal, we've got to develop a sense of unity and cohesion and trust in a much shorter time frame than, like, I say, the old days of college football two years ago.
"So, to be able for guys to get to know each other, to establish relationships, to establish respect. It's been my experience that when you watch a man work and if he's busting his hump, you can respect that man. Doesn't have to be your best friend, but there's a level of respect. And when that happens, you can play for another man. And that's all some of the things that we're trying to develop out of this camp."
What do you want the identity of your defense to be this season?
"At the end of the season, I want them to be known as a unit that plays extremely physical, that plays extremely hard, and that's efficient. They don't bust. They don't beat themselves.
"There's 8 million little other things that we could talk about, but in a nutshell, it's those three things right there. When they put their tape on, when they put our tape on, here's what I like them to say about it. They freaking championship strain. They play physical. They hit you. Okay. And they don't bust."
You saw Ethan Barr when he first walked onto a college campus for the first time. You now see him as a veteran leader and a captain. What's his development been like?
"It's been fantastic. He's always had all that good inside of him, but, you know, it takes time. You don't just step in there as a freshman and you run the team. That's not the way it goes. You've got to earn your stripes, earn your respect, earn your marks. And he did that there. He was a captain there, and now he's a captain here.
"So I don't think that's any accident. And you know what? When you recruit those type of guys, then you help your locker room. And the locker room is so important."
How is Gus different than the last time you worked with him?
"He's about 13 years older, just like I am. But he's super competitive. A very strong leader, believes in the right things. He's got some very strong beliefs that he's communicated with the staff.
"His beliefs and his beliefs and his vision needs to be our vision as assistant coaches and our players. And if we do that, you know, we're going to be in good shape at the end of the season. But he's a guy that, like I said, he's flexible, he's adjustable, but at the same time there's things he believes in.
"And when he tells you something, you can count on it. And, you know, I like working for guys like that."
Gus said yesterday that Demari Henderson is going to miss some time with an injury.
"Stop. I don't talk about injuries."
The question is going to be What's the plan as far as the safety position?
"Get the next guy ready. Get the next guy ready."
Which are the next guys?
"We've got a few guys. We've got some competition at that position. It could be a number of guys. And we're rolling back and forth. We're not getting hemmed in with one guy being this safety and the other guy being that safety. We've got, you know, a bucket of guys and we're cross-training them.
"So that way we can get our next best player on the field. I think after spring ball we really helped ourselves in the transfer portal at that position. But we've got some guys too that are here that played well in the spring and they're very prideful. So it's creating competition. Again, competition makes everybody better."
This program for a long time has been known for its offensive style. How do you build a defense that complements that or even maybe kind of flips that?
"You want to complement it. You want to add to it, right? I love it. You know, you want to be at a place where there's a great offense that scores points. I mean, you win games that way. And at the same time, we want to establish our own identity defensively within the team concept. We want to help make UCF Football as good as we can make it. And that's our mindset."
College football has really changed in the last two years in a lot of ways. From a technology standpoint, it's different for you with helmet communication and the tablets. Is that something you're kind of working through and trying to figure out the best way to go about utilizing those things?
"Yes, it is something we're working through. The communication with the player, the coach-to-player communication, and it clicking off at a certain time. So, yeah, we're working through that.
"But hey, I can learn a few new tricks. That's what we're working through."
Are you going to be the guy on the headset during the games talking to the Mike Linebacker? Is that going to be your job?
"I'm going to be the guy on the headset talking to somebody. I haven't figured out who yet, but we're going to talk to somebody."
Along the same lines of technology, the use of tablets this year, do you think there's going to be a benefit to having instant access for players and coaches to be able to look at plays and break things down?
"I think what you're going to get, because part of the realm of coaching, especially game-day coaching, is being able to identify exactly what just happened. Did the ball hit the A gap? Did it hit the B gap? Where did it hit? And sometimes when you ask players what happened, their version of what happened isn't exactly what happened, especially when it would be their fault that they don't want it to be their fault.
"Okay, but now just the clarity of the information so you've got a picture to be able to make the adjustments you need to be able to make. But I've always taken great pride in doing that anyway. So that's something that's certainly a picture's worth a thousand words. So that's great."
Coach, you talked about cross-training guys. How does that versatility help with hiding coverages and stuff like that to confuse the offense because your guys are able to do more?
"Well, I don't know if it helps with confusing the offense, but what it does do once they understand concepts, it's the ability to get the next best player on the field, whoever that might be.
"You know, so you're not humpstering, well, like, okay, this is the second best strong safety. So the second best strong safety, no, maybe the second best free safety is better than the second best strong safety. So you can insert that guy.
"Again, just to give you more competitive depth and a way to get your best players on the field, however that may work out."
How would you describe the distribution of tasks between you and Addison Williams?
"I think it's been fantastic. As far as distribution of tasks, you know what? I've been doing this 38 years, and that's the first time I've ever been asked that question with those verbiage, the distribution of tasks.
"So congratulations. It's been fine. So that's the distribution of tasks."
What are you doing? What is he doing?
"I'm doing what defensive coordinators do. He's doing what co-defensive coordinators, assistant head coaches do."
Which includes?
"I'm not going to sit here and talk about a job description. That's not what I'm going to talk about."
Coach, stopping the run is obviously, you know, it goes without saying that is your job on defense, but that was an issue for this team last year, and part of the reason I assume you were brought in to coordinate the defense. How do you work on that in a practice setting?
"You rep it over and over and over and over again. You rep it when you don't feel like repping it. You make them thud up when they don't feel like thudding up. You understand about the constriction of gaps, right, where you don't have gaps this big because you say, well, there's a free player, but you've created space.
"Space is our enemy. We want to eliminate the space. We do that by constricting gaps, by disengaging and defeating blockers, and by tackling and by fitting.
"We team tackle. We team tackle. Because in football, I've never been part of a game where there wasn't a missed tackle.
"So eliminating the yardage after missed tackles, that's a big deal, and that happens through pursuit, through proper tracking angles, through tackling technique, through want to, through all that stuff. So there's a lot that goes into that, yeah."
Along those lines, having a guy like RJ Harvey, who's a 1,400-yard rushing back, how does that help your guys' defense when it comes to planning how to stop a run when you have to go up against him in practice?
"Oh, yeah, you're going against one of the best backs in America, and, you know, that's going to make you better. That's going to make your level of your game rise because you're going to rise to the level of your competition every day. At least you're better. So it will definitely prepare us for game day, no matter who we play."
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