Ted Roof UCF press conference
Watch Oklahoma Sooners defensive coordinator Ted Roof meet the press after OU's 31-29 win over UCF on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.
Transcript
00:00 - Coach, as good as y'all have been playing defensively
00:02 over this whole season,
00:04 there's been several big plays over the middle.
00:10 Has there been anything that you can pinpoint
00:15 on, have they all been different,
00:18 or have the busts been kind of similar, I guess,
00:22 in nature every time?
00:23 - Well, when you give up big plays,
00:25 you know, there's usually some kind of,
00:27 obviously some kind of mistake,
00:28 whether it's a mistackle, a misfit, a miscoverage,
00:32 you know, whatever.
00:33 So, you know, all those elements have,
00:35 big plays have elements of mistake,
00:37 and we made our fair share of that today,
00:39 but, you know, those are the things that are frustrating
00:43 because for a lot of those plays, we played really well,
00:46 but the inconsistency is the part that, you know,
00:50 that drives you bananas, but at the same time,
00:54 you know, guys that found a way to win
00:58 and we made too many mistakes and our guys did that,
01:00 and they fought hard, they showed a lot of guts
01:02 and a lot of toughness, and I'm proud of that,
01:04 and we're gonna get, we've identified the mistakes,
01:06 we identify them as soon as they happen,
01:08 and we're gonna go back, and our guys are prideful,
01:10 and they're prideful and humble at the same time,
01:13 and I think that's a great combination,
01:14 and so we'll get that fixed.
01:16 - Ted, can you talk about what you saw
01:18 in the two-point conversion play,
01:19 not only Kendall's tackle, obviously,
01:22 but Woody and everybody else on that side?
01:24 - Yeah, I saw a disciplined football play.
01:28 It looked like it was gonna be a double pass,
01:32 and the coverage guys stayed in coverage,
01:34 and the guy that was supposed to come get his man
01:35 came and got his man and tackled him,
01:37 and usually when that happens, good things happen.
01:42 But you know what, to Dolby's credit,
01:44 he's been involved in several big plays,
01:47 you know, and a guy that moved positions
01:49 and has done a good job, you know,
01:52 working at the cheetah spot and continuing to develop
01:54 and get better, and he's gonna continue to do that
01:57 because, again, he's another guy that's, again,
01:59 prideful and humble at the same time.
02:02 - How tough was that, it's gonna be on Jarrett,
02:04 the personal foul, Brent talked a little bit
02:06 about taunting, saying discipline and stuff.
02:08 As a defense, how tough is that when you're third and goal?
02:11 - Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, we can't do that.
02:15 Our policy on that is when something good happens,
02:19 you go find your teammates and celebrate
02:20 with your teammates, and nothing bad
02:22 is gonna happen with that, because usually
02:25 it's a combination of a lot of people,
02:26 it's not one person, there's a combination
02:29 when you go into stuff in a run like that,
02:31 and we gotta celebrate with our teammates,
02:33 and, you know, Jarrett'll learn from that,
02:36 we'll all learn from it, and, you know,
02:38 understanding that so many times the margin for error
02:41 is so small, you know, but again,
02:43 we found a way to fight through it
02:44 and a way to win today instead of almost,
02:47 you know, come up a little short,
02:48 so proud of that, but at the same time,
02:51 you know, a lot to improve on, a lot to work on,
02:53 and our guys will.
02:55 - Was it surprising to see that from Jarrett
02:56 when the government almost got called
02:58 for something similar?
02:59 - Yeah, well, I mean, yeah, it was.
03:02 - You said there seemed to be a big difference
03:05 in how this defense played in the first quarter
03:07 versus the second quarter and then onwards.
03:10 What do you kind of chart that up to?
03:11 And what did you see afterward that made it different?
03:14 - It was inconsistency.
03:15 You know, it was inconsistency, that's what happened.
03:21 (indistinct chatter)
03:24 - Competition is good for everybody.
03:35 It brings out the best in everybody.
03:37 And when you know that, you know, what you do matters
03:41 and it affects, you know, playing time,
03:43 it affects reps, affects all those,
03:45 it's good for everybody because it makes everybody better.
03:47 So, you know, we've got some depth at that position
03:50 and there we are.
03:52 (indistinct chatter)
03:55 Yeah, he is, you know, he's made some big plays for us
04:00 and we'll continue to have to do that for us
04:01 as we, you know, march down the stretch here.
04:04 - Brent talked about UCF and Kansas coming up
04:08 being maybe the two most deceptive teams
04:11 that y'all face offensively.
04:13 How do you feel like y'all handled
04:15 that specific element today?
04:18 What lessons can you take from that?
04:20 - Well, you learn from every experience,
04:21 but I thought that, you know,
04:23 with a lot of the deceptives today,
04:25 'cause I think they lead the country in trick plays,
04:28 9.9% of their plays are trick plays
04:30 and Kansas is second in the country
04:32 with 6 point something percent of their plays are,
04:34 you know, what is labeled by whoever does that
04:38 as trick plays.
04:39 So, I mean, but at the same time,
04:41 that's where it goes back to discipline,
04:42 discipline getting lined up, getting the call,
04:44 all the, where I put my eyes,
04:46 all the things that go into things,
04:48 your pre-snap process that, you know,
04:51 if you don't have a great pre-snap process,
04:53 that can get you beat.
04:54 And at times it almost did today.
04:57 - Is it one thing to, sorry,
04:59 is it one thing to prepare for it?
05:01 It's another thing to go up against it?
05:05 It's how you deal, like,
05:06 you can prepare for it as much as you want,
05:08 but when you see it in the game,
05:09 how much harder is it?
05:10 Because they've perfected it I guess.
05:14 - Yeah, obviously you don't get the picture
05:16 and the game picture from the scout team.
05:18 Our scout team does a good job,
05:19 but it's not as fast.
05:21 It's not as precise,
05:23 but at the same time, that's how you get better.
05:25 So usually sometimes the reeds are cleaner, you know,
05:29 but in the situational football IQ
05:34 that we try to develop and push with our guys
05:36 as far as understanding, you know,
05:38 certain situations where things like that
05:39 may be more likely to happen.
05:41 They've done a good job of that
05:42 and recognizing it and identifying it
05:45 and just being an awareness,
05:46 but it goes back to this, you know,
05:48 the discipline of putting my eyes where I'm supposed to be
05:50 and being where I'm supposed to be
05:52 when I'm supposed to be there.
05:53 As elementary as that sounds,
05:55 that's like real, really, really, really, really important.
05:58 - How do you prepare for a team like Kansas
06:00 as two quarterbacks and you don't know
06:01 who they're gonna bring out on Saturday?
06:03 What goes into the process of a week like that?
06:06 - Well, you prepare for everything and all of them.
06:09 You know, we do a deep dive
06:10 and I think our preparation is thorough
06:13 and at the same time, you know,
06:15 we can't control that.
06:16 We've just got to prepare for both of them
06:17 and, you know, use our time
06:19 as efficient as we can use it and make the best of it.
06:22 And whatever, whoever shows up for them, shows up.
06:26 - You've started out seven and oh,
06:28 six and oh, obviously,
06:30 leading to this.
06:31 From your perspective,
06:33 without naming names and everything,
06:35 how much easier has the recruiting trail been
06:36 for you guys compared to last year?
06:39 - Oh, it's certainly, yeah,
06:40 you certainly have an in now
06:43 because you don't have to explain,
06:45 here's what's gonna happen.
06:47 You know, you can say,
06:48 here's what happened
06:50 and just like we said, what's gonna happen.
06:51 And, you know, so that there's probably more,
06:54 you know, more belief by recruits.
06:59 But it's certainly, you know,
07:00 winning helps a lot of things.
07:02 Yeah, not just recruiting.
07:03 Good.
07:06 All right, y'all have a good afternoon.