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Quotes: Press Conference Announcing Ted Roof As Football Coach
Dec. 6, 2003
Press Conference Video | Release | What They're Saying About Roof | Roof Photo Gallery
General
"When I put together a list of criteria for what I was looking for in a head coach, my No. 1 criteria was leader. I wanted somebody who could lead, motivate, recruit and teach. Those were the four main criteria, and when we went through the search process and believe me, we went through a search process. We searched for four or five weeks hard. My ears hurt from all the people I've talked to. We brought in four really good candidates for this job. The bottom line in my mind was that Ted Roof provides the leadership and motivation and ability to recruit and ability to do what we need to do here at Duke to go to bowl games and win championships."
On If The Players Had Anything To Do With The Decision
On When He Decided On Ted Roof
On If Ted Roof Was A Shoe In After His Interim Role
On If Ted Roof Had An Advantage Over The Other Candidates
On Financial Support For The Football Program
On If Attendance Is Linked To Winning
On What He Learned By Conducting The Extensive Search
On If Duke's Commitment To Improving The Football Program Is Linked To ACC Expansion
General
On The Duke Football Staff And Players
On The Future Of The Football Staff
On If He Was Convinced Duke Is Committed To Building A Good Football Program
On His Feelings Now Compared To Being Named Interim Head Coach
On Who Has Influenced Him Most In His Life
"In the business, Bill Curry from an organizational standpoint, from a CEO type role. I certainly learned from everybody I've worked with and worked for because I think along the way you have to build your own philosophies. I learned a tremendous amount of football from George O'Leary. He's the best 'X' and 'O' guy I know. I'm also very fortunate to have played for some great coaches, back to my high school coach. I've known what I wanted to do since I was 17 years old. I've wanted to be a head football coach in the Atlantic Coast Conference and there's been no other goal. That's what I've wanted to do. I was very fortunate at a young age to know what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and now I certainly have the opportunity."
On His Coaching Philosophy
"We're going to have a balanced offense. You have to spread the field and make the defenses defend the field and we're going to have some balance. We cannot do and I don't want to do the same things everybody else does on offense. We have to be innovative. We have to be creative, we have to be imaginative and at the same time understand what our personnel dictates and ask our players to do things they can be successful at. Not have just a system but evolve and manipulate the system around the talent and personnel we have and I think that's what coaching is."
On How He's Going To Recruit To Duke
"No. 1 you look at the impact the decision can have on you to attend Duke University. You talk about setting yourself up for the rest of your life, unlocking some doors for you that other places can't do, you're also talking about a University that's committed to building a winning football program and at the same time committed to developing young people to make them better people, as well. The opportunity to build something and then when you get done in four or five years and you say "Wow, we built a pretty nice thing right there.' The person who did that would be able to look back on that and be very proud at what they've accomplished not only with the football program but at the University as well.
"Duke is not a good place for everybody. There's got to be the right balance in a young man and certainly we want student-athletes that want to win football games at the next level. I think the unique opportunity to really make an impact will excite, it already has excited a lot of young people with how recruiting has gone so far. From personal experience, that's something young people can be very proud of and I don't anticipate that being a problem.
"We got to about South Florida and that's about it so far. If you don't do it every day, you're falling behind. We just a team meeting and low and behold there happened to be some prospective student-athletes in there and it kind of worked out, the timing was pretty good."
Duke Director of Athletics Joe Alleva
"The board of trustees unanimously endorsed Ted Roof as our next football coach. Ted took over this program with five games to go. At that time, I told the team this is a new season; let's treat it that way. That's what Ted did. What he did for this team from a motivational standpoint was tremendous.
"What the players said to me had absolutely nothing to do with my decision, zero. What the players did on the field had something to do with it. The way they responded to Ted's leadership spoke volumes for Ted as a coach."
"I decided Monday afternoon. We interviewed Sunday and Monday. Monday afternoon I made my decision and Tuesday I presented the recommendation of the committee and my recommendation to the president."
"I was committed from the very beginning to this process and finding the best coach for Duke University. Believe me, that's what we did. I had five ex-football players on an advisory board with me and they were terrific. I wanted to go about this in the proper fashion, open-minded and search and that's what we did."
"I thought he brought a situation where he already knows Duke University. He doesn't have a learning curve. He already has won over the players. The players have bought into what he's doing. A new coach would have to start over there. One of the things Ted brought that I was most impressed with was a plan to recruit to Duke University. For us to grow this program and be where we need to be, we have got to recruit. We have to recruit in a more efficient and a better manner than we have in the past. I believe Ted has an outstanding plan to do that."
"There's not going to be a problem financially with any recruiting situation. I told Ted to go where he needs to go and spend what he needs to spend to get players in here. I mentioned to the board of trustees today of some things I'd like to do facility-wise around here and I think those things will come, some improvements to Wallace Wade Stadium. We can get the money; the money is not the problem. We are committed to graduating kids and winning football games."
"I hate to say it but yes, if we win, they will come. That happened in the past. It happened in 1989 and 1994. We won, and we sold out. In 1976 in basketball, there was nobody in Cameron Indoor Stadium. We got some basketball players, fans started to come and we've sold out ever since, there's a real correlation between winning and attendance."
"I've been through five football coaching searches in my time here at Duke and the interest in this job was the greatest it's ever been. That leads me to believe that people out there think we can be successful. I think we have put things into place that we didn't have in place five years ago that will help Ted do his job and succeed. I'm really pleased; I'm willing to do more things to help him succeed. I think other coaches out there in the world recognize that Duke has a chance to get it done."
"My commitment to football began before we started thinking about expansion. There's no question that expansion makes it a more competitive league. But Duke football had to become more competitive regardless of whether we expanded or not. We needed to do something to help our football program. Expansion just exacerbates the situation.
Duke Head Football Coach Ted Roof
"This is certainly a big day for us. It was really a great process; very thorough. I'm very excited about this opportunity; it's a tremendous honor, a privilege and responsibility to be a head coach here at Duke. It's an opportunity that we want to embrace; one we've been working for, for a long time. I had a five-week audition to show what we could do. I'm excited for the opportunity and very thankful for the opportunity and I'd also like to thank my family because it's a lot of stress on families, too."
"I could not be prouder of a group of men than I am of our staff. There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding futures and they remained loyal and remained together and we were great role models for our players, which is why I think we had some success. I also want to thank our players for their effort and the way they bought into everything and played with one heartbeat which is the way we have to do it here at Duke."
"I'm very proud of them and very pleased with them. I haven't had the opportunity to think about that a lot because I've been out recruiting and I haven't had a lot of chance to think about it. We're going to evaluate every facet of the program and certainly that includes the coaches but we're going to evaluate everything within the program."
"If I wasn't convinced, I wouldn't be sitting here. I am wholeheartedly convinced that this University and this administration is committed to winning football."
"I am very much on the opposite end of the spectrum. That's the ugly side of any business. I don't want to focus on that. I want to focus on pushing forward from this day on. I'm very excited and thankful for the opportunity and I'm ready to continue what we've already started at Duke."
"The person who has been most influential for me is not in this business; it's my father. He is established a work ethic and toughness and at the same time done it with honesty and integrity. I learned that from him and the very compassionate, people side from my mother.
"I think you've got to be sound in all areas. Obviously recruiting you have to have a certain level of ability to begin with. You've got to know what you're doing. Football is a game of emotion and a game of heart, that's a very big part of the game. All those components are very important parts of being a successful football program.
"First of all I think we have a great University to sell, not only in the state of North Carolina but all over America. When you think of Duke, you think of excellence and respect, so we're going to go after the best athletes in America that can compete on the field for us and compete in the classroom here. We will go from the north pole to the south pole to find them to educate them about Duke so when they're getting ready to make a decision that's going to impact the rest of their lives, they're educated about Duke University.
