Tuesday Media Quotes: Coach Roof

Head Coach Ted Roof met the media on Tuesday morning to discuss the Northwestern and Navy games

Head Coach Ted Roof

On Northwestern win: “It was a great win, but it was one football game. And we have to put that in the proper perspective. Just like the University of Connecticut game was one game and the Virginia game was one game, the Northwestern game was one game and we did what we were supposed to do. I’m very proud of it, but at the same time we have to get a lot better this week in order to have a chance to beat Navy. They ran the ball for 521 yards last week. So we have our work cut out for us.”

On upcoming Navy game and the option offense:
“It forces you to defend the entire field, but at the same time to be really assignment conscious. When you make a mistake against an option offense, you pay for it immediately, because they’re reading you. It’s all in the read, so that if you make a mistake then you are going to pay instantly. It’s unlike anything that we play against, which makes it tough to get it simulated in practice with the scout team because the execution is not going to be anything close to what Navy is going to give us and to simulate the tempo of it. Navy runs a lot of no-huddle, so trying to find a way to simulate that means that we’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

On keeping confidence without results:
“Regardless of what people have said externally, we try to keep our focus on internally. Specifically, what we see and what we do, not what we hear. We’ve lost several close games here, but it was nice to find a way to go win one at the end. Hopefully we can use that as a springboard to move forward.”

On Thaddeus Lewis at Northwestern:
“It started with the protection. He wasn’t sacked all day and I give some credit to our offensive line, our tight ends, and our backs. When he did feel some pressure, he was able to escape the first guy and elude him, then not focus on the rush but keep his eyes downfield. Plus, guys found a way to make a play instead of to almost make a play. There is such a fine line between winning and losing and we finally got over the line.”

On moving forward from a win:
“I’ve done some things to make sure we’re not focused on that [win]. The real proof was when we turned on the tape on Sunday. There were a lot of mistakes. It was not like we played excellent. We played really hard, but we made way too many mistakes. And we’ve got to get those mistakes ironed out if we’re going to have a chance to beat Navy. Like I said, we have to keep it in the proper perspective. It was one football game and right now it is the previous football game, which has no bearing on the next football game.”