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Report: Former Oklahoma Coach Ted Roof Lands as DC at Big 12 School

Brent Venables invited his defensive coordinator to stay on staff in another role, but Roof wanted to continue as a full-time, on-field coach and now has scored a new job.
John E. Hoover|
Report: Former Oklahoma Coach Ted Roof Lands as DC at Big 12 School
Report: Former Oklahoma Coach Ted Roof Lands as DC at Big 12 School

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Oklahoma Sooners

Ted Roof wasn't out of work long.

Oklahoma's old defensive coordinator has reportedly landed on his feet, and gets to keep coaching in the Big 12 Conference.

Roof was hired this week as defensive coordinator at Central Florida, per a report from the Orlando Sentinel's Matt Murschel.

Roof, 60, was one of new head coach Brent Venables' last hires in 2022. He was on Dabo Swinney's support staff as a defensive analyst before Venables brought him to Norman.

Roof has had multiple coaching stops but has largely put down roots in the Southeast and has spent the majority of his career at places like Alabama, Georgia Tech, Duke, North Carolina State, Appalachian State and Vanderbilt.

Roof will coach defense for Gus Malzahn, but he's already been on the Knights' staff once, when he was UCF's defensive coordinator in 2011. Roof has also coached at Penn State, Minnesota and UMass among his many stops. Roof and Malzahn won a national title together at Auburn in 2010 when Roof was Malzahn's defensive coordinator.

After two seasons in Norman, Oklahoma's defense under Roof and Venables showed only incremental improvement, from 76th nationally in total defense and 60th in points allowed before Venables and Roof arrived, to 121st and 98th in their first year together, to 72nd and 46th in 2023.

So Venables brought in a new defensive coordinator for 2024, hiring Jacksonville State's Zac Alley and formally announcing the hire this week. Alley coached defense at Clemson under Venables as a student assistant and graduate assistant for seven seasons before taking an on-field gig at Boise State and then taking over the defenses at Louisiana-Monroe and Jacksonville State.  

Venables said in a press release he invited Roof to remain on the staff in another role, presumably defensive analyst, but Roof told Venables he'd rather coach, so Venables let him go. Roof had one year left on his contract.

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.

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