Veteran defensive mastermind and former Duke head coach Ted Roof has been selected as Minnesota's defensive coordinator, head coach Tim Brewster announced today.

Roof served as the head coach at Duke during the 2003-2007 seasons and replaces Everett Withers, who recently resigned to become the defensive coordinator at the University of North Carolina.

"We have a profile of what we are looking for in our staff," Brewster said. "First and foremost is a great person. Number two is a great teacher and coach and number three is a great recruiter. Ted has proven to be outstanding in all three areas. To have a man with his experience as a defensive coordinator and head coach in the ACC is a tremendous addition for our staff and our defense."

Roof's experience on the defensive side of the ball is extensive and includes stints as a defensive coordinator at Massachusetts, Western Carolina, Georgia Tech and Duke in addition to his tenure as the Blue Devils' head coach.

"I am very excited to join what I believe is a great university, a great athletics department and a football program that is doing something special," said Roof. "I am very thankful for the opportunity and I am excited about the opportunity to help build this football program. It's a great situation to be working for men that I think a lot of in Joel Maturi and Tim Brewster. I could not be working for two finer men and I am thrilled to be here."

Improving defenses has been a hallmark of Roof's career. Prior to being named the interim head coach at Duke seven games into the 2003 season, Roof guided the Blue Devils' defense from the depths of the Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA rankings to respectability, improving a unit that ranked 113th nationally in total defense in 2001 to one that led that ACC in rushing defense and finished the 2002 season ranked 58th nationally in total defense.

Roof enjoyed similar successes while serving as the defensive coordinator at his alma mater, Georgia Tech. Originally hired as the Yellow Jackets' linebackers coach in 1998, Roof was promoted to defensive coordinator prior to the 1999 season.

By 2000, he had sculpted Tech's defense into one of the nation's best as the Yellow Jackets finished the season ranked 12th nationally in rushing defense and 20th in scoring defense. For his efforts he was nominated for the 2000 Broyles Award, which is given to the nation's top assistant coach.

The Georgia Tech defense continued to shine in 2001, his final year with the team, ranking third in the ACC in both rushing and total defense – marks that ranked 32nd and 23rd nationally.

But it wasn't just the Tech defense that prospered during his four-year stint in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets were also co-champions of the ACC in 1998 and won the 1999 Gator Bowl in the first of four consecutive postseason bowl berths made by the team.

Roof's successful coaching tenure with the Yellow Jackets mirrored the contributions he made as a player at Georgia Tech from 1982-85, when he was a key member of the famed "Black Watch" defense under head coach Bill Curry.

A 1998 inductee into Georgia Tech's Athletics Hall of Fame, Roof started each of his final three seasons with the Yellow Jackets and ended his career with 417 total tackles, a figure that still ranks seventh on Tech's all-time tackles list. In 1995 alone, Roof collected 119 tackles, including the second-highest single-game total in school history with 25 against Tennessee, and earned first team All-ACC honors.

Roof began his coaching career as a graduate assistant coach at Alabama from 1987-88 before serving as the linebackers coach at West Georgia in 1989. He then spent four seasons as the outside linebackers coach at Duke under Barry Wilson, with his recruiting efforts helping to lay the foundation for the Blue Devils' 1994 squad that went 8-4 and played in the Hall of Fame Bowl.

Following his first stint with the Blue Devils, Roof joined the staff at Massachusetts for three seasons, serving the first season as the program's linebackers coach and the final two seasons as defensive coordinator. Roof then served one season as the defensive coordinator at Western Carolina before moving on to Georgia Tech.

A native of Lawrenceville, Ga., Roof, 44, earned a bachelor's degree in management from Georgia Tech in 1987. He is married to the former Pam Ash of Fayetteville, Ga., and the couple has nine-year-old twin boys, Terrence Davis and Michael Edwin.

TED ROOF COACHING CAREER

YEAR SCHOOL POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES

1987 Alabama Graduate Assistant Defensive Backs

1988 Alabama Graduate Assistant Linebackers

1989 West Georgia Assistant Coach Linebackers

1990 Duke Assistant Coach Outside Linebackers

1991 Duke Assistant Coach Outside Linebackers

1992 Duke Assistant Coach Outside Linebackers

1993 Duke Assistant Coach Outside Linebackers

1994 Massachusetts Assistant Coach Defensive Line

1995 Massachusetts Assistant Coach Defensive Coordinator

1996 Massachusetts Assistant Coach Defensive Coordinator

1997 Western Carolina Assistant Coach Defensive Coordinator

1998 Georgia Tech Assistant Coach Linebackers

1999 Georgia Tech Assistant Coach Defensive Coordinator

2000 Georgia Tech Assistant Coach Defensive Coordinator

2001 Georgia Tech Assistant Coach Defensive Coordinator

2002 Duke Assistant Coach Defensive Coordinator

2003 Duke Assistant Coach Def. Coord./Interim Head Coach

2004 Duke Head Coach

2005 Duke Head Coach

2006 Duke Head Coach

2007 Duke Head Coach

MEET TED ROOF

Birthdate: December 11, 1963

Hometown: Lawrenceville, Ga.

Family: Wife – Pam; Twin Sons - Terrence Davis and Michael Edwin (age 9)

College: Georgia Tech, 1987

High School: Central Gwinnett (Ga.) High School, 1982

Playing Experience

• Four-year letterwinner at Georgia Tech (1982-85) • First team All-ACC and team captain in 1985

• Led Georgia Tech to a 9-2-1 record in 1995 and a win over Michigan State in the All-American Bowl

• Ranks seventh on Georgia Tech's career tackles list with 417

• Inducted into Georgia Tech Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998