Ted Roof will stay up in coaching box for Duke game

AJC photo by Hyosub Shin

AJC photo by Hyosub Shin

Georgia Tech defensive coordinator Ted Roof said he’ll stay in the coaching box for the next game against Duke after calling plays from the elevated perch for the first time this season in the Georgia Southern game.

Roof did not elaborate on his move from the field, but acknowledged that he is superstitious. Tech was on a three-game losing streak when Roof made the change.

“I just thought I’d go back and see what I thought,” Roof said. “I’m probably going to do the same thing this week.”

In the 35-24 win over Georgia Southern, his defense had mixed results. The Yellow Jackets held the Eagles to 4.0 yards per play and had a season-high nine tackles for loss, but allowed them to score 24 points on eight possessions, a high rate. Georgia Southern ran 83 plays to Tech’s 55 by converting 13 of 20 third downs.

“Guys did a good job of making plays,” he said. “There’s a lot of things we’ve got to clean up and get better at, but there was some improvement in some areas.”

With an open date this weekend, the Jackets play Duke on Oct. 29 at Bobby Dodd Stadium.