Roof says defense needs to step up

Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof met with the media following Monday's practice. Here's what he had to say:

Your impressions after watching the film (from Saturday's 42-38 victory over Utah State)

“Yes, there were way too many mistakes. Things that we can control and things that we’ve all got to get better at. There wasn’t any one group or any one thing. It was a combination of a bunch of things and we’ve all got to work to get it fixed. That’s what we’re doing.”

Do you anticipate personnel changes?

“No. I don’t think so. Like I said, we’ve all got to do our part to get better because we’ve got to get better in a hurry. You know the old adage that you make your most improvement from game one to game two, well that better hold true for us this week. Our kids are focused. They understand what happened. At the same time, we won the football game. But we’ve got a lot of work to do and that’s what we’re addressing. We’re moving forward to get things cleaned up and get them fixed so we can play much better football against Mississippi State.”

Do you anticipate playing as many as you did against Utah State?

“Yeah, I do. That’s one thing we’ve got to continue to do. Some people have earned that right. At the same time it’s a way of forcing depth to develop. Because as coaches sometimes guys get hesitant about putting guys in, this kid or that kid, but in the end it’s beneficial for everybody in the long run to go ahead and do it. That’s what we’ve decided to do and we’re committed to doing that.”

Anybody show enough to warrant more playing time?

“There are some guys who are probably going to get a few more turns. That’s still based on the performance on the practice field this week so everything we’re doing we’re evaluating to the nth degree.”

Have you started working on MSU?

“Oh, yeah. We took a part of practice and worked on Auburn, cleaning up things we had to clean up and a large percentage of it was Mississippi State. Usually we’re off on Monday so this is a great start for us and something we desperately needed.”

Was part of the trouble Saturday alignment problems, people in shock at their first game, or Utah State doing things they were not prepared for?

“I wish I knew because if I knew going into that game I had a specific deal … obviously we were concerned with that many young kids playing and as many things as they did offensively and they were a good offensive football team with a lot of returning starters. Those are things, at the same time you can preach it and preach it in practice and until it happens to them on the big stage, I think it really hit home. Why we coach the details we do, why we coach the forced communication that we do. Why we turn up the crowd noise on Thursday where we have to do all non-verbal communication in the secondary. So I think there are a lot of things that hit home because maybe understanding that we need to treasure the details in what we’re doing.”

What will Eltoro’s Freeman's role be this week?

“That’s to be determined. He’s going to have a role. He’s going to have a big role. I’m looking forward to getting him back. I think he’s going to bring some energy and he’ll help us put a charge in that defense.”

Which linebacker spot will he play?

“Not sure.”

You played a lot of zone last week. More man-to-man this week?

“We did what we thought we had to do to give us the best chance to win. And that wasn’t a situation where we wanted to play a whole lot of man coverage going in because there were some situations and things that they did that present problems. But we’re always going to play a blend of coverages, but we want to be ultra aggressive and get up there and let our corners play press and that’s what we want to hang our hat on. We’ll just do what we think we need to do to give us the best chance to win based on who we are, what we do well and at the same time what we have to defend.”

Has communication got to improve?

“Absolutely, because with communication come s confidence and when guys have confidence they play faster. That’s something that we’re harping on as coaches and have been harping on and will continue to harp on because with the adjustments offenses are forcing you to make everybody has to be on the same page on the back end and throughout the whole defense or else it will cost you a big one. So that’s an area we’re working hard to get better on this week.”

Jonathan Evans was able to practice?

“Yeah, yeah. He was very productive. Had a productive game. there are some things he’s got to get better on to become more relaiable, more consistent, but he was very productive, played extremely hard, was physical a times and I think that was a good first step for him.”

With all the youth on defense, which area did that show the most on Saturday?

“I think it showed throughout. but listen I’m not making excuses. There are no excuses. That’s who we are. That’s where we are and that’s what we are right now. We’ve just got to keep working, keep growing. There’s a lot of want to there, there’s great attitudes and good work ethic and a lot of talent, so we’re going to get better.”

Anybody other than Evans play well?

“There were some guys who played better than some other guys. I thought jeff Whitaker got better and was productive. He gave us some good push inside. I thought Dee Ford there at the end gave us some juice in the pass rush when we were trying to close the deal there.”