A Roof for Penn State defense

TED ROOF is leaving Central Florida as defensive coordinator before he even coached in practice.

Roof has agreed to join Bill O'Brien's staff at Penn State, also as defensive coordinator, according to multiple reports.

Roof was the head coach at Duke and hired O'Brien as his offensive coordinator in 2005 and '06. Roof and O'Brien also were on George O'Leary's staff at Georgia Tech from 1998 to 2001. O'Leary is currently the head coach at Central Florida.

During his news conference Saturday, O'Brien called Roof "one of my closest friends."

"We didn't win many games, but we sure fought as hard as we could," O'Brien said of his tenure at Duke.

Roof, who was at Central Florida for 33 days, spent three seasons as the defensive coordinator at Auburn. Roof essentially was pushed out the door at Auburn amid heavy criticism, leading to his hiring at Central Florida. Of course, Auburn did win the BCS national championship the season before.

Roof is noted for the ability to shut down the pass, but his defenses have struggled against the run, including being ranked 80th in the NCAA this season.

Roof also has coached at Louisville and Minnesota.

Penn State also reportedly has hired Ball State offensive line coach John Strollo, who is expected to coach tight ends.

Strollo just finished his first season at Ball State, but has been a college coach for 31 years. He was the offensive line coach at Duke from 2005 to '07, where he worked with O'Brien and Roof.

The news was first reported by Indiana television station WIOU. A Ball State spokesman said the school was not confirming the report and that an announcement would have to come from Penn State. Strollo did not return a message left at his office at Ball State.

His resume also includes stops at Springfield College, Northeastern, Washburn, Massachusetts, Lafayette, Cornell, Maine and Elon.

At this point, six coaches on O'Brien's staff have been identified - returning defensive line coach Larry Johnson and linebackers coach Ron Vanderlinden, and newcomers Roof, Strollo, running backs coach James London and wide receivers coach Stan Hixon. London was an offensive quality control coach with the Tennessee Titans. Hixon was the wide receivers coach with the Buffalo Bills.

O'Brien told ESPN on Sunday that he will have seven full-time coaches working in State College by tomorrow.

Not returning to Penn State is safeties coach Kermit Buggs, who tweeted his departure yesterday morning.

"Just got the call this morning I am not being retained. I thank all of my followers in the Penn State Community," Buggs tweeted.

Buggs, who spent 8 years on the coaching staff, tweeted that he was interviewed by O'Brien and extended his best wishes to the new coach.

"Penn State has done a lot for me and I appreciate all the love and support given to me in my 8 years at Penn State! We Are . . . " Buggs tweeted.

Buggs was a graduate assistant from 2003 to '05, was coordinator of player personnel in '06 and '07 before being named the safeties coach.

Bill Kenney, the tight ends/offensive tackles coach, also will not be returning, according to several players and recruits on Twitter.

While not confirmed, it seems that interim coach Tom Bradley, quarterbacks coach Jay Paterno and offensive line coach Dick Anderson also will not be retained.

During his news conference Saturday, O'Brien said he and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady were like brothers. O'Brien is the Patriots' quarterbacks coach along with being the offensive coordinator.

Brady said last week that he told O'Brien that he did not want him to leave. Yesterday, Brady was asked on his weekly radio show on WEEI in Boston whether he was surprised that O'Brien took the job, given the challenges at Penn State.

"Am I surprised? No. I think it's a great opportunity for a very deserving coach,'' Brady said. "He's worked his tail off for a long time to get opportunities. We're all competitive - if you're a backup quarterback you want to be a starting quarterback someday and I think that probably goes the same for a lot of coaches; you want to get your opportunity to be a coach.

"Everyone's very happy for Billy and his family; it's a great tradition they have, a great school, and hopefully he doesn't start work there full-time for another month or so.''

Former coach Joe Paterno and his wife donated $100,000 last month to Penn State, money that was split between a library and an undergraduate fellows program that bear the family name.

Sue Paterno described the contributions to the Paterno Liberal Arts Undergraduate Fellows Program and the Paterno Library as an annual gift.