Roof in, Bradley out at PSU

Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.

New Penn State coach Bill O’Brien is turning his defense over to a veteran, well-traveled assistant with a national title on his resume.

Ted Roof was officially tabbed the Nittany Lions’ defensive coordinator on Friday, leaving Central Florida a month after taking the same position with the Knights.

Roof was named Central Florida’s defensive coordinator Dec. 8 after leaving Auburn following the regular season. He previously spent three seasons as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator, including the 2010 national championship season.

Penn State also announced that South Carolina special teams coordinator John Butler would return to his native Pennsylvania and coach the secondary in Happy Valley.

O’Brien still plans to add a quarterbacks coach to fill his offensive staff. Otherwise, his defensive coaching staff is complete — and as expected it does not include veteran assistant Tom Bradley from former coach Joe Paterno’s staff.

Bradley, the veteran assistant under former coach Joe Paterno, posted on his Twitter account that he finished packing up his office late Thursday: “Walked out the doors proud with a lot of great memories and friends and a better man.”

An open recruiting contact period begins today, a 16-day window in which the new coaches can try to shore up previous verbal commitments while trying to entice other high school prospects who might be intrigued by Penn State’s new direction under O’Brien.

Roof takes over as Linebacker U’s new lead caretaker after having signed a three-year contract last year with Auburn paying him $500,000 annually. The Tigers finished ninth in rush defense in the 2010 national title season.

But a young unit was 78th in total defense (406 yards per game) and 79th in scoring (29.3 points per game) this past season before he departed for Central Florida.

Roof was also defensive coordinator at Minnesota in 2008, and spent six seasons at Duke. He became the Blue Devils’ head coach in 2003, going 6-45 before departing in 2007. A Georgia Tech graduate, Roof’s coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Alabama in 1987.