As Ted Roof continues to construct his coach staff, he once again draws from his roots. David Kelly, former assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Stanford was named the third new member of Duke's football coach staff Friday.
Although Roof will wait to define Kelly's specific role, he will be the associate head coach and focus primarily on wide receivers. He also coached wide receivers at Georgia Tech in 2000 and 2001 when Roof was the team's defensive coordinator.
"We're very excited to have David [Kelly] join our staff," Roof said at a press conference Friday afternoon. "He's a great football coach, a great recruiter and more importantly, a fantastic person. That's the first quality I was looking for in hiring every member of our staff. I think our football program is going to benefit greatly from having David here with us."
Kelly, a Union, S.C. native, is excited about joining the program, especially after the way the team played when Roof became the interim head coach at the midway point of this past season.
"We were fortunate enough to come take a look at Duke and the campus and facilities, and I was shocked, but very impressed with the commitment that Duke is making not only in football, but in the totality of the University in striving to become the number one university in the world."
The relationship between Roof and Kelly extends beyond their days in Atlanta. The working friendship began when both were at the beginning of their respective coaching careers.
Roof was in his first stint at Duke, and Kelly was the coach of the successful Dunwoody High School in Georgia. While Kelly led his team to a state championship, Roof recruited heavily from Dunwoody and the two coaches became good friends.
Prior to coaching the Yellow Jackets, Kelly was first the running backs coach at Georgia where he tutored such future NFL players as Robert Edwards, Hines Ward and Terrell Davis. Then, he went on to coach four seasons at Louisiana State.
Kelly has spent the past two seasons at Stanford. Leaving the athletic powerhouse was a difficult decision, but Roof and future prospects were enough to lure him back to the South.
"Stanford is one of the premier universities in the world, and I had a tremendous experience there, not only myself, but more importantly, my family," Kelly said. "I am very fond of the coaching staff, the players, the administrators and others that I developed relationships with that are hopefully life-long. In the same token, I'm a Southern boy, I have a tremendous relationship with the man who has taken over the leadership of this program and who I'm firmly convinced is going to be highly successful."
Kelly's Southern connections are important given Duke recruits primarily from its home region. The appointment is timely given that around 20 potential recruits are on campus this weekend and will be making decisions on where to attend school based heavily on their opinion of the coaching staff.
Roof's ability to attract high caliber coaches from top Division-1 programs will likely give the Blue Devil program, after struggling mightily on the field in recent seasons, some additional credibility.
Kelly joins a staff that also includes Jerry Azzinaro, a former assistant coach at Syracuse, and Glenn Spencer, who was a coach at Georgia Tech for the past three seasons. Like Kelly, both coaches had coached with Roof in the past -- Azzinaro at the University of Massachutes and Spencer at Georgia Tech.
Coaching positions remain to be filled and roles wait to be defined, but Roof appears resolved to hire high caliber coaches with proven track records who are also upstanding people.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.