Duke head coach Ted Roof would love to tell you about his time as defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, but he doesn't have much to say.
And it's not because he's tight-lipped about it. It's because it only lasted a matter of hours.
"You can take the 's' off of 'days,' Roof said. "It was 'day.'"
Roof's ephemeral stint at Notre Dame ended before it truly began due to the December 2001 scandal regarding embellishments on the resume of newly-hired head coach George O'Leary,
Roof had served as O'Leary's defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech for three years when he was asked to move with the coach to Notre Dame. Roof agreed in principle to join the Fighting Irish as defensive coordinator and traveled to South Bend with Bill O'Brien and David Kelly, two other members of O'Leary's staff.
Notre Dame sent a university jet to Atlanta early in the morning to bring the three coaches to see their new workplace. Roof toured the campus, met with administrators and Athletic Director Chris White and even shared the results of some house-hunting efforts with his wife, Pam.
"I had called her a couple of times during the course of the day, because the cost of living was pretty reasonable up there," Roof said. "Of course, any time when you've got kids, and you're talking about moving, all those things go through your mind."
With Georgia Tech preparing for a bowl game, Roof arrived back home by 11 p.m. with a contract in hand. A stunning phone call three hours later, however, rendered those papers useless.
"I was at home and the phone rang at about two o'clock in the morning," Roof said. "When you coach college football and your phone rings at two in the morning, or I guess just if you're a human being and your phone rings at two o'clock, they're not pleasant calls. That one wasn't either."
The call was from O'Brien, and he had some unpleasant news. Revelations about falsifications on O'Leary's resume, which incorrectly stated that the coach was a three-year football letterman at the University of New Hampshire and that he had earned a master's degree at NYU, had come to light. O'Leary was forced to resign the next day, and with that development, any of Roof's dreams of coaching beneath Touchdown Jesus vanished into thin air.
"I didn't think it was real," Roof said. "But the longer it went, then obviously the next morning when it all hit the news, [it sunk in]. It's just really unfortunate, because George O'Leary is a good football coach and a good guy."
Roof had the option of staying at Georgia Tech under newly hired head man Chan Gailey, but he was only offered the position of linebackers coach, an effective demotion from his job as defensive coordinator.
Roof was accustomed to a decision-making position, so he traveled to Durham to interview with Duke head coach Carl Franks for the defensive coordinator opening. Roof, who had spent four years at Duke as a linebackers coach in the early 1990s, landed the job before the 2002 season. Fifteen losses later, Franks was fired midway through the 2003 season, and Roof was named interim head coach. A 2-3 finish that season led to the permanent installation of Roof in his current position.
Although in retrospect, his opportunity at Notre Dame may have been nothing more than a mirage, Roof acknowledges that it put into motion a series of events that he is perfectly comfortable with today.
"It worked out like it worked out, and it worked out great," Roof said.
Vaas heads home
Roof is not the only Duke coach with strong ties to Notre Dame. Offensive coordinator Peter Vaas regularly walked the South Bend sidelines on two separate occasions. He first served on Lou Holtz's offensive staff for two years in the early 1990s before heading off to become a head coach at Holy Cross and in NFL Europe.
At the end of the 2005 NFL Europe season, Vaas left his job with the Cologne Centurions to accept the quarterbacks coach position under new Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis. Vaas spent the next two years working with future NFL first-round pick Brady Quinn on teams that reached two consecutive BCS bowl games.
But after the 2006 season, Weis and his staff decided to go in a different direction, and Vaas was pushed out of his position in favor of former Notre Dame star quarterback Ron Powlus.
"Charlie and Notre Dame made a decision a year ago, and it was a professional decision and it was a decision they made and one that I've adjusted to and learned to accept," Vaas said. "Did it come as a surprise? When I first learned about it, I would say yes-something like that is always a surprise, but that's the way it was."
Upon the recommendation of members of Duke's athletic department and other coaches who had previously worked with Vaas, Roof hired him as running backs coach. O'Brien-Duke's then-offensive coordinator-departed for a position with the New England Patriots, opening the spot for Vaas. Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis and the Blue Devils' offense have made strides this season under Vaas' tutelage, who has relished his new opportunity to lead the team's offensive unit.
"When you get here, you're involved in a decision-making process which [at Notre Dame] was basically a suggestion-making process," Vaas said. "Here, those suggestions become decisions on my part.... That's been a tremendous experience."
Vaas, who spoke to the team on Tuesday about what to expect in South Bend, is excited about this weekend for more than just the football game. Both of his daughters attend Notre Dame, and the opportunity to see them and other familiar faces will be a thrill. But as for trying to earn retribution against a team that pushed him out of the door less than a year ago, Vaas could not care less, as long as he can help lead his team to a successful outcome Saturday.
"I'm sure that if I get on the plane [after a win] there might be some personal satisfaction," Vaas said. "[But] one of the things that would thrill me the most is to be in the Duke locker room with the Duke football kids rejoicing with the second win of the season.
"You coach to win on a Saturday, and you coach to give those kids the tools to win, and that's the part that I've got the most on my mind right now."
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