The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Woody set to replace Roof
Appalachian State coordinator has fared well vs. bigger schools.
Appalachian State defensive coordinator Nate Woody is in line to take the same job at Georgia Tech, according to a person familiar with the situation. Woody, in his fifth season at Appalachian State, needs to pass a background check and finalize a contract before the agreement is official.
Because Tech’s campus is closed through the end of this week, the hire likely would not be announced until after the new year.
Woody follows Ted Roof, whose second term as Tech defensive coordinator ended Friday when he accepted a co-defensive coordinator job at North Carolina State. Roof ’s defenses had come under criticism, particularly this season, for an inability to create tackles for losses and turnovers
and to stop opponents in last-minute drives before the end of the first half and the game. Roof was coach Paul Johnson’s third defensive coordinator in his 10-year tenure, following Dave Wommack and Al Groh.
Woody, who turns 57 on Saturday, seems like a fit for Tech. Woody’s philosophy — aggressive, fast, blitz-heavy — is in line with what Johnson has wanted from his defense. With Tech’s
frequent inability to affect the quarterback with a fourman pass rush (the Jackets ranked 105th this season in sacks per game at 1.55), Johnson was an advocate of sending more pressure. If a fiveman rush didn’t work, send six. If that wasn’t enough, bring seven.
Johnson is willing to take risks on defense because his offense limits possessions and typically is efficient.
With Woody at the lead, the Mountaineers’ defense has been among the most effective in FBS in recent seasons. Starting in 2015, Appalachian State ranked 11th, 20th and 30th in defensive efficiency by the measure of the website Football Outsiders. This season, going into Wednesday’s bowl games, Appalachian State ranked in the top 30 nationally in scoring defense, takeaways, third-down defense, tackles for loss and passes defended.
In what was evidently Woody’s final game at Appalachian State, his defense shut out Toledo on Saturday in a bowl game at Mobile, Ala.
The Rockets entered the game ranked eighth nationally in total offense and 11th in scoring offense. Beyond getting shut out for the first time since 2009, Toledo failed to advance the ball past the Appalachian State 35-yard line in the whole game. The Rockets were limited to eight first downs and 146 total yards, 364 fewer than their season average.
“We put more and more defense in, and they took
it and ran with it,” Woody told the Appalachian State website. “As you go into the bowl week, you’ve got exams, and that’s stressful for those kids, and we’re putting in more defensive schemes for them. They executed it so well tonight, and I was just so proud of them because you can sit in there and write down your assignment on a piece of paper, but to go out there and execute it is difficult. They did it.”
Playing out of the Sun Belt Conference, the Mountaineers have done well against power-conference opponents.
In the past three seasons against five power-conference opponents — Georgia and Wake Forest this season, Tennessee and Miami in 2016 and Clemson in 2015 — the Mountaineers held the opposition below its season averages against FBS opponents for points three times.
They kept them under their season rate for total offense and yards per play four times. The teams’ thirddown conversion rates against Appalachian State were below their season average three times.
Under Woody’s direction, Appalachian State did it with smaller and lesser recruited players. In this year’s season opener against Georgia, the Mountaineers fielded a lineup in which the three starting defensive linemen were an average of 6-foot-1 and 264 pounds. Of the starting 11, nine were two-star prospects (247 Sports composite) and the other two didn’t have a rating.
Yet, only Notre Dame and Auburn (in the first meeting)
held the Bulldogs to fewer yards than Appalachian State (368). The Bulldogs scored more points in seven games (including Georgia Tech) than they did against the Mountaineers (31).
When Appalachian played Clemson (on its way to the national championship game) in 2015, the Tigers gained 392 yards and averaged 5.23 yards per play. Among the teams that couldn’t meet those standards against Clemson that season — Louisville, Georgia Tech, Boston College, Miami, Florida State, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Alabama.
Woody has used a 3-4 scheme, which would be a change for Tech players, who played out of a 4-2-5 base defense with Roof. The Jackets, though, would seem to have players who could adapt to that scheme. Desmond Branch, for instance, is a candidate to move from defensive tackle to end. Defensive end Anree SaintAmour might fit as an outside linebacker.
Also interesting to note: Before Appalachian State, Woody was a successful defensive coordinator at Wofford, his alma mater. For years, Wofford has run an offense similar to Johnson’s option-based spread, which has been the frequent target of complaints that Tech’s defense is hampered by having to play against an unorthodox scheme throughout spring practice and the preseason.
To whatever degree the complaint has basis, Tech now has a coordinator who faced similar circumstances and managed well.