Roof almost coached at Notre Dame

The last time Ted Roof visited Notre Dame he came back with a contract in his hand. It was 2001, and Notre Dame had just hired George O’Leary from Georgia Tech to replace Bob Davie.

Roof, who had been O’Leary’s defensive coordinator with Georgia Tech, decided to join him. Notre Dame sent a plane to pick up O’Leary assistants Roof, Bill O’Brien and David Kelly. They spent a day there meeting school officials, touring campus and looking at homes, then flew back.

Roof brought back his contract because he wanted to have an adviser look it over before he signed. In the middle of the night, O’Brien called him to say there was a problem.

“And then the next morning that was not a deal anymore,” Roof said.

O’Leary resigned after Notre Dame found inaccuracies on his resume. When Georgia Tech didn’t take O’Leary back, Roof came to Duke as defensive coordinator and later was elevated to head coach.

“It was a nice place,” Roof said of Notre Dame. “That day I was there, it looked nice.”

On Saturday, Roof will return as Duke (1-9) visits Notre Dame (1-9).

O’Leary is in his fourth year as head coach at Central Florida. His biography on the school’s official web site makes no mention of Notre Dame.

“He’s an awfully good football coach and a good person,” Roof said. “It was just an unfortunate situation. He’s been successful everywhere he’s been.” -- Ken Tysiac