Coach Ellis Johnson not concerned about Malzahn's tempo

[ellitor 34,019]

AUBURN -- Ellis Johnson predicts Gus Malzahn's offense will continue to put pressure on opposing defenses this fall. He's coached against it. He knows what it can do.

But Auburn's new defensive coordinator isn't buying into the notion that Malzahn will have to occasionally slow down his fast-paced offense to allow the Tigers' own defense catch its breath. Johnson says Malzahn really runs a physical offense that can churn out first downs and eat up the clock, and that'll give his defense time to rest.

"I'm not overly concerned about it -- having coached against it and having worked with it in the spring," Johnson said. "This isn't your typical chuck-and-duck fast-operation offense. It's a running, play-action offense. The speed of operation between plays can be controlled. He can make you think he's going faster than he is.

"The second thing is the base running game is a physical running game, and I think that produces first downs. If you produce first downs, it doesn't matter how fast you operate. You're not going to put that stress back on your defense. Some of the spread teams run the ball one out of four plays, and they drop a couple of balls, and they run 28 seconds off the game clock and they don't run three minutes off the real clock. If you put your defense under that situation, you're going to have problems. That's happened to a lot of teams. You see a lot of those 48-44 games, it's just like NBA basketball running around putting up 3-pointers. There's no defense. I don't look at our offense that way. I think it's a very physical offense."

Still, the offense offers so many twists that it can drive defensive coordinators crazy.

"The offense has power, the offense has option, the offense has play-action deep shots, it has very good formations, deception and movement; and has that speed of operation," Johnson said. "I've named about everything that can give you a fit on Saturday as a defensive coordinator."

The bonus: Johnson's defense will see just about every aspect of an offense against Malzahn's multi-faceted practices.

"If you get ready for an option offense, and your offense never runs it in practice, it's hard to get ready for it," Johnson said. "It's like the speed-up operation. If you never see it in practice and then all of a sudden it blows up on you during a game week, they can't handle it. That part of it I like: It has all those elements that tests you every day."

Having to prepare for such offenses, or at least the spread element, has been a transition for Johnson. He says 40 percent of teams "or more" are spread teams now.

"I feel like a good reference point is my last eight years in the league at Mississippi State and South Carolina," Johnson said. "My last year at Mississippi State (2007) the only team we saw was West Virginia, and they were really good at it. That's when we got our wake-up call. We could not continue to play with the verbiage and the signal system with the schemes we had. We could not match up in space, we could not get our calls in and out, we were getting stuck in defenses. That's when we started gradually changing. By the time I left South Carolina (2011), I'd say at least half of our schedule were at least no-huddle. Only about 30 percent of the teams we play now get in a huddle on every snap." Link

[Stripe 5]

Nice quote. It's too bad that most people doen't understand the complexity of Gus' O like CEJ does. If they did understand it, I could stop hearing this called a spread offense.

[ellitor 34,019]

Nice quote. It's too bad that most people doen't understand the complexity of Gus' O like CEJ does. If they did understand it, I could stop hearing this called a spread offense.

If you ever get a chance I recommend reading Gus's HUNH book. It's a great read and he has a defensive philosophy to go with his offense. It's an attacking style D that Coach Johnson is running. In basketball in the 90s Arkanasas was an attacking team that earned the monocur nickname of 40 minutes of hell. When Auburn is clicking on all 8 cylinders you can call it 60 minutes of hell in football.

[BornaTiger 0]

4 quarters of hell sounds better.

[ellitor 34,019]

4 quarters of hell sounds better.

Agreed. PRINT THE SHIRTS!

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

Nice quote. It's too bad that most people doen't understand the complexity of Gus' O like CEJ does. If they did understand it, I could stop hearing this called a spread offense.

If you ever get a chance I recommend reading Gus's HUNH book. It's a great read and he has a defensive philosophy to go with his offense. It's an attacking style D that Coach Johnson is running. In basketball in the 90s Arkanasas was an attacking team that earned the monocur nickname of 40 minutes of hell. When Auburn is clicking on all 8 cylinders you can call it 60 minutes of hell in football.

Haven't read the book (and can't spend the time 'til I graduate), but I did read somewhere that Coach Malzahn's 1st football gig was as a HS DC. Got promoted to HC the following year.

[war eagle6 0]

Nice quote. It's too bad that most people doen't understand the complexity of Gus' O like CEJ does. If they did understand it, I could stop hearing this called a spread offense.

If you ever get a chance I recommend reading Gus's HUNH book. It's a great read and he has a defensive philosophy to go with his offense. It's an attacking style D that Coach Johnson is running. In basketball in the 90s Arkanasas was an attacking team that earned the monocur nickname of 40 minutes of hell. When Auburn is clicking on all 8 cylinders you can call it 60 minutes of hell in football.

Haven't read the book (and can't spend the time 'til I graduate), but I did read somewhere that Coach Malzahn's 1st football gig was as a HS DC. Got promoted to HC the following year.

Which makes me love the hire of Gus! He actually knows both sides of the ball, unlike most coaches these days!!!

[keesler 5,975]

I'm glad EJ is prepping this defense for HUNH offenses, we are bound to see a lot of them this year. LSU's new OC (Cameron) said he wants to impliment HUNH, UT's coach Butch Jones said he will be running a fast-paced offense, Ole Miss/aTm both run their offenses at lightening speed. At least our defense won't be caught off guard when we go up against these SEC teams.

[Dixie1860 27]

4 quarters of hell sounds better.

Agreed. PRINT THE SHIRTS!

We can make that happen guys.

[BornaTiger 0]

4 quarters of hell sounds better. ;)/>

Agreed. PRINT THE SHIRTS!

We can make that happen guys.

Go for it. The Game in Columbus will print them right up for you. I want royalties though.

[doc4aday 1,887]

I keep thinking about the 2010 game with Uat in Tuskertown. You know, the first half of that game, Uat had to have been able to read our signals from the sideline. When we started running players in and out with plays. CGM's offense came to life and shut down nicky's defense. I am sure that CGM remembers that game, and will never allow something like that to happen again (1st half that is). I would like to see that stats at Ark State for 2012 as compared to 2011 when Freeze was coach at ASU. I think I will go out and see those stats and come back and post them.

[ellitor 34,019]

I keep thinking about the 2010 game with Uat in Tuskertown. You know, the first half of that game, Uat had to have been able to read our signals from the sideline. When we started running players in and out with plays. CGM's offense came to life and shut down nicky's defense. I am sure that CGM remembers that game, and will never allow something like that to happen again (1st half that is).

I don't think that was the case. I say that because that lesson should have been learned when Arky was stealling our signals in 2009.

[quietfan 233]

I'm starting to like the Johnson/Malzahn collaboration a lot. 3 out of 4 of CEJ's defenses at USCe were rated in the top 15 nationally. I think if he just keeps our defense in the top 20, the Gus Bus can outscore anyone we meet.

[AUSWEN 0]

I'm a fan of the interception numbers for both of our DB coaches. I'm sooooo looking forward to seeing turn-overs again from our defense!

[keesler 5,975]

I'm starting to like the Johnson/Malzahn collaboration a lot. 3 out of 4 of CEJ's defenses at USCe were rated in the top 15 nationally. I think if he just keeps our defense in the top 20, the Gus Bus can outscore anyone we meet.

Hopefully. The SEC consistantly pumps out the top defenses in the country - LSU/UGA/FLA/UAT/SoCarl.

[ellitor 34,019]

I'm starting to like the Johnson/Malzahn collaboration a lot. 3 out of 4 of CEJ's defenses at USCe were rated in the top 15 nationally. I think if he just keeps our defense in the top 20, the Gus Bus can outscore anyone we meet.

Actually we could probably be in the top 40 in D and be a great compliment to the O if Coach Johnson still produces Ds that are in the top 20 in creating negative plays and getting turnovers like he has.

[quietfan 233]

I'm starting to like the Johnson/Malzahn collaboration a lot. 3 out of 4 of CEJ's defenses at USCe were rated in the top 15 nationally. I think if he just keeps our defense in the top 20, the Gus Bus can outscore anyone we meet.

Hopefully. The SEC consistantly pumps out the top defenses in the country - LSU/UGA/FLA/UAT/SoCarl.

I get your point, and yes, the SEC is known for great defenses. What I mean is, I hope/think CEJ's defense can slow down those other teams' offenses more than their defenses, good as they are, can slow down Malzahn's scoring. Like in the 2009 Iron Bowl (and Saban's only perfect season): Gus scored enough against that Bama defense to win, but our defense couldn't quite keep up its end. In any case I think we all agree, that if Johnson can produce the proper defensive compliment to Malzahn's offense, the Auburn Tigers will again be a thing of beauty and danger!

[quietfan 233]

I'm starting to like the Johnson/Malzahn collaboration a lot. 3 out of 4 of CEJ's defenses at USCe were rated in the top 15 nationally. I think if he just keeps our defense in the top 20, the Gus Bus can outscore anyone we meet.

Actually we could probably be in the top 40 in D and be a great compliment to the O if Coach Johnson still produces Ds that are in the top 20 in creating negative plays and getting turnovers like he has.

And of course, creating negative plays and turnovers just puts their tiring defense back on the field that much quicker! ...playing right into Gus's plan.