Why did Coach Ellis Johnson Fail?

[skyvoyager 0]

let CEJ answer the question for you then.....

"When you're not performing well in so many different areas, you have to start back

at the coach's feet." - CEJ

“You have to say it’s coaching, because if you don’t think it’s coaching, what do you do to correct it?” - Ellis Johnson

"You can't dismiss the fact that I don't think that this is a very well coached team" - Ellis Johnson

"If we've felt like we're doing the right thing, it doesn't matter to me what the results are. That's what we're going to keep doing." - Ellis Johnson

The fact that he failed as a head coach doesn't have anything to do with his success or lack thereof as a DC at Auburn. He has been a successful DC for many years. If every coordinator that ever failed as a head coach could never return to being a coordinator then we couldn't have WM here now.

The game obviously passed him by... how many 30 point / 400 yard games did the Defense allow this year? 5-6?

The most 30/400 games ever allowed in 1 season in over 120 years of Auburn football.

[AURaptor 1,125]

Every time where a new DC comes in, the players always says the same thing..."excited , energized, refreshed " Time will tell what Muschamp can do w / this unit.

[cooltigger21 0]

let CEJ answer the question for you then.....

"When you're not performing well in so many different areas, you have to start back

at the coach's feet." - CEJ

“You have to say it’s coaching, because if you don’t think it’s coaching, what do you do to correct it?” - Ellis Johnson

"You can't dismiss the fact that I don't think that this is a very well coached team" - Ellis Johnson

"If we've felt like we're doing the right thing, it doesn't matter to me what the results are. That's what we're going to keep doing." - Ellis Johnson

The fact that he failed as a head coach doesn't have anything to do with his success or lack thereof as a DC at Auburn. He has been a successful DC for many years. If every coordinator that ever failed as a head coach could never return to being a coordinator then we couldn't have WM here now.

The game obviously passed him by... how many 30 point / 400 yard games did the Defense allow this year? 5-6?

The most 30/400 games ever allowed in 1 season in over 120 years of Auburn football.

I understand all of that. I'm simply saying that because he failed as a head coach somewhere doesn't have any bearing on his ability as a DC. It didn't work for whatever reason and we have moved on. Do you think Randy Shannon can't be a good DC somewhere? He failed as a head coach. I would have been very happy had Gus hired him to be the DC. Boom is going to be great i think but still the fact remains he failed as a hc and there's no guarantee that the next time he gets a head coaching job he will succeed.

[KenTiger74 0]

I kind of think it was several factors that did Coach Johnson in. 1.) For some reason when the other teams went more uptempo he didn't do as well calling in the plays to keep up. ex: when he was the DC with USCe we shredded his D with Cam and company. 2.) The special teams put the defense in bad situations with some poor punting and turnovers on our side of the field making the D get back out after it looked like they had stopped the others offense. 3.) Penalties - in the one series with Bama we game them 30 free yards on one drive. 4.) Poor tackling and the secondary lost a lot of times leaving WR's wide open for easy scores. 5.) Like others have said no pass rush to speak of and in the Georgia game getting manhandled and blown off the line at least 5 yards by the opposing Offensive line. 6.) The one I don't know info about but whatever drama that went on between the LSU beatdown and the USCe game.

[meh130 1,043]

I think all of those reasons plus the insistence on man to man when we clearly couldn't handle that. He seemed to not be able to adjust to anything before halftime for whatever reason.

Good point. I would add the lack of a pass rush this year.

CEJ's system counted on disruptive line play, solid man-to-man defense, and adequate LB play. Look at Ole Miss, who also runs a 4-2-5, but with a very strong zone pass defense. Their system is working because their line disrupts plays, and their zone pass defense works extremely well.

Going back to a 4-3 is still going to require disruptive line play and solid pass defense.

[meh130 1,043]

Every time where a new DC comes in, the players always says the same thing..."excited , energized, refreshed " Time will tell what Muschamp can do w / this unit.

Yep. Remember BVG?

[ShocksMyBrain 9,367]

Every time where a new DC comes in, the players always says the same thing..."excited , energized, refreshed " Time will tell what Muschamp can do w / this unit.

Yep. Remember BVG?

All those "fear the stache" t shirts converted into yard work attire.

[weagl1 1,785]

Look at any great defense and the first thing you will see is a push up front. When the DL can move the the line scrimmage everything else falls into place. Even having one guy up front like Nick Fairley that requires a double team throws off the blocking scheme and allows penetration. When you can get pressure with the DL without having to blitz it frees up the LBs and safeties to eat up the run game and limit the short passing game that so many teams use today. We didn't have any of that this year and Adams was the only one that even showed flashes of what be need to have. Our DL was soft and that was the undoing of EJ. Yes, the secondary looked awful but they often do when the opposing QB is standing in the pocket with no pressure. If we want a top defense the first thing that is going to have to happen is we get some big, mean, nasty jokers who can win the battle up front. You would have thought we had that this year with all the Seniors but they just didnt get the job done for whatever reason.

[caleb1633 1,418]

Every time where a new DC comes in, the players always says the same thing..."excited , energized, refreshed " Time will tell what Muschamp can do w / this unit.

We, as fans, really need to exhibit some patience going forward. This mess with our defense didn't happen overnight and it won't be fixed overnight. I just have a feeling that if we aren't a top-10 defense the first half of the season that people will be badmouthing the team and players again. This season was awful from that standpoint. Our expectations were so high that if we didn't play lights out all the time people were badmouthing the D, calling for NM's head, calling for CAP to be replace, etc. Let's have a little patience and trust in the coaches in 2015 people.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

He just would not change his coaching style to fit the players of today.

[cooltigger21 0]

Every time where a new DC comes in, the players always says the same thing..."excited , energized, refreshed " Time will tell what Muschamp can do w / this unit.

Yep. Remember BVG?

All those "fear the stache" t shirts converted into yard work attire.

BVG never had a chance to succeed. The greatest DC in history couldn't have done anything that year. As for next year, I expect to see a team that looks like they understand the basic defensive concepts and will listen to coaching. I want to see them get better each week. I don't think a top 30 defense is unreasonable.

[alexava 6,973]

Every time where a new DC comes in, the players always says the same thing..."excited , energized, refreshed " Time will tell what Muschamp can do w / this unit.

Yep. Remember BVG?

All those "fear the stache" t shirts converted into yard work attire.

BVG never had a chance to succeed. The greatest DC in history couldn't have done anything that year. As for next year, I expect to see a team that looks like they understand the basic defensive concepts and will listen to coaching. I want to see them get better each week. I don't think a top 30 defense is unreasonable.

totally agree with your last sentence. Top 10 might be unreasonable though.

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

Why did he fail? 17-40 as a head coach

True colors shining through

Definition of non sequitur on display right there...

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

Why did he fail? 17-40 as a head coach

True colors shining through

I take it you're not very excited about the Muschamp hire.

Muschamp was 28-21 ... EJ was 0-12 in his last job ... he coached a team up that won 12 games the previous year

Yeah? And what's that have to do with anything? What was USM's record under their new coach when EJ left? What was their record a year later? You don't think Larry Fedora parlayed his final season's success into that job at NC and got out when the getting was good after losing all those starters off his last USM team?

Sorry...I know that you think your comments pass for some kind of argument. They don't. It's just one fallacy after another.

[jj3jordan 2,056]

CEJ failed because twice Whitehead left Mincy alone with Cooper and ran to cover some other phantom all american receiver on another part of the field. Result? The margin of victory. Whether it was coaching or player choice, it is indicative of the problem all season. Nobody is that dim, not a coach or a player.

[AURaptor 1,125]

Every time where a new DC comes in, the players always says the same thing..."excited , energized, refreshed " Time will tell what Muschamp can do w / this unit.

We, as fans, really need to exhibit some patience going forward. This mess with our defense didn't happen overnight and it won't be fixed overnight. I just have a feeling that if we aren't a top-10 defense the first half of the season that people will be badmouthing the team and players again. This season was awful from that standpoint. Our expectations were so high that if we didn't play lights out all the time people were badmouthing the D, calling for NM's head, calling for CAP to be replace, etc. Let's have a little patience and trust in the coaches in 2015 people.

I for one can't see why our D doesn't perform better, after several years of sub par performances. I mean, we went out and got top 4 and 5 star talent on the DL, or so we thought. But not just talent, depth too, where we were greatly lacking. Still ,we're thin at some other areas ( LB ) and it seems we just can't catch a break. Credit ua-t for stealing players we desperately needed, and otherwise would be starting, but either sit on the bench or have moved on there.

When a team gives up 55 to your arch rival, or can't stop USC on 4th down to save their lives, I think it's a no brainer that the D will be bad mouthed.

[monsterdb 3]

why is this a topic? his tenure is over. Lets ban all the negative and get excited with what we have and what we will have.

[WarTiger 3,909]

Why did he fail? 17-40 as a head coach

True colors shining through

That's completely ridiculous. It has nothing to do with him being a defensive coordinator. He has DECADES of success as a coordinator. What he did as a head coach is not even remotely relevant.

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,674]

Who did we play in the first half of the season that has a good offense? KSU looks like KSU against ranked teams and that can't be disproven...not a single good offense. Once you had teams that we couldn't just outtalent, we stopped playing defense. simple

[doc4aday 1,887]

CEJ is best suited to be a position coach who can sit in the press box and analyze the on-field activity. I think his days as a DC are likely over. However, some school looking for a solid position coach can find this in CEJ. I thought he was a decent hire for CGM when he put his staff together. We did manage to go 20-6 with him at the helm, but the defense has been our weakness most of the games played over 2013-14. I wish them man well, and hope he lands with another team soon.

[IronMan70 3,277]

If the players were the issue, then they couldnt look like a totally different defense in the 2nd half of several games this year. Same players, same opponent, different results after CEJ's famous half time adjustments. Being too slow to make adjustments during the 1st half was one of his issues.

CEJ was good in his post game pressers at rattling off the problems the defense had after each and every game. He would identify the same issues that everyone could already see, game after game after game. The problem was that after he listed those issues every week, he didn't or couldn't do anything about them. Ultimately that's why he failed and that's why he is history.

[AUIH1 1,515]

CEJ was never great when he was at his best. He was average to good the vast majority of his career. That being posted, it was not all on Ellis that our D failed so miserably. Muschamp needs to make at least 2 changes to the D staff to be successful. The best of all worlds would be a completely new D staff with RG remaining on the staff as TE coach.

wde

[aucanucktiger 1,794]

It's interesting to see so many frequent posters wax eloquent critiquing CEJ NOW....the same ones that hammered me in September for pointing out obvious flaws in the application of ole Ellis' philosophy and system to the SEC West. Johnson's star system required man on man coverage MOST of the time. To do that in our division, your seconbdary better be first round NFL draft caliber because they'll be covering 1st round WRs most games. Now Ellis was a good recruiter but...he's not THAT good. Flaw #1 but the most obvious of several.

fwiw, nobody's happier than me we got Muschamp but don't expect our fundamentals to be textbook under his leadership. He's all about emotional, reckless D. Which does not mean out of position players which was another CEJ issue.

[AUTiger30 0]

CEJ was never great when he was at his best. He was average to good the vast majority of his career. That being posted, it was not all on Ellis that our D failed so miserably. Muschamp needs to make at least 2 changes to the D staff to be successful. The best of all worlds would be a completely new D staff with RG remaining on the staff as TE coach.

wde

Well said

[cole256 17,084]

It's interesting to see so many frequent posters wax eloquent critiquing CEJ NOW....the same ones that hammered me in September for pointing out obvious flaws in the application of ole Ellis' philosophy and system to the SEC West. Johnson's star system required man on man coverage MOST of the time. To do that in our division, your seconbdary better be first round NFL draft caliber because they'll be covering 1st round WRs most games. Now Ellis was a good recruiter but...he's not THAT good. Flaw #1 but the most obvious of several.

fwiw, nobody's happier than me we got Muschamp but don't expect our fundamentals to be textbook under his leadership. He's all about emotional, reckless D. Which does not mean out of position players which was another CEJ issue.

You keep saying that but stats don't support your claim