USM worth a read

[Bo Darville]

www.blackandgoldreview.com/2014/09/03/sec-thinking-destroyed-southern-miss-destroy-football

[SDDawg]

Decent article, but somehow the idea that Ellis Johnson speaks for the SEC is laughable. He is a chronic undperformer in my opinion who has found himself in a few "lucky" spots over the years.

[BrunswickDawg]

The scary thing is how close that is to being us. There were a number of people wanting Johnson as HC for us during and after the Croom Error because his D had been our only highlight for so long. I shudder at the thought of what following Croom with Johnson would have done to the program.

[rabbitthedawg]

No mention of the fact that miss southern would actually have a losing record against State except for the forfeitures! They are irrelevant because ULL , South Alabama, and Troy have taken SEC rejects and done well! Has nothing to do with the SEC!

[FlabLoser]

EJ is one hell of a DC.

I only speak for myself in saying at no point did I think he was HC material. I don't know what I think makes HC material. I just know that great coordinators aren't always, or even most of the time, great HCs. HC and coordinator are completely different jobs.

[ShotgunDawg]

No chance they have 36,000 fill MM Roberts Stadium.

Also, this is life. Really, the only reason that Southern had a good program in the past was because MSU was so poorly run. Southern used to clean house with underrated MS talent like Jameon Lewis, McKinney, Banks, and Vick Ballard, but now that MSU has a coach that passionately evaluates and develops, that source of talent no longer remains.

[SDDawg]

EJ is one hell of a DC.

I only speak for myself in saying at no point did I think he was HC material. I don't know what I think makes HC material. I just know that great coordinators aren't always, or even most of the time, great HCs. HC and coordinator are completely different jobs.

Not arguing but do you think he's doing a good job at Auburn with what they have? It seems like they were able to overcome their defense all year but it was really pretty mediocre. What about him stands out for you as a coordinator?

[preachermatt83]

EJ is one hell of a DC.

I only speak for myself in saying at no point did I think he was HC material. I don't know what I think makes HC material. I just know that great coordinators aren't always, or even most of the time, great HCs. HC and coordinator are completely different jobs.

+1

[engie]

Not arguing but do you think he's doing a good job at Auburn with what they have? It seems like they were able to overcome their defense all year but it was really pretty mediocre. What about him stands out for you as a coordinator?

Seriously? You thought he was going to be elite on D in year 1 with FR all over the field at Auburn?

Let's give him a year or two before we go to making rash decisions over what he is or isn't...

[RougeDawg]

No chance they have 36,000 fill MM Roberts Stadium.

Also, this is life. Really, the only reason that Southern had a good program in the past was because MSU was so poorly run. Southern used to clean house with underrated MS talent like Jameon Lewis, McKinney, Banks, and Vick Ballard, but now that MSU has a coach that passionately evaluates and develops, that source of talent no longer remains.

^^^This all day.^^^ and add in the fact that they ran off the only coach they've ever had that had the HS relationships and ability to recruit and find the underrated talent. They dug their own grave when they ran Bower off. The well slowly dried up under fedora, hence him jumping ship when he did.

[SDDawg]

Seriously? You thought he was going to be elite on D in year 1 with FR all over the field at Auburn?

Let's give him a year or two before we go to making rash decisions over what he is or isn't...

No, I didn't think they were going to be elite on D. I also didn't think that they were going to run track meets vs. play defense (see SEC championship game). Big difference than being "elite".

[CadaverDawg]

I'm probably by myself in this thought....but I think Ellis mentally retired 2 years ago. He will ride the talent off into the sunset and collect as much money as possible until someone fires him, but I think he's done being the bad ass DC that he once was. I watched him on the sidelines at USM in their first few games of his HC year, and even then he looked as if he didn't give two shits. Dude is making a bank roll, and pride doesn't seem to mean much to him.

I really like EJ, but I just think he's mailed it in. I may be wrong...we'll find out over the next few years. (While he's saving up a few more million)

[LC Dawg]

Not arguing but do you think he's doing a good job at Auburn with what they have? It seems like they were able to overcome their defense all year but it was really pretty mediocre. What about him stands out for you as a coordinator?

The fact that Sylvester Croom was the head coach in a bowl game speaks highly of Ellis Johnson's ability as a coordinator.

[Todd4State]

The thing that they don't understand is what is happening to them now was bound to happen. When they had their last good season, they had a NFL caliber QB in Austin Davis who practically fell in their lap. Ellis is their scapegoat. Monken runs the spread and has won a grand total of one game, but it's Ellis Johnson's fault and the fact that he ran a pro style offense (I actually thought they were a spread team under Ellis because of Alford at QB)?

[Todd4State]

I'm probably by myself in this thought....but I think Ellis mentally retired 2 years ago. He will ride the talent off into the sunset and collect as much money as possible until someone fires him, but I think he's done being the bad ass DC that he once was. I watched him on the sidelines at USM in their first few games of his HC year, and even then he looked as if he didn't give two shits. Dude is making a bank roll, and pride doesn't seem to mean much to him.

I really like EJ, but I just think he's mailed it in. I may be wrong...we'll find out over the next few years. (While he's saving up a few more million)

The game may very well have passed him by- I guess we'll find out. But I don't think it's a crazy thought at this point.

[engie]

I'm probably by myself in this thought....but I think Ellis mentally retired 2 years ago. He will ride the talent off into the sunset and collect as much money as possible until someone fires him, but I think he's done being the bad ass DC that he once was. I watched him on the sidelines at USM in their first few games of his HC year, and even then he looked as if he didn't give two shits. Dude is making a bank roll, and pride doesn't seem to mean much to him.

I really like EJ, but I just think he's mailed it in. I may be wrong...we'll find out over the next few years. (While he's saving up a few more million)

This isn't unreasonable -- but let's give him a little time with Lawson, Adams, Daniel, etc and see. Losing Lawson was a tremendous blow to them this year. No doubt about it. But I still remember that Auburn had the most ridiculous attrition I've ever heard of at the end of the Chizik tenure and they haven't yet had time to recover defensively. If there's one thing we've seen -- it's that gimmick offenses can "quick fix" bad O's in year 1 before they get "found" -- but great or even good defenses aren't built in a single year.

I thought what Auburn did in the BCS title game was nothing short of tremendous. Came up a bit short -- but no one can tell me that EJ mailed in that game and didn't come into it with an absolutely jam up gameplan...

[Steakonastick]

My opinion what killed USM. In no particular order.


1. ******* emphasis on visiting every high school in the state and not missing on players.

2. South Alabama goes d-1 they now pull all south alabama and Florida panhandle kids.

3. hudspeth at Lafayette. With his Mississippi ties he pulls the miss kids that do not go to state or tsun.

4. Zero money or fan support. They have literally fallen behind Tulane, Lafayette, la tech. South Bama, and Troy when it comes to facilities and money.

5. They ran off bower who would have kept them at least competitive. They thought they could become the next fsu. Hired fedora who had one goal in mind and that was land a major job.

6. Majority of their better players in the 90's were partial qualifiers. They could not make it into a sec school so they went to usm over juco.

[preachermatt83]

^^^This all day.^^^ and add in the fact that they ran off the only coach they've ever had that had the HS relationships and ability to recruit and find the underrated talent. They dug their own grave when they ran Bower off. The well slowly dried up under fedora, hence him jumping ship when he did.

DING DING DING!!!

[SDDawg]

I'm probably by myself in this thought....but I think Ellis mentally retired 2 years ago. He will ride the talent off into the sunset and collect as much money as possible until someone fires him, but I think he's done being the bad ass DC that he once was. I watched him on the sidelines at USM in their first few games of his HC year, and even then he looked as if he didn't give two shits. Dude is making a bank roll, and pride doesn't seem to mean much to him.

I really like EJ, but I just think he's mailed it in. I may be wrong...we'll find out over the next few years. (While he's saving up a few more million)

CD- I think you're right. What he did to USM was basically unforgivable in my mind, and I am not impressed with his work yet at Auburn either. Time will tell.

[ScoobaDawg]

My opinion what killed USM. In no particular order.


1. ******* emphasis on visiting every high school in the state and not missing on players.

2. South Alabama goes d-1 they now pull all south alabama and Florida panhandle kids.

3. hudspeth at Lafayette. With his Mississippi ties he pulls the miss kids that do not go to state or tsun.

4. Zero money or fan support. They have literally fallen behind Tulane, Lafayette, la tech. South Bama, and Troy when it comes to facilities and money.

5. They ran off bower who would have kept them at least competitive. They thought they could become the next fsu. Hired fedora who had one goal in mind and that was land a major job.

6. Majority of their better players in the 90's were partial qualifiers. They could not make it into a sec school so they went to usm over juco.


Couldn't of said it any better. I've always said kicking Bower to the curb was the deal breaker but it was really just the final straw. Ninja was in place and making changes to MSU while Croom was letting Fedora still gobble up players, Mississippi had the Nutt dirtying it up. Once Fed milked them dry with his slick show he bailed and USM went to shit with nothing left and Mullen and other schools gobbling up what they had been feasting on.
Not its even worse with them not being a Power 5 conference.

[MSUDawg4Life]

Somebody should point out to that guy that about half of the SEC runs some type of spread or hurry up offense. Saban (and definitely Bielema) don't represent the SEC in what is considered "right football". Not with people like Sumlin and Malzahn around. The SEC is evolving just like everybody else whether Saban likes it or not.

[Todd4State]

My opinion what killed USM. In no particular order.


1. ******* emphasis on visiting every high school in the state and not missing on players.

2. South Alabama goes d-1 they now pull all south alabama and Florida panhandle kids.

3. hudspeth at Lafayette. With his Mississippi ties he pulls the miss kids that do not go to state or tsun.

4. Zero money or fan support. They have literally fallen behind Tulane, Lafayette, la tech. South Bama, and Troy when it comes to facilities and money.

5. They ran off bower who would have kept them at least competitive. They thought they could become the next fsu. Hired fedora who had one goal in mind and that was land a major job.

6. Majority of their better players in the 90's were partial qualifiers. They could not make it into a sec school so they went to usm over juco.

I would add Louisville in there too. They've got four commits from Mississippi already.

[NBdawg17]

Ellis Johnson is a excellent DC against pro style offenses. He could gameplan with the best of them. The spread offenses he struggled against big time. He tried to run his defenses the same way he always did.
He is still a above average DC imo. The spread offenses have cost many DCs their jobs.

[BeardoMSU]

www.blackandgoldreview.com/2014/09/03/sec-thinking-destroyed-southern-miss-destroy-football

Jareth says....
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz045bspF61qgb8pq.gif

Hoggle agrees.
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mc1m19r4Mm1r9cwed.gif

[Johnson85]

What about him stands out for you as a coordinator?

He took a Crooms coached team to a bowl game. Hall of Fame DC achievement right there, no matter how down the SEC was that year.

He's had very good defenses at State and USCe.

We'll see how he does at Auburn after he has a year or two. Keep in mind taht their offense is going to make their defensive numbers look worse than the defense actually is.

But regardless of how he does at Auburn, he had roughly a decade of superior to elite quality defenses at two different schools that historically were not 'haves' in the SEC. If he's lost a step at, what, age 70?, I don't think that's realy evidence that he was lucky before.