GoGamecocks.com
Johnson and Petrino share common bond
Both coaches have had short stays at one play, then found success at another
Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino
Ed Reinke/AP
Written by JOSEPH PERSON
jperson@thestate.com
Posted on 11.05.08
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survey:
If anyone could relate to what Ellis Johnson experienced when he left Arkansas in January after 25 days, it was Bobby Petrino.
After all, a month earlier Petrino bolted on the Atlanta Falcons with three games remaining to return to the college ranks in Fayetteville. So Petrino was understanding when Johnson told him he was returning home to become Steve Spurrier’s defensive coordinator at South Carolina.
Petrino’s only request: He wanted a copy of the defensive playbook, and sent a graduate assistant to Johnson’s office to retrieve it on Johnson’s last day with the Razorbacks.
“Whatever we had, he wanted a copy of it and he let me have a copy of it,” Johnson said this week. “And that’s fair enough. I was getting paid by Arkansas when I was working there.”
Johnson never signed a contract at Arkansas, staying long enough to collect about four weeks’ pay.
“He was here for a cup of coffee and a donut and then had a chance to go home and be at a place where he grew up and where his wife’s family’s from,” Petrino said. “It’s certainly something that I understood, a place where he feels he has an opportunity to retire. It’s something that worked out good for him and his family.”
Johnson is a Winnsboro native whose wife, the former Caroline Courie, is from Columbia. Besides living close to friends and family, the 57-year-old Johnson, who has coached at Clemson and The Citadel, had hoped to return to South Carolina to accumulate additional years in the state retirement system.
Still, he said it was tough approaching Petrino about leaving after such a short stint.
“I know he was certainly disappointed about it, but he was really great about it. He’d just made a tough decision himself about a month earlier,” Johnson said. “I think in some ways he understood what I was looking at and all the things I was basing it on. ...
“It was a difficult conversation for both of us. But he couldn’t have been better about it under the circumstances. I really appreciate the way he handled it.”
Though many critics vilified Petrino for his sudden departure from the Falcons, Johnson said the former Louisville coach was in an “almost unworkable” situation in Atlanta with the dogfighting saga of Michael Vick.
Arkansas was in the middle of a busy recruiting stretch when Johnson arrived. But Petrino had pulled him off the road so he could get to know players and work on the playbook the week Spurrier called and told Johnson that defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder was returning to the Falcons (where he was a member of Petrino’s staff) after 17 days in Columbia.
Arkansas linebacker Wendel Davis said he never had a chance to meet Johnson.
“After he left, it was like he was never here,” Davis said. “So I really don’t know too much about him. I’m sure he’s good.”
The Gamecocks have the SEC’s No. 1 defense and rank in the top three nationally in total defense and pass defense. Petrino is impressed with the multiplicity of Johnson’s scheme.
“South Carolina plays about every front and coverage and blitz that you can have. ... Every play’s a different call,” Petrino said. “They do a lot of different looks and they try to confuse you. It looks like at home, they try to use the home crowd to make you try to have to change protection or change plays when it’s loud. So we’re going to have to execute fast and be sharp.”
Johnson was complimentary of the job Petrino has done blending players recruited for Houston Nutt’s run-oriented offense into the pro-style scheme Petrino runs.
“He had a difficult task because he came in and inherited a scheme that was built on running the football almost to the point of a wishbone mentality,” Johnson said. “I think they look very good on that side of the ball.”
The Razorbacks are fifth in the SEC in total offense, and rank second in the conference in pass offense. And though Johnson has a copy of the Hogs’ playbook, as well as a copy of Petrino’s Falcons playbook that VanGorder left behind, Johnson said Saturday’s game will come down to players.
“Playbooks don’t make tackles,” he said. “People are amazed how much coaches do that. You know how we go visit each other and all that. There’s a lot of stuff that we share and we learn from each other.”
Even in the shortest of coaching stints.
Reach Person at (803) 771-8496.
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