Did Ellis Johnson cost Gamecocks its championship titles?

What if Ellis Johnson stayed at Carolina?
Lorenzo Ward was able to slip by for a  couple
years with talent developed by Johnson and Co. 

When Ellis Johnson was hired as South Carolina's defensive coordinator in 2008, it was with the unspoken understanding he was coming back home to finish his career.

When hired in 2008, “It's obviously a great situation for me,” Johnson said. “I was raised (in South Carolina) as a young person, and I was raised as a football coach in the high schools, colleges and universities. I've always had getting back to the state on the major college level in my sights.”

Under Johnson, the Gamecocks' defense got progressively better. It was to the point, USC was able to land the top defensive prospect in the nation. Signing Jadeveon Clowney from Rock Hill was monumental, because the Gamecocks were used to being snubbed by the best. There were other defensive recruits that Johnson and his staff pulled in too. Johnson's staff took that talent it recruited and got the most from it. And that was a departure from the many busts that had come to Columbia to underwhelm in the past.

By the 2011 , SC was winning on defense. The team held eight of its last 10 opponents to 16 points or less. And after QB Conner Shaw replaced Stephen Garcia, the Gamecocks lost only to No. 8 Arkansas.

But just about the time Johnson was hitting his stride, when he had the Gamecock cupboard full and well-developed, he announced he was taking a head coaching ob at Southern Mississippi.

At the time, only the most-oblivious Gamecock fan could be happy with that news. But how do you deny a man the chance to chase his dream?

Sadly, Johnson's dream led to a nightmare, not only for him, but for USC's football program.

Johnson went 0-12 at USM and was immediately fired, after one year.

And while Johnson was tanking with the Golden Eagles, his replacement, Lorenzo Ward, was soaring with Johnson's players and the residue of Johnson's staff's still at South Carolina.

For the first six games of 2012, only one team (at Kentucky with 17) scored more than 10 points on the Gamecocks. But then the flaws began to manifest.

The Gamecocks gave up 23 points in a critical loss at LSU. Then the /Gamecocks fell apart, surrendering 44 points at Florida.

The next week, if not for a game-winning, rag-dolling-fumble of Tennessee's QB by Clowney, SC would have lost to the Vols.

That was the day South Carolina was defenseless to stop Tennessee’s offense. The Gamecocks gave up 35 points to Tennessee, a team that only scored three points on them the year before in Knoxville. The Tennessee game was a hint of the Lorenzo Ward trademark incompetency.

As 2012 played out, SC beat a struggling Arkansas team, and finished out the year with wins over non-SEC competition.

But in the Outback Bowl, even after Clonwey's famous “The Hit” Ward's D let Michigan march down the field on take the lead late in the fourth quarter (sound familiar.) If not for a miraculous drive by Shaw, with a courageous TD pass from Dylan Thompson, SC would have been beaten by a five-loss, middling Big 10 opponent. The Gamecocks finished the 2012 season at 11-2.

The question is: Would the Gamecocks have beaten LSU with Johnson as defensive coordinator? The answer is probably “Yes.” And the hangover at Florida the next week would not have happened and eliminated all chances for Gamecock titles that year.

By 2013, most of Johnson's influence had seeped from the defensive unit and Defensive Line Coach Brad Lawing, one of the best in the country, left too. Deke Adams, from UNC, was hired by Ward to replace Lawing.

With coaching ability gone, a lot of the player talent was still there, even if was not being developed very well. Kelcy Quarels, Victor Hampton and Clowney were as good as defensive players get in the SEC.

In the home opener, Clowney was heavily criticized for seeming to be tired and out of condition, when it was actually a case of being mis-positioned, to where he was over-running plays, on a tortuously hot night in Columbia.

In the first five games of 2013, the Gamecocks gave up 25-to-41 points and lost at Georgia, 41-30. The Gamecocks had given up only seven points to Georgia a year earlier.

The defense recovered in the second half of the 2013 season, over mostly marginal competition, but a loss at Tennessee, when the defense could not get a stop, was devastating. Ward's defense let the hapless Vols move down the field and score with less than a minute left. That major upset of the Gamecocks knocked the team out of a shot in the SEC-Championship Game, and the National Championship, if it would have won in Atlanta.

Now, there is no question that South Carolina's weakest link is the defense, and a staff that is lost, that probably should not be employed by a respected SEC program.

In hindsight, Gamecock fans are left to wonder what would have happened if Ellis Johnson would have meant it when he said he was coming back home to stay? You can only imagine.

Chances are, Spurrier would have reached that goal of championships and making history at USC.

As it is, Spurrier is faced with uncertainty, and more rebuilding after a bad hire has allowed what took so long to form, has been torn down.