Defensive tackle Ellis Johnson was a first-round draft pick of the Indianapolis Colts in 1995
Ellis Island: UF Lineman Rare Defensive MVP in SEC Title Game
Friday, December 2, 2016 | Football, Chris Harry
Defensive tackle Ellis Johnson blew up a bunch of plays and finished with two sacks in UF's epic 24-23 defeat of unbeaten Alabama in the 1994 SEC title game and is one of just three defensive players named MVP of the game.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Before recalling the memorable part of the 1994 Florida football season, Ellis Johnson first was asked to reflect on an instance he'd just as soon forget. Florida-Florida State. The 31-31 tie. The one now known as "Choke at the Doak."
"Horrible," Johnson said.
In a game against two of the nation's heavyweights, the No. 4 Gators led the seventh-ranked Seminoles by 28 points in the fourth quarter at Tallahassee, only to allow four unanswered touchdowns and 250 fourth-quarter yards. In the post-game locker room, Johnson did not hide his displeasure with then-UF defensive coordinator Bobby Pruett and the decision to go away from the aggressive tactics that helped UF take a 31-3 lead that saw thousands of FSU fans filing out of Doak Campbell Stadium.
[Worth noting: I was there at Johnson's locker afterward. He wasn't happy.]
His present-day recollections of that game weren't nearly as colorful (or loud), but the bitterness was still noticeable 21 years later. Even over the phone.
"I didn't like the change in the defensive game plan in the second half versus the first half," Johnson, now 43, an All-America defensive tackle and first-round draft pick, said earlier this week. "It just [ticked] me off that we didn't stay with the attack-type defense in the second half. We went more preventative and let 'em catch it underneath and all that. That's why I was so upset. I thought we should have taken it to them and just gone on and seen what happened. I didn't like that."
Clearly.
And just as clearly was the rage Johnson and his defensive teammates — some great ones, like Kevin Carter, Henry McMillian, Dexter Daniels and Larry Kennedy — took with them seven days later to the Georgia Dome. It would be the first Southeastern Conference Championship Game played in Atlanta, after the previous two years at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala. The No. 3 Gators (9-1-1) would face third-ranked and No. 3 Alabama (11-0) for the third straight time in the conference's showcase event.
What Florida showed that night was remarkable resilience, bouncing back from that crushing tie (which felt like a loss) and upending the unbeaten Tide 24-23 in one of the all-time SEC classics. Johnson, a 6-foot-2, 285-pound tour de force inside, finished with five tackles, including a game-record three for loss, a pass breakup and two sacks of Bama quarterback Jay Barker on his way to being named the game's most valuable player. In pivotal moments of the game, especially the second half, Johnson was involved in timely, drive-killing plays.
"I guess the people voting that night paid a lot of attention to those plays," Johnson said.
With the 2016 Gators (8-3) headed to Atlanta this week again to face No. 1 Alabama (11-0), this time in the 25th SEC Championship Game, the league has invited all past MVPs back to take part in the weekend festivities. Johnson, one of only three defensive players ever given the award, will join quarterbacks Terry Dean (1993), Danny Wuerffel ('95 and '96) and Tim Tebow (2008) as former UF players represented. Quarterback Rex Grossman (2000) and wide receiver Percy Harvin ('06) won't make it.
"Ellis was one of the great Gators of that time, and a great guy too," former UF coach Steve Spurrier said. "And he had a big game that night. That'll be good to see him back there for that."
Johnson knows Atlanta well. He was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts with the 15th overall pick of the '95 draft, but signed with Atlanta as a free agent in 2002 and after two years with the Falcons finished his career with one season (2004) for the Denver Broncos before heading into retirement.
To this day, Johnson looks back on his time at Florida, where he was part of two SEC championship teams, with a fondness because of the lessons he learned from his head coach. Spurrier, Johnson said, didn't just teach his players how to play football, but how to be champions.
In the days that followed that gut-wrenching, frustrating tie, Spurrier masterfully rallied his players off the mat of dejection by dangling the SEC carrot, which for the "Head Ball Coach" was as the defining line between a good season and a great one.
"I've got so much love for Spurrier," Johnson said. "There were a lot of us who went on to the NFL and everything we were taught about being successful in the NFL, we got those things from him. That Florida State game, that was a bad deal. My goodness, that sucked. We had a great team and I believe, had we done things differently, we might've run them out of the stadium like nobody ever had. But that's football and we had another game to play. An SEC game for the SEC championship. And there was something about that that always fired [Spurrier] up a little bit more."
And that one truly was an epic night of football, as Spurrier pulled out all the stops in a game that featured two ties and five lead changes. On the game-winning drive alone, Spurrier had quarterback Danny Wuerffel fake an injury and inserted backup Eric Kresser, who immediately completed a 25-yard pass; he went with the Emory & Henry formation for a key gain and first down; threw a double-pass, too. The latter put the ball at the Bama 2.
Then Wuerffel's short TD pass to Chris Doering with 5:29 left pushed the Gators in front 24-23.
Defensive back Eddie Lake's interception in the final minute clinched UF's third conference title in school history; the third in four seasons, in fact.
These days, Johnson splits time between his two farms; one outside Indianapolis and the other in Oxford, Fla., near his hometown of Wildwood. Once afraid of flying -- as a freshman, he rode the UF managers' truck to a road game at Mississippi State in 1992, rather than flying on the team charter -- Johnson is now a licensed pilot with his own twin-engine plane. After a 10-year pro career, he's not working, but rather views his current line of work as being a "professional patient," thanks to the wear and tear of a decade in NFL stadiums.
He'll be back in one of those stadiums this weekend, where he'll be remembered for his last time there in a Florida uniform.
For all Gators, it'll be worth remembering. The player and the game.
"Really hard-fought game, down to the end," Johnson said. "The way a championship game should should be."
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