Ellis Johnson 'tickled to death' about Travian Robertson hire

Former South Carolina defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson had the pleasure of coaching new defensive line coach Travian Robertson for four of Robertson’s five years as a player in Columbia.

Johnson, who believes Robertson is headed towards a “tremendous” coaching career “that’s already off to a great start,” joined the Gamecock Central Takeover Hour on 107.5 The Game this week to discuss Shane Beamer’s newest hire.

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“I was just tickled to death; I think it’s a great hire by Shane,” Johnson said. “I really liked Jimmy Lindsey, a really good football coach, and great guy. But I think this is a really good fit for Carolina. Travian, he’s taken a path that I think really enabled him to become a better football coach at this young age than a lot of guys. Some of these guys get out of the NFL or Power 5 programs and they want to go get a job somewhere where they can go on all the bowl trips and things. Travian went where he could get his hands on coaching and recruiting. And I think he’s more than ready. And I think he’s a great fit for the situation. And I think Carolina just got better.”

As a player, Robertson helped anchor a South Carolina defensive line that was one of the best in the conference and country.

While players like Jadeveon Clowney may have gotten more pub, Johnson remembers Robertson as a mature and tough leader who was probably better than he got credit for and helped set the tone for his teammates.

“The other thing I think that’s very important about Travian is a lot of people didn’t realize he played with a really serious injury on one of his knees,” Johnson said. “And he couldn’t even practice a full week, most of his senior year. He worked his way through it, played with the pain. And it wasn’t anything that was going to be dangerous of making it worse. But it was something that couldn’t be fixed at the time unless he took time off the field and being a senior, he didn’t want to do that. So he played with that injury. And it was a big example for the rest of our players.”

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Robertson, who was officially named South Carolina’s defensive line coach on Monday, will try to instill that same toughness in his players that he displayed on the field over a decade ago.

While he’ll be making the jump from stops at Georgia State and Tulane to the SEC, Johnson believes it will be a smooth transition.

“I don’t think anything will change as far as actual method of coaching and recruiting and so forth. And that year at Tulane, that’s a big-time football program. I’m sure they were recruiting against some of the other Power 5 teams in that area,” Johnson said. “But I think that the day to day, week to week, year to year recruiting is probably going to be the biggest change. He’ll handle it just fine. I know he’ll do a great job because he’s probably developed some great work habits, just like he did as a player. So he won’t have any problem with that.

“That’s always been my feeling about the SEC is it’s a players conference, not a coaches conference. And I’m not diminishing the importance of player development and coaching, schemes and motivation, and all the other things that go along with coaching, but you have got to have great players in the SEC. You just can’t out-coach people and win consistently. So I think recruiting becomes paramount. And I think he’ll be absolutely fabulous. He’ll be a great representative of South Carolina.”

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