Auburn defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson has been coaching for 38 years and has done so at four SEC schools, not counting a brief stopover at Arkansas. Of the quarterbacks he has coached against, there are only two he would put in the same class as Manziel: Cam Newton and Michael Vick.
"I've coached against a lot of great ones -- Brett Favre, Tom Brady, both Mannings, Donovan McNabb, Russell Wilson, Tajh Boyd, Aaron Murray, AJ McCarron, and I hope I didn't leave anybody out," Johnson said. "But when you start talking about somebody who athletically and individually can just step out there and beat you, Manziel's right up there in the top three, in my opinion, along with Newton and Vick.
"Now, those three are all different style quarterbacks than Favre, Manning and some of those other guys. But they're three you just don't have a lot of answers for because they can do so many things."
For the record, if Johnson had to choose one of the three he would least like to go against, it would be Newton.
"I can say that now because I know Manziel ain't coming back," Johnson said laughing. "Cam was everything Manziel was at about 250 pounds. There was no stopping Cam on third down. It just didn't happen."
Pound for pound, though, Johnson said Manziel might be as tough a quarterback as he has coached against after seeing the way Manziel gutted it out last month in Auburn's 45-41 win at Texas A&M.
"We separated his shoulder, and he could have canned it," Johnson said. "But he went in, got shot, came back out there and threw a back-shoulder fade to get them down there for another score. We beat that boy to death physically, but he wasn't about to stay down.
