USA Today

After giving up 55 points to the hated Alabama Crimson Tide in the Iron Bowl on Saturday night, Auburn has fired defensive coordinator Ellis Johnson.

Travis Haney of ESPN.com passed along the details:

This should come as no surprise from a program that has national-championship aspirations every year. The defense allowed a combined 130 points in the Tigers’ last three SEC games, which were all losses to Texas A&M, Georgia and Alabama.

Interestingly, head coach Gus Malzahn was not ready to comment on the future of the defensive coordinator position after losing to Alabama, via Brandon Marcello of AL.com.

“I'm not going there right now," Malzahn said. "Right now we're disappointed we got beat, and that's it."

Ryan Black of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported on how the team found out about Johnson's departure:

Malzahn later discussed the decision to move on, via Joel A. Erickson of AL.com:

Johnson also addressed his firing, via Alex Byington of the Opelika-Auburn News and Black:

Now the question becomes where the Tigers should turn next, especially after their offense put up an impressive 44 points against Alabama but still lost. Haney, of ESPN.com, provided an update on an intriguing candidate:

Will Muschamp failed to win enough games as the head coach of Florida, but he was an excellent defensive coordinator at Texas. His efforts with the Longhorns landed him the Gators job in the first place, and a switch back to his old position in a conference he is already familiar with could be beneficial to all parties involved.