He has a good overall record and at first glance his resume looks good. If you look deeper he has some serious issues. Clemson and Auburn were both placed on 2 year probation for major infractions during his watch. Even at Coastal Carolina he has bent the rules and been accused of paying players. He has been compared to Jerry Tarkanian and Kevin Sampson who have also also put two different schools on probation.
His SEC record at the barn was 73-87 (.456).
The article below from 2011 describes his past and problems he was facing at Coastal Carolina at the time.
Ellis coached Clemson to its only Atlantic Coast Conference title in 1990, but the Tigers were forced to vacate their two N.C.A.A. tournament wins that year. Ellis led Auburn to a No. 1 seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament in 1999 and was fired in 2004, toward the end of another investigation.
The N.C.A.A. cases against Auburn and Clemson described grade-fixing, illicit payments to recruits and improper dealings with an agent.
The first complaints that Ellis had given a recruit improper benefits were lodged before he left his first Division I head coaching position at South Alabama in 1984. A Philadelphia Daily News article in 1985 quoted his former player Terry Catledge as saying that Ellis gave him money “to have a good time on the weekend” and that he had a job from a booster that required “no real work.” That case did not gain traction with the N.C.A.A.
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