It is curious. All of the coaches contracts have it. Nobody is going to pay a coach for years after the head coach leaves and hires a new staff. Les is a multi-millionaire approaching retirement. All coach contracts are limited to 2 years now and "the clause" was added. I think this was just cover for Chavis. I suspect Les had told him to start looking for a new gig.
Maybe this is true. It was a weird thing to get one's panties in a wad over; it seemed like standard operating procedure to me. Plus, it wasn't like Les' job was in jeopardy, either. There must have been something else going on that prompted this coaching change.
Or he told Les he was looking. It's doubtful that a head coach would want to get rid of a DC that consistently has a top 10 defense. It is likely that a DC that consistently fields a top 10 defense would get tired of being hamstrung with an offense like LSU regularly fields. There is obviously a lot that we fans don't know about the situation. However if you're going to speculate, that's the more likely scenario.
This was started last year around this time. Les knew this was coming to a head. And yes, all too many schools like to have the shorter contracts. Remember when Fla hired McElwain, at first he wasn't gonna bring anyone from his staff at Colorado St.
Did it seem to you like Chavis might be underperforming last season? He mailed it in for the bowl game. The defense sucked bad.
I hadn't considered it from that angle; that Les made the first move. But it makes sense. Plus it would explain some of the bitter sounding quotes from Chavis.
I'm not saying Chavis was perfect by any means, he defeinitely had his faults. However taken as a whole he was a very good DC that had success in a very tough conference for many years. His defense sucked about as often as LSU has had a proific passing attack, which is very rare. I'm looking forward to better DL play and a much more agressive pass rush, especially on 3rd down. I don't however think that Chavis was what was wrong with LSU football over the last 6 years. JMO
True enough. Don't get me wrong, Chavis is a proven good coach. But every coach reaches a point where he peaks and delivers diminishing returns after that. I'm in no position to say that happened . . . but Les is. A coach that becomes replaceable really needs to stay on the good side of his head coach. It kind of looks like Chief did not.
Les has a reputation for not throwing his assistants under the bus with blame or blatant firings. But as time goes on he does seem to be more comfortable with making changes when it is necessary.
