LSU to Keep it simple on defense

Published 10:51 am Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Les Miles will sit out the spitting contest between LSU and his former defensive coordinator John Chavis, who at some to-be-lawyered-out point in time took his perpetual frown to Texas A&M.

That dispute, childish on many fronts, was between Chavis and Athletic Director Joe Alleva, and it’s why both schools keep attorneys rolling around gleefully in billable hours.

So when Miles this spring talks optimistically about the defensive changes that are coming under Chavis’ replacement, Kevin Steele, it should not be interpreted as a subtle slap at the departed Chavis.

Miles says he did everything he could to keep Chavis at LSU — that was obvious in the awkward post-Music City Bowl news conference, which was hardly Chavis’ finest three hours. But apparently Alleva wasn’t going to budge on a contract extension that amounted to bickering over loose change the school could have found between the athletic department’s couch cushions.

But that’s a court hearing for another day.

While Chavis gets comfortable at A&M, the Tigers are busy rearranging their defense in his absence.

No offense to Chavis.

At a glance, it appears to be fixing something that isn’t broken.

Didn’t LSU lead the SEC in total defense last season?

Yes, but that was somewhat misleading, as it did have its flaws.

It collapsed late in losses to Alabama and, when last seen in public, to Notre Dame in the bowl game.

Only late and fortunate interceptions against Ole Miss and Texas A&M averted late meltdowns in those games, both of which had been truly dominant performances for 58 minutes.

Third down was the biggest knock against Chavis defenses, though LSU fans never did quite fully embrace the “Third-and-Chavis” lament popular among Tennessee fans during his stay there.

But, again, what is going on in the spring is not about Chavis.

Miles was talking Saturday about some tweaks after LSU’s third spring scrimmage.

“I think there will be several places that the scheme will be different,” he said.

When asked directly, he said he had decided some changes were coming even before he had to go looking for a new coordinator.

The same thing would be going on even if Chavis was still there.

Yeah,” he said. “Some of the things that allow us to operate fast, without substitution.”

In some ways, perhaps, maybe Chavis had gotten too cute with things, a common affliction among coordinators forever seeking the perfect matchup when confusing football with their own little, cerebral chess match.

Remember when former LSU offensive coordinator Gary Crowton dove so deep into his mad scientist role that he tried to substitute five players at the goal line with the clock running down against Tennessee in 2010?

Never mind that it outconfused the Vols and LSU somehow won — it was the Keystone Cops moment of the new millennium.

It was the final straw for that laboratory.

Apparently defenses can overplay that game, too.

It sounds like LSU is, in layman’s terms, trying to simplify things on defense this spring.

The rash of the spread, no-huddle offenses, the outfits that seemingly never stop to take a breath, really complicates things.

Chavis did about as well as anyone against those pop-gun units. But how many times did it seem LSU’s defense was late getting subs in or, more often, even later getting defensive calls in and trying to catch up in mid-play?

“I think there’s an opportunity to substitute when appropriate,” Miles was saying last Saturday. “I think also they will put themselves in a position, where they don’t have to substitute and can make calls.”

In other words, just play football.

“As the defense continues to develop knowledge as it runs through the players, I think you’ll find that there will be significant differences,” Miles said.

The strange thing is that LSU is uniquely qualified to play the mix-and-match game. They don’t call it DBU for nothing ­— and the Tigers’ may have more talented defensive backs stockpiled for this fall than in any other year.

But it doesn’t do much good to get perfect matchups if they’re scrambling to get into position when the ball is snapped.

Miles and Steele are trying to rectify that, and LSU likely can get away with it because of the athleticism they have both in the secondary and the linebackers.

But it’s what Miles was going to do all along, with our without Chavis.

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Scooter Hobbs covers LSU

athletics. Email him at

shobbs@americanpress.com

LSU head football coach Les Miles. (Associated Press)

Rogelio V. Solis