A&M Lands Chavis!!

Kevin Sumlin went out and got his man.  He was patient through this entire process, didn't waiver, didn't concern himself with what the mob was yelling about, kept it incredibly close to his vest, and he stuck a 10 point landing.

What a crazy process. 

John Chavis is SEC football. He has been an elite defensive coordinator in the league for the last 20 years.  We wanted a tried and true SEC defensive coach and we got him.

A&M has faced him 5 times in his career ('04 Cotton Bowl, '11 Cotton Bowl, 2012, 2013, 2014) and managed just 14.8 points per game.  He's the only guy who stone walled Johnny.  Shoot, Nick Saban couldn't even do it.  Chavis did it twice.

So let's take a look at what we're getting....

• Tennessee '78
• Base 4-3 defense

• 1979 Tennessee - Graduate Asst.
• 1980-1983 Alabama A&M - Defensive Line
• 1984-1985 Alabama State - Defensive Coordinator
• 1986-1988 Alabama A&M - Defensive Coordinator
• 1989-1994 Tennessee - Defensive Line/Linebackers
• 1995-2008 Tennessee - Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers
• 2009-2014 LSU - Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers

        Rush D      Pass D      Total D   Scoring D
      ==========  ==========  ==========  =========
2000   74.3 (3)   220.2 (69)  294.5 (13)  19.3 (23)
2001   85.3 (3)   218.3 (59)  303.6 (13)  19.5 (21)
2002  128.6 (33)  156.2 (4)   284.9 (5)   17.5 (11)
2003  138.3 (43)  186.1 (20)  324.4 (22)  18.4 (17)
2004  120.0 (25)  236.4 (86)  356.4 (45)  22.7 (38)
2005   82.5 (2)   215.7 (54)  298.2 (7)   18.6 (16)
2006  146.7 (72)  180.9 (27)  327.5 (50)  19.5 (33)
2007  164.6 (69)  238.6 (73)  403.3 (70)  27.3 (61)
2008  103.1 (12)  160.4 (4)   263.5 (3)   16.8 (10)
2009  133.4 (46)  194.2 (29)  327.6 (26)  16.2 (11)
2010  137.3 (42)  169.9 (10)  307.2 (12)  18.2 (11)
2011   90.1 (5)   171.4 (8)   261.5 (2)   11.3 (2) 
2012  101.6 (9)   206.0 (28)  307.6 (8)   17.5 (12)
2013  143.2 (35)  197.5 (13)  340.7 (15)  22.0 (21) 
2014  152.7 (46)  164.2 (3)   316.8 (9)   17.5 (5)

LSU National Defensive Rankings
       BEFORE        DURING    
       07 08   09 10 11 12 13 14 
       =====   ================= 
Rush D 12 17   46 42  5  9
Pass D  9 73   29 10  8 28 
 Tot D  3 32   26 12  2  8
Scor D 17 56   11 11  2 12

Tennessee National Defensive Rankings
        BEFORE                    DURING                  AFTER
        93 94  95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08  09 10
        =====  =========================================  =====
Rush D  12 43  13 15  8  6  7  3  3 33 43 25  2 72 69 12  65 60
Pass D   5 40  46  8 36 17 36 69 59  4 20 86 54 27 73  4  12 81
 Tot D  13 33  24  5 32 17 11 13 13  5 22 45  7 50 70  3  22 69
Scor D   5 14  32  6 32  9  7 23 21 11 17 38 16 33 61 10  38 56 

*note from '93-'99 had to use Pass Efficiency rankings rather than Pass Defense 

Do you remember that Cotton Bowl at the end of 2004 when we played Tennessee?  That team demolished us.  The defense completely ate us up.  We were a top 20 offense that year and we were held 120 yards and 23 points BELOW our season averages.

That was the second WORST defense Chavis has ever fielded.

Everything I've read explains that he loves to play man coverage and blitz from lots of different places.  This puts a huge amount of pressure on the corners - leaving them on an island, so we will need to keep an eye on CB recruits over the next couple of years because I'm not sure we have those horses on campus (or if we do we haven't seen it out of them yet).

Welcome to Aggieland Chief!

Sumlin also filled the WR Coaching position with Aaron Moorehead, previously in the same position at VT and the before that, at Stanford.