Does Chavis need a ball control offense, with elite Time of Possession?

Fair enough. Carry on

Yes, Chavis is great.

Only exceptions are if you're in a 3rd and long situation or have a slim lead late in the game.

That's actually damn impressive.

Chavis just needs an offense to take the pressure off of him. Something he never got in Baton Rouge.

And here come the downvotes on a thoughtful, non-troll post.

How dare you show data that may go against the narrative, Nguyening!

I am not sure where this TOP came from with regards to Chavis.

Chavis scheme has always hinged on the D'line and LB's IMO.


He has mostly had the speed in all years at LSU. When LSU has absolutely looked like arse was when LSU was soft in the middle.


Nothing to do with the O IMO.


Even with a shitty O, LSU had the lead vs Bama in a few years only to watch it slip away.

It's not a must for his defense to work. The point is that any defense can work with LSU's clock eating offense last season, and it kept the facade that LSU's defense has been in a steady decline the last few seasons.


-tons of blown leads in even just the past two seasons
-why is the linebacker unit LSU's most glaring weakness on defense, and always has been under Chavis? I really thought we were going to take that next step recently, but Lamar Louis and Debo are exceptional athletes that haven't gotten any better
-Brick Haley flat out was suffocating our defense. we haven't even had a good pass rush in 4 years. It would have been nice for Chavis to put down the potato salad and come to terms his bud isn't getting it done



You can quit trying to convince us Chavis is good. Everyone knows he's good, but I'm happy LSU didn't cave and offer 1.6. LSU was on a steady decline with talent, and there was no end in sight. Steele may end up a huge failure, but that won't stop me from thinking a change might have been the best if Brick Haley was going to stay


eta: tl;dr LSU's talent on defense has been on a steep decline, and I would have liked Chavis to have Brick terminated after 2013

The rankings of TOP and and total/scoring D are meaningless stats without actual values. That's like saying my dick is the third biggest on this board. It's true, and illustrates that I am humble, but doesn't provide context or measurables. I'll admit this TOP point is beaten like a drum and I don't completely buy it, but this is a pretty shakey way to go about debunking it.

I'll counter by saying ags love to criticize Steele for the Clemson gave when he gave up a lot of points. That same season, Chavis allowed the same WVU team ~550 yards of total offense. They both essentially got out-schemed, but one got bailed out by special teams and an offense that could drive the field and eat clock.

Given that Chavis has never been a head coach and thus has always gone with the offense that was in place, I think this question is better asked of Will Muschamp-- who has essentially been protected and had his defensive statistics padded by a ball control offense his whole career with the exception of his time at Texas-- where the offense became less and less explosive and more and more ball control the longer he stayed on the job. Then he goes to Florida and despite their being some elite Spread pieces in place procedes to decimate a program with his pig headed and moronic insistence on running clock and playing for field position.

Hell, I think Auburn fans should ask themselves if Boom is going to try and force Malzahn to kill the clock and if he can't do that if he's going to stay on the job for long.

I wouldn't say he "needs" a ball control offense any more than any other defensive coordinator.

But it is logical to assume that an offense like Sumlin's will hamper defensive statistics, regardless of who the coordinator is. If they are scoring rapidly, that's more possessions in which the defense has to be on the field. Conversely, if they are running hurry up and going three and out or only getting 6-7 offensive snaps off before turning it over, that's less time for the defense to recoup before taking the field again.

The Chavis ordeal has gotten to the point where you can't really talk about it honestly, because it turns into a jerk off contest--which we know the ags will win (sorry, couldn't help myself).

But he's a great coordinator, one of the top 5 or so in the game. The talent and scheme at tamu isn't there for him to field top flight defenses yet, but he's an huge upgrade regardless of what LSU fans will say.

Despite this, he isn't without his flaws. The guy doesn't recruit well. His specialty is supposedly linebackers, but that was usually an area at LSU that wasn't up to par with the secondary or D-line. There would be a good-great MLB generally, but LSU always seemed thin on the outside.

Also, third and Chavis is real. Its not as if no lead is safe, but playing prevent defense under CFB rules is just plain stupid--nickle and diming a defense with a time out and 1:00min left is possible because of the clock stoppages.

Again, he's a great coordinator and will be a big improvement at tamu, but given how close he is to retirement, plus the talent and scheme in College Station, it would really surprise me if he starts consistently fielding the ridiculous defenses he did at Tennessee and LSU.