Ex-LSU coach to Les Miles: They're trying to run you out 'like Fulmer' at Tennessee

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:49 p.m. ET

Aaron Torres

While LSU enters the season with true national championship aspirations, there is another reality lingering around the Tigers’ program: If they don’t win big in 2016, Les Miles will probably be looking for a new job this winter. As easy as it is to forget now, ‘The Mad Hatter’ was nearly fired a season ago, and if it weren’t for a final-weekend victory over Texas A&M, LSU would very likely be entering 2016 playing for a different head coach.

Simply put, the whole ‘will Les Miles get fired’ fiasco was fascinating to watch unfold from a distance. However, as we found out Tuesday, there was one man who predicted the entire ordeal long before it actually happened: former LSU defensive coordinator John Chavis.

Chavis left Baton Rouge prior to last season to join Kevin Sumlin’s staff at Texas A&M, but prior to his time at LSU, Chavis made his name in football as the defensive coordinator under Phillip Fulmer at Tennessee. He also got a first-hand look at how Fulmer was treated in his final season at UT in 2008 (which led to his firing), and actually warned Miles that he could suffer a similar fate.

No, seriously, Chavis basically predicted what would happen to Miles a full year before it actually did happen.

“This kind of reminds me of Phillip Fulmer,” Chavis told Miles in November 2014.

That quote came courtesy of a recently released deposition of Miles, in an on-going case between Chavis and LSU, who are still battling over a $400,000 buyout between coach and the school.

However, it’s that court case -- and Chavis’ subsequent departure from the school -- that could help explain why the former LSU defensive coordinator believed that Miles was headed for the same fate as Fulmer.

As Chavis explained, as he was getting set to depart LSU, the school put the ‘Les Miles Clause’ into effect, which tied Miles’ assistant coaches (and their contracts) to the fate of Miles. In other words, if Miles was fired, the school wouldn’t have to fully pay out the assistants who were under contract, a move that was similar to what happened to Fulmer and his staff before his departure from Tennessee in 2008.

Dean Dingman, LSU’s assistant director of football operations confirmed Miles’ story, in his own deposition.

“I would say coach Chavis felt that there was more than one thing being done at the university that the treatment of coach Miles was disrespectful,” Dingman said. “He actually used the term that it reminded him of what happened to coach Fulmer at Tennessee.”

For those scoring at home, Chavis left following the 2014 season for a fully-guaranteed three-year contract.

Miles, meanwhile, is likely coaching for his job this season, after the Tigers went 9-3 a season ago.