Les Miles offered John Chavis a three-year deal worth $5.4 million last year to remain as LSU's defensive coordinator, according to a report from The Advocate, but Chavis turned it down to go to Texas A&M.
According to court documents obtained by the Advocate, Miles made the offer, which averaged $1.8 million a year, the night after the Music City Bowl, and Chavis turned it down in a meeting with Miles and Miles' lawyer in the team's hotel in Nashville.
The offer was apparently a last-ditch effort to keep Chavis in Baton Rouge, as the documents show Chavis had decided weeks earlier to leave LSU due to a dispute over a clause in a new contract offered by the school. Miles knew Chavis was planning to leave and the two coaches had already begun discussing replacements and calling recruits to smooth the transition.
The documents also indicate Texas A&M mailed the letter of intent for its defensive coordinator job to Chavis three days before the Tigers met Notre Dame in the bowl game.
The clause with which Chavis was upset would have allowed LSU to terminate his contract in the event that Miles was no longer there.
A judge in Texas dismissed Chavis' lawsuit against LSU, leaving a Louisiana court to decide whether Chavis is obligated to pay a $400,00 buyout. In the Texas suit, Chavis claimed the school owed him more than $200,000 in unpaid vacation and academic performance bonuses and sought more than $400,000 in penalties.
LSU and Texas A&M are set to meet in Tiger Stadium on Nov. 28.