John Chavis, former University of Tennessee football player and coach, sat down with Dan Harralson and Ken Lay of Vols Wire to reflect on his career and his plan to return to coaching.
KNOXVILLE — As the 2020 college football season kicked off amid the coronavirus pandemic, longtime Southeastern Conference assistant coach John Chavis was not preparing for a collegiate opponent.
It was a rarity for Chavis who has spent the last 42 years coaching at the collegiate level. Chavis spent the last two seasons at Arkansas when Chad Morris was fired as head coach by the Razorbacks.
Following leaving Arkansas, Chavis did, however, remain coaching in football on a much smaller scale.
Chavis, who was an assistant at Tennessee between 1989-2008, returned to Knoxville after leaving Fayetteville.
He went a few miles out of Knox County to Clinton. There he consulted new Clinton High School head coach Darrell Keith about reversing the once proud Dragons of their recent fortunes.
Chavis coached Keith when the two were together at Alabama A&M.
“I coached Darrell Keith when he was in college at Alabama A&M and I wanted to help him,” Chavis told Vols Wire. “I wanted to help them at Clinton because they’re all good people.”
After helping Keith in Clinton during the team’s preseason workouts, Chavis turned his attention to the middle school game in Knox County. There he helped former Tennessee quarterback Jeff Francis, who coaches a middle school team that feeds into West High School.
Chavis said he has fielded offers before returning to East Tennessee, but chose to stay in Knoxville and teach younger players the game that he loves.
The former Vol said he had a blast.
“It was great,” he said. “I didn’t publicize what I’d done, a couple of the other coaches did, but this wasn’t about me.
“This was about what I could do to help these kids as they begin playing football. I never called a play, but I taught these kids technique and these kids were like sponges.”
Coaching the middle school game, in some ways, gave Chavis a chance to return to his football roots.
After a playing career at Tennessee between 1975-78 as a nose tackle under head coaches Bill Battle and Johnny Majors, Chavis became a coach.
He first served as a graduate assistant under Majors at UT in 1979.
The former Vol then became defensive line coach at Alabama A&M and remained there between 1980-83.
From there, it was on to Alabama State, where he served as defensive coordinator for two seasons before returning to Alabama A&M where he coordinated the defense from 1986-88.
“I’ve been on the big stage and I’ve been on the smaller stage,” Chavis said. “When I was on the smaller stage, that was some of the most fun I’ve had in college football.
“My kids used to come to the office with me in the summer and I had a female swimmer who taught my kids how to swim. The pool was close to my office, and I had a male basketball player who taught my kids about basketball. My kids were with me and that was so much fun.”
Chavis then returned to his alma mater in 1989 where he coached defensive line and linebackers until 1994.
He then became defensive coordinator for the Vols in 1995 and left UT after head coach Phillip Fulmer’s tenure came to an end.
Chavis then coached at LSU, Texas A&M and Arkansas as defensive coordinator until 2019.
Moving forward, Chavis said he is looking at opportunities to return to college football or dive into coaching in the NFL.
“I know there’s going to be some opportunities,” he said. “I don’t necessarily have to be a coordinator, when I go back into coaching, I want to be where I have a chance to win.”
As a defensive line and linebackers coach at Tennessee from 1992-94, he served under coordinator Larry Marmie. Marmie since went on to coach in the NFL with Arizona, St. Louis, Seattle and Tampa Bay.
Chavis mentioned that he will lean on someone like Marmie for any NFL advice when it comes to pursuing a coaching opportunity at the professional level.
Before Marmie took over as Tennessee’s defensive coordinator, Larry Lacewell served in the same capacity for the Vols. Chavis said Lacewell is one of the smartest football minds that he has been around. He was director of college and pro scouting for the Dallas Cowboys from 1992-2004.
Chavis stressed that he would like to end his career with a coaching job that presents the best chance of being able to compete at a championship level.