LSU coach Les Miles welcomed his new defensive staff in a press conference today, and he said he was very excited to have such well-respected and experienced coaches to work with next season.”I looked for guys who had experience in the greatest conference in the country and who have had success in that conference in their career,” Miles said. “I looked for guys who taught their players to pursue excellence and represent the good ideals and values of LSU and college football. I’m very fortunate to have hired three men who give us exactly what we need.”LSU appointed John Chavis as its new defensive coordinator Jan. 5. Chavis was the defensive coordinator at Tennessee for the past 14 years, and he has been a coach in the Southeastern Conference since 1989.”I’m delighted to be working for Coach Miles. He’s a great man,” Chavis said. “We look forward to getting this thing going. The biggest thing is to finish up recruiting and get to know our players. We’re going to be putting in a new system. It will be very similar, but there will be things that are different that our players will have to learn.”LSU also hired defensive line coach Brick Haley. Haley held the same post for Mississippi State from 2004-2006. He also coached the Chicago Bears’ defensive line the past two years, and he was defensive coordinator at Baylor and Troy.”Coach Chavis coached me in college,” Haley said. “It was an opportunity for us to work together again, and I’m very glad to be here. I was very excited about what I saw up front [in the Chick fil-A Bowl]. When I first saw [Tiger Stadium], I was like ‘Wow.’ I didn’t have that feeling when I walked into Soldier Field. College football is exciting.”LSU’s other defensive hire of the new year is secondary coach Ron Cooper. He is the former head coach at Eastern Michigan, secondary coach at Notre Dameand had spent the past four years on the defensive and special teams staff at South Carolina.Cooper said he is proud to be a part of the LSU tradition.”It is definitely an honor and a pleasure to be here and be part of the LSU family,” Cooper said. “When I came to visit with Coach [Miles] two weeks ago tomorrow, I was totally impressed. In coaching you look for the right combination, and you look for the right feel. There aren’t a lot of coaches who are fired up like [Miles] is fired up about a situation, about the things that can happen here at LSU.”—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]