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Les Miles is absent as head coach of Kansas football four days after a report accusing him of inappropriate behavior towards female students while coaching at LSU was made public.
Kansas athletic director Jeff Long said on Friday the university would conduct a full review to determine appropriate steps for Miles’ future and on Monday night announced they had “agreed to part ways” with the coach.
“I am extremely disappointed for our university, our supporters and everyone involved in our football program,” Long said in a statement. “There are a lot of young talents in this football team, and I have no doubt that we will identify the right person to lead this program. We will immediately begin the search for a new head coach with an outside company to help in this. process. We have to win football games, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. “
Mike DeBord, who was hired last month as Kansas’ offensive coordinator, will serve as the program’s interim head coach until an interim head coach is appointed.
Last Thursday, a report released on behalf of LSU showed that a 2013 internal investigation at the school accused Miles of inappropriate behavior towards female students, including allegations that he contacted some via Facebook and SMS, had them met alone off campus and kissed at least one of their own.
The report did not reveal that he had sex with either of the women, and Miles firmly denied kissing the student, claiming he had done nothing wrong and that he was coaching. young women at university.
According to a copy of Miles’ employment contract with Kansas, the university would have “just cause” to terminate its agreement with Miles if the coach engaged in “discredited conduct that is inconsistent with the professional standards expected of a head coach of a collegiate sports team. . “
Another clause of the contract which defines “just cause” is the “participation of the head coach in any act, situation or event, or in any conduct which, in KU’s judgment, bears the head coach and / or KU in public discredit, embarrassment, contempt or ridicule … “
It is not known whether these clauses were triggered; the terms of the separation agreement are expected to be released in the coming days, the university said.
“It’s definitely a tough day for me and my family,” Miles said in a statement Monday. “I love this college and the young men in our football program. I really enjoyed being the head coach of KU and I know it’s in a better place now than when I arrived.
“To our student-athletes, I want you to remember that you came to play for KU and get a degree here. So I implore you to stay and build on what we started and do all the things that we talked about doing together. There is a bright future for all of you and for KU Football. “
Miles ‘attorney, Peter Ginsberg, last Saturday described Kansas’ decision to put Miles on leave as based on a “media backlash” and called it “disturbing and unfair.”
The Taylor Porter law firm conducted the investigation on behalf of LSU. Ginsberg told ESPN on Thursday that the results of the investigation “should put an end to baseless and inaccurate media reports that Coach Les Miles had improper contact with a volunteer student in the athletics department ago. eight years”.
A second report on Friday, this one by law firm Husch Blackwell, detailed LSU’s systemic failures to properly report incidents of sports-related sexual misconduct and abuse. Part of that report showed former LSU athletic director Joe Alleva in 2013 recommended that Miles be fired as a coach over the aforementioned accusations of inappropriate behavior with female students.
Miles, 67, was 3-18 in two seasons at Kansas, including a 0-9 record in 2020. The Jayhawks’ only Big 12 victory in Miles at Lawrence’s two seasons came on Texas Tech in 2019. Kansas doesn’t. You’ve won more than three games in one season since 2009.
Miles guided LSU to a national championship in 2007, and the Tigers played for a national championship under his leadership in 2011.
Long and Miles worked together in Michigan in the late ’80s and early’ 90s. Before Long hired him at KU, Miles had quit coaching for three seasons after being fired by LSU in 2016.
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