Kansas has put head coach Les Miles on administrative leave, and the university will conduct a full review to determine the next appropriate steps for its future, Jayhawks athletic director Jeff Long said in a statement Friday night.
The decision came after reports of Miles’ conduct while training at LSU in 2013 were made public this week.
“Even though the allegations against him took place at LSU, we take these issues very seriously at KU,” Long said in the statement. “Now that we have access to this information, we will take the next few days to fully examine the material and see if additional information is available. I don’t want to speculate on a timeline for our review, because it’s imperative to do a background check. “
On Thursday, a report released on behalf of LSU showed that a 2013 internal school investigation accused Miles of inappropriate behavior toward female students, including allegations that he had contacted some via Facebook and text messages, he met in off campus and kissed at least one of them. The report did not find that he had sex with any of the women, and Miles strongly denied kissing the student, saying he had done nothing wrong and that he was guiding the young women from the university.
Law firm Taylor Porter conducted the investigation on behalf of LSU. Miles’s lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, told ESPN on Thursday that its results “should put an end to the unfounded and inaccurate media reports that coach Les Miles engaged in an inappropriate touching of an Athletic Department volunteer student eight years ago.” ”.
On Friday, a second report by law firm Husch Blackwell detailed LSU’s systemic failures to adequately report incidents of sexual misconduct related to sports and abuse. Part of this report showed that former LSU athletic director Joe Alleva recommended in 2013 that Miles be fired as a coach because of the aforementioned allegations of misconduct with students.
Miles was not in the KU football offices on Friday. The Jayhawks hired him in November 2018, signing him to a five-year contract at the time.
Miles, 67, is 3-18 in his first two seasons in Kansas, including 0-9 in 2020. Jayhawks Big 12’s only win in those two seasons was over Texas Tech in 2019. Kansas won last time over three games in a season in 2009.
Long and Miles worked together in Michigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before Long hired him at KU, Miles was without a coach for three seasons after being fired by LSU in 2016.
Mike DeBord, who was hired last month as Kansas offensive coordinator, will oversee the program with Miles on vacation, sources told ESPN.