Les Miles stepped down as head coach of Kansas football four days after a report accusing him of inappropriate behavior toward students while coaching at LSU was made public.
Kansas athletic director Jeff Long said Friday that the university will conduct a full review to determine the appropriate steps on Miles’ future, and late Monday night announced that they had “agreed to break up” with the coach.
“I am extremely disappointed with our university, the fans 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.”
Long said the school will use a search firm to help find Miles’ successor. He did not use a search firm when he hired Miles, a friend from their time together in Michigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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 established.
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 people via Facebook and text messages. -he met 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.
According to a copy of Miles’ employment contract with Kansas, the university would have “just cause” to enter into an agreement with Miles if the coach had “discreditable conduct that is inconsistent with the professional standards expected of a head coach of a sports team.” collegiate. “
Another clause in the contract that defines “just cause” is “the participation of the head coach in any act, situation or event or any conduct which, in the opinion of KU Athletics, causes the head coach and / or KU to be discredited, embarrassed, despised or ridiculous … “
It is not clear whether these clauses were triggered; the terms of the separation agreement are expected to be released in the coming days, according to the university’s statement.
“This is definitely a difficult day for me and my family,” Miles said in a statement Monday. “I also like this university and the young people in our football program. I was really happy to be the head coach at KU and I know that now he is in a better place than when I arrived.
“For our student-athletes, I want you to remember that you came to play for KU and win a diploma here. So I beg you to stay and build on what we started and do all the things we talked about doing together. There is a bright future for all of you and for KU Football. “
Miles’s lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, last Saturday described Kansas’ decision to put Miles on leave as based on a “return to the media” and called it “disturbing and unfair.”
Law firm Taylor Porter conducted the investigation on behalf of LSU. Ginsberg told ESPN on Thursday that the results of the investigation “should put an end to the inaccurate, inaccurate media reports that coach Les Miles engaged in an inappropriate touching of a volunteer student of the Athletic Department 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, 67, was 3-18 in two seasons in Kansas, including a 0-9 record in 2020. The 12 Jayhawks ‘only win during Miles’ two seasons in Lawrence surpassed Texas Tech in 2019. Kansas hasn’t won more than three games in a 2009 season.
Miles guided LSU to a national championship in 2007, and the Tigers played for a national championship in 2011.
Before Long hired him at KU, Miles lost his coach for three seasons after being fired by LSU in 2016.