Les Miles left the position of Kansas head coach just days after being put on administrative leave amid allegations of sexual misconduct by his management at LSU.
Kansas announced Miles’ departure on Monday night, describing him as a mutual separation agreement. Miles has three years left on his original five-year school contract that pays him $ 2.775 million annually through December 2023 and includes several bonuses, including a $ 675,000 retention bonus paid last November.
“I am extremely disappointed by our university, fans and everyone involved with our football program,” said Kansas sports director Jeff Long in a statement. “We will begin the search for a new principal technician immediately with an outside company to assist in this process. We need to win football games and that is exactly what we are going to do ”.
Miles, 67, was 3-18 in two seasons with the Jayhawks. Offensive coordinator Mike DeBord has been appointed interim head coach.
“This is certainly a difficult day for me and my family,” said Miles in a statement. “I love this university and the guys on our football program. I really enjoyed being the head coach of KU and I know that you are in a better place now than when I arrived. “
Last week, LSU released a 148-page review by a law firm on the university’s handling of complaints of sexual misconduct across the campus. One part described how Miles “tried to sexualize the team of student workers on the football program, for example, on the grounds that he wanted blondes with big breasts and ‘pretty girls'”.
The report also revealed that LSU’s then athletic director, Joe Alleva, recommended firing Miles in 2013 for university officials.
Kansas put Miles on leave later that day and said he would review the allegations against the coach he was previously unaware of.
Kansas said the terms of the agreement with Miles about his departure will be released in the next few days.
Miles spent more than 11 seasons at LSU, leading the school to a national title in 2007. He was fired four games in the 2016 season.
Miles was investigated at LSU after two student workers on the football program accused the coach of inappropriate behavior in 2012.
Although the 2013 investigation by law firm Taylor Porter found that Miles had a bad trial, he found no violations of the law or that he had a sexual relationship with any student. Taylor Porter also concluded that he could not confirm a student’s claim that Miles kissed her while they were in the coach’s car, with no one else present.
In an email dated June 2013 and sent to the LSU president, Alleva wrote that Miles was guilty of “insubordination, inappropriate behavior, putting the university, athletics (department) and the football program at great risk”.
Taylor Porter’s review was kept under wraps for about eight years, until a drafted version of it was released this week after a lawsuit filed by USA Today.
For Kansas, Miles’ departure is just the latest setback for what has been the worst college football Power Five program in a decade. The Jayhawks have not won more than three games in a single season since 2009.
Miles had been out of training for two years when Long hired him after the 2018 season, hoping that a notable name and an experienced coach could help break the apathy that has surrounded the Kansas program for a decade.
Long and Miles were friends who were dating when they lived in Michigan in the late 1980s.
Although recruitment has improved with Miles, little has changed. The Jayhawks did not win last season for the third time in the program’s history, losing an average of more than 30 points per game.
Kansas hasn’t had a winning streak since 2008, a year before Mark Mangino was fired amid accusations of verbal and physical abuse. He was followed by Turner Gill, who won five games in two seasons, and Charlie Weis, who was 6-22 before being fired four games in the 2014 season.
David Beaty had 6-42 in four seasons at the helm of the Jayhawks and sued Kansas for withholding his purchase because of NCAA infractions. Beaty reached a $ 2.55 million deal with the school last summer.
Now, with the practice of football coming, Kansas is starting again, still stuck in a deep hole.