Kansas has placed soccer coach Les Miles on administrative leave and the university will conduct a thorough review to determine the appropriate next steps in its future, Jayhawks sports director Jeff Long said in a statement on 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,” said Long in the statement. “Now that we have access to this information, it will take us the next few days to completely review the material and see if any additional information is available. I don’t want to speculate on a timeline for our review because it is imperative that we do our due diligence.”
On Thursday, a report released on behalf of LSU showed that an internal 2013 investigation at the school accused Miles of inappropriate behavior towards female students, including allegations that he contacted some via Facebook and text, found them outside from campus alone and kissed at least one of them. The report did not find that he had sex with any of the women, and Miles vehemently denied having kissed the student, saying he had done nothing wrong and was a mentor for young women at the university.
The Taylor Porter law firm conducted the investigation on behalf of LSU. Miles’ lawyer Peter Ginsberg told ESPN on Thursday that the results “should put an end to the baseless and inaccurate media reports that Coach Les Miles was involved in an improper touch on a track and field student volunteer long ago. eight years”.
On Friday, a second report, this one conducted by the law firm Husch Blackwell, detailed LSU’s systemic failures to properly report sports-related incidents of sexual misconduct and abuse. Part of that report showed that former LSU athletic director Joe Alleva recommended in 2013 that Miles be fired from his coaching role because of the aforementioned accusations of inappropriate behavior with female students.
Miles was not at KU’s football offices on Friday. The Jayhawks hired him in November 2018, signing him a five-year contract at the time.
Miles, 67, is 3-18 in his first two seasons in Kansas, including 0-9 in 2020. The only victory for the Jayhawks’ big 12 during those two seasons was over Texas Tech in 2019. Kansas won more than three last games in a season in 2009.
Long and Miles worked together in Michigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before Long signed him to KU, Miles was out of training for parts of three seasons after being fired by LSU in 2016.
Mike DeBord, who was hired last month as a Kansas offensive coordinator, will oversee the program with Miles on leave, sources told ESPN.