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Les Miles is no longer the head football coach at the University of Kansas days after two reports were released that detailed allegations of sexual misconduct by the coach toward students while he was at Louisiana State University.
Miles has denied the allegations in the reports, and a Monday statement from Kansas announcing his departure did not reference them. The coach and the university mutually agreed to part ways, according to Kansas.
“I am extremely disappointed for our university, fans and everyone involved with our football program. There is a lot of young talent on this football team, and I have no doubt we will identify the right individual to lead this program,” said Jeff Long, Kansas athletic director, in a statement. “We will begin the search for a new head coach immediately with an outside firm to assist in this process. We need to win football games, and that is exactly what we’re going to do.”
Miles called the day a difficult one for him and his family.
“I love this university and the young men in our football program,” he said in a statement Kansas posted. “I have truly enjoyed being the head coach at KU and know that it is 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 earn a degree here. So, I implore you to stay and build on what we started and do all of the things we talked about doing together. There is a bright future for all of you and for KU Football.”
Long had said Friday that he was placing Miles on administrative leave as the university conducted a review.
LSU last week released two reports detailing allegations about Miles while he was at LSU. USA Today had to sue LSU to obtain the first report, compiled by the law firm Taylor Porter for the university in 2013. It included allegations from a student who said Miles kissed her twice while in a car and suggested “they go to a hotel together and mentioned his condo as another meeting place. He also complimented her on her appearance and said he was attracted to her,” USA Today reported.
The second report released last week was from the law firm Husch Blackwell, which LSU hired in November to audit the way it handled about 60 sexual misconduct cases over five years. It contained allegations from LSU’s director of football recruiting, who said she reported concerns about Miles and his conduct to administrators, but the reports “went nowhere,” according to USA Today.
The Husch Blackwell report called the way LSU handled sexual misconduct complaints a “serious institutional failure.” After its release, LSU announced unpaid suspensions for its executive deputy athletic director and senior associate athletic director. The university’s interim president, Thomas Galligan, said that the university “failed our people in this regard, so we have got to change the culture,” USA Today reported.
The newspaper has reported that LSU’s athletic director recommended firing Miles as head football coach in 2013, quoting a letter he addressed to the university’s lawyer and its president at the time, F. King Alexander.
“I want us to think about which scenario is worse for LSU. Explaining why we let him go or explaining why we let him stay,” wrote then-athletic director Joe Alleva, according to USA Today. “I think we have cause. I specifically told him not to text, call or be alone with any student workers and he obviously didn’t listen. I know there are many possible outcomes and much risk either way, but I believe it is in the best interest in the long run to make a break.”
Alexander, who is now president at Oregon State University, issued a letter Monday saying he was deeply saddened by the details in the reports and that Oregon State addresses Title IX and sexual misconduct differently than did LSU.
“Within my first few weeks as LSU’s president in 2013, members of the university’s Board of Supervisors, the outside attorney advising the university, the university’s General Counsel and I were presented with the results of an inquiry into concerns of sexual misconduct reported by students involving then LSU Head Football Coach Les Miles that began in 2012 before I arrived,” Alexander’s letter said. “At the time, we were told by attorneys that there wasn’t evidence that could support termination. Though not substantiated to support termination, the results of the initial inquiry into Coach Miles were inconsistent with my and LSU’s community values and should have been acted on further. In hindsight, beyond limitations that were put into place between the coach and students, I now regret that we did not take stronger action earlier against Coach Miles, including suspension leading to further investigation and dismissal for violations of university policy, before I ordered him terminated in early fall 2016.”
LSU won a national championship with Miles as its coach in 2011. He was fired in 2016 after going 2-2. Kansas hired him in 2019, posting a 3-18 record since then.
