Kansas Places Les Miles on Administrative Leave After LSU Probe

Kansas announced it placed Les Miles on administrative leave and will conduct its own investigation.

Denny Medley/USA TODAY Sports

Kansas athletic director Jeff Long announced on Friday that he has placed Les Miles on administrative leave following consecutive days of reports concerning his behavior towards women students while at LSU. 

The University of Kansas will also conduct its own investigation into the allegations against Miles, according to Long. As of Friday evening, Long said they have not seen the Husch Blackwell and Taylor Porter reports, which details the alleged inappropriate misconduct. 

“Today, I placed head football coach Les Miles on administrative leave as we conduct a full review to determine the appropriate next steps,” Long said in his statement. “Even though the allegations against him occurred at LSU, we take these matters very seriously at KU.

“Now that we have access to this information, we will take the coming days to fully review the material and to see if any additional information is available. I do not want to speculate on a timeline for our review because it is imperative we do our due diligence. We will be able to comment further once our review is complete.” 

Miles's attorney released a statement on Saturday, characterized Kansas's decision to place the coach on leave as "disturbing and unfair."

"Bending to the winds of media blowback, Kansas has now decided to put Coach Miles on administrative leave. Before the release of the reports this week, Kansas had been provided with significant information supporting Taylor Porter's conclusions. KU also had performed thorough due diligence before hiring Coach Miles. Kansas' decision to put Les Miles on administrative leave is both disturbing and unfair. To fail to recognize that a person's career should not be compromised by unsubstantiated allegations hardly is consistent with the example an institution of higher learning should champion."

LSU released a lengthy report from law firm Husch Blackwell on Friday, which detailed how the university handled past accounts of sexual misconduct and domestic assault, including sexual misconduct allegations against former head football coach Miles.

According to the original internal report released by LSU on Thursday, Miles was banned from being alone with female students following the 2013 sexual harassment investigation. The initial report from eight years ago alleged Miles texted woman student workers on a burner phone, drove them alone to his condo and kissed a student on at least one occasion. Miles, who was directly involved with hiring student employees, reportedly "made it clear that he wanted these employees to have a certain 'look' (attractive, blond, fit)." Employees at the time that did not fit the description were to be given fewer hours or fired, according to the report. 

In the new report released Friday, Husch Blackwell found that the LSU athletic department did not respond properly to the allegations against Miles. 

"We are not in a position to offer an opinion on whether the allegations are true or not," Husch Blackwell's report reads. "Instead, this issue is whether the University responded to this report against [Miles] ... in a manner consistent with then-existing legal guidance, well recognized best practices and institutional policy. The answer is 'no.'"

LSU hired the law firm to audit how it handled dozens of cases across all departments dating back to 2016 following a USA Today report last fall on how the LSU athletic department and broader administration failed to adequately address sexual misconduct allegations against top athletes and other students.

Husch Blackwell's report revealed that former athletic director Joe Alleva recommended Miles be fired for cause in 2013, citing "insubordination, inappropriate behavior, putting the university, athletic dept and football program at great risk."

Earliest documented evidence that Joe Alleva suggested #LSU fire Les Miles came in April 2013.

Per sources on campus, officials explored Miles' contract then in an effort to fire him *for cause* but learned they'd likely lose that fight and would owe him a $15M buyout. pic.twitter.com/KwCABX0HGt

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) March 5, 2021

"It just baffles me, though, that for so long, this went on and that kinda became the normal, right?," a longtime football staff member said in the report. "And you just don’t talk about it and you don’t say anything, you just kinda go, ‘cuz we’re protecting LSU, we’re protecting our brand, we’re protecting our head coach, we’re protecting this, we love LSU so we’re gonna be loyal to LSU so we’re gonna do what we can to help it and try to fix it. 

"But you know, nobody wants a big blowup to where oh, there’s a big scandal, you know? I always felt like we always had to be protective, you know? You want to protect LSU. You don’t want there to be any big blowup or scandal or, you know, much less anything like that, right?"