Kansas, football coach Les Miles mutually agree to part ways amid probe into inappropriate behavior at LSU
damning reports about his behavior with female students while he was at Louisiana State University prompted Kansas to place him on administrative leave.
“I am extremely disappointed for our university, fans and everyone involved with our football program,” Kansas athletics director Jeff Long said in a joint statement with Miles. “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. 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.”
blasted Kansas’ decision Saturday to place Miles on leave, calling it “disturbing and unfair,” and saying the school was bowing to “media blowback.” He also repeated previous assertions that Taylor Porter had found Miles did nothing wrong.
ROUGH WATERS AT LSU:LSU AD wanted to fire Les Miles in 2013 for misconduct. The school didn’t act.
“Taylor Porter concluded that coach Miles did not engage in any conduct that constituted sexual harassment and that there were no grounds to discipline coach Miles,” Ginsberg said in his statement. “Now, eight years later, LSU, in the wake of enormous pressure from the NCAA for conduct that has nothing to do with coach Miles, issued a report conducted by Husch Blackwell.
“(Husch Blackwell) second-guessed the Taylor Porter findings and conclusions without any basis for doing so.”
But that mischaracterizes the investigations.
While Husch Blackwell says “LSU’s outside counsel ultimately concluded that Student 2’s allegations, even if true, would not constitute prohibited sexual harassment under applicable law,” there is nothing in the unredacted portions of the Taylor Porter report that says that. Husch Blackwell also said it disagreed with that conclusion.
Taylor Porter investigators did say they couldn’t make a judgment on what happened between Miles and a student who said Miles kissed her twice after suggesting “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.” Even if they were to accept Miles’ version of events, Taylor Porter investigators wrote, “it appears that he has shown poor judgment.”
Even before the Taylor Porter investigation, then-athletic director Joe Alleva had previously barred Miles from being alone with student workers. Husch Blackwell found Alleva was so concerned by the incident that prompted the Taylor Porter investigation that he urged LSU to fire Miles in 2013.
“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,” Alleva wrote in a June 2013 email to then-LSU President F. King Alexander and the school’s general counsel. “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. ”
Miles remained at LSU until 2016, when he was fired after a 2-2 start.
Alexander, now the president at Oregon State University, said in a letter to that school’s community Monday that he now regrets LSU not acting sooner.
“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,” Alexander wrote. “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.”
It’s not clear what Ginsberg meant by his reference to “enormous pressure from the NCAA.” LSU hired Husch Blackwell after reporting by USA TODAY found a widespread pattern of handling sexual misconduct complaints at the school.
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