Kansas coaching search: Les Miles and 5 candidates to replace David Beaty
3. Les Miles – Former LSU head coach
By all acc,ounts Miles wants to coach again, and he’s surfaced on some level as a rumored candidate for multiple openings (Arizona, Oregon State, Minnesota, Ole Miss, etc.) since being fired by LSU early in the 2016 season. He will surface again as this season winds down, though a landing spot is hard to pinpoint right now.
Miles will turn 65 on Saturday, and he may be content working as an analyst and an occasional actor. But he was rumored to be interested in the Kansas job almost immediately after it was out there it would be open, and that interest appears to be mutual.
Tough deal for David Beaty at #KU.. Jayhawks, 3-5 this year, have improved a bunch since he took over. Kansas source said there is legit interest in former LSU coach Les Miles> he and JeffLong go way back. Concerns tho are how hard you have to grind to build KU up in the Big12.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 4, 2018
Miles overlapped as an assistant coach at Michigan with Long as associate athletic director from 1988-1994, so that tie plus some further, more recent overlap in the SEC West (Long at Arkansas, Miles at LSU) brings plenty of familiarity.
Miles is just the kind of coach to bring credibility and interest to Kansas football, which Long clearly wants to cultivate with the hire. Recruiting good football players to a basketball school in the Midwest will be a challenge, but Miles would surely embrace it and be able to bring in some recognizable assistant coaches to help the cause.
Miles coached in the Big 12 at Oklahoma State for four seasons (2001-2004) before going to LSU. But beyond any relevance to that (or lack thereof), with a case for him to be higher on this list, Miles might get the first interview to replace Beaty.