Kansas has officially announced the hiring of Les Miles as its next head football coach. Kansas will formally introduce Miles as the next head coach at a press conference later today.
Kansas Athletics Director Jeff Long shared the news on his Twitter account, in addition to the released statement published on the team’s website.
“Since the beginning of our search, we focused on identifying and recruiting an experienced head coach with a strong track record of success on and off the field,” Long said in a released statement. “Les Miles is exactly what we need for our program right now. His national reputation as a great recruiter and as a coach who student-athletes love playing for will enable us to break the cycle and return a winning tradition to the Kansas Jayhawks. We are thrilled to have Les and his family as Jayhawks.”
“I am humbled by the opportunity to lead the KU football program and I am grateful to Chancellor Girod and Jeff Long for the opportunity,” said Miles. “We will bring Jayhawk Football back and we will do it with outstanding coaches, tremendous student-athletes of character and ability and an unrelenting drive for excellence. My family and I cannot wait to be a part of the KU family!”
Miles has not coached since being let go by LSU in the middle of the 2016 season, but he has never been shy about still having an interest in continuing to coach. Miles brings a career record of 142-55 with one national championship to his name. As boasted by Kansas, the Jayhawks are now the only Division 1 school with a national championship head coach in football and men’s basketball. Miles won a national title with LSU in 2007 and Kansas basketball coach Bill Self won a national title in 2008 with the program.
Prior to coaching at LSU beginning in 2005, Miles coached at Oklahoma State in the Big 12 from 2001 through 2004. Miles was 28-21 in his time at Oklahoma State.
UPDATE: According to Brett McMurphy, via Twitter, Miles signed a five-year contract valued at $2.775 million per year.