Jeff Long is out as Kansas’ athletic director, he confirmed to ESPN’s Heather Dinich on Wednesday.
An official announcement is scheduled for later Wednesday when Kansas has called a staff meeting. Long declined further comment to ESPN.
Kansas announced late Monday night that the school had parted ways with head football coach Les Miles amid accusations of inappropriate behavior toward female students while he was the head coach at LSU.
Long said Tuesday that the university was unaware of any wrongdoing in Miles’ past before hiring him as head coach in 2018.
Long worked alongside Miles during their days together at Michigan in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Long hired Miles as Kansas’ head coach in 2018 after Miles had been out of coaching for parts of three seasons. Miles, who won a national championship at LSU in 2007, was fired at LSU four games into the 2016 season after the Tigers started out 2-2.
Long said during his virtual news conference on Tuesday that he asked Miles directly during the interview process in 2018 if there was anything in the past that could potentially embarrass the university or the KU program.
“And he said no,” Long said. “We also did our due diligence by talking to individuals within the LSU athletics department to see if there was anything we should be aware of regarding Coach Miles’ tenure at LSU and received no indications of any issues.”
Long said that in early February, Miles’ camp made Kansas aware of a legal dispute in Louisiana but couldn’t share information on it. Long said that he asked Miles if there was anything they should be concerned about from the reports, and Miles told him no.
“At that point we requested copies of all reports related to Les Miles while he was at LSU,” Long said. “We were given a variety of reasons from Miles’ legal counsel why they would not be provided to us. On Feb. 24 we learned some details of the allegations when The Advocate published its initial article followed by the USA Today article later that same day, that there had been a secret settlement and a sexual harassment investigation in 2013.”
Miles had three years and about $8 million left on a five-year contract he signed with Kansas in November 2018. The two sides settled for $1.99 million, according to the school.
Long was named Kansas’ athletic director in 2018 after serving in that same capacity at Arkansas from 2008-17. His first stint as an AD was at Pittsburgh from 2003-07.