Kansas Jayhawks Football

Kansas head football coach Les Miles said Friday that he has been cleared to return to work after testing positive for COVID-19 last week. 

According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Miles said that despite being cleared, he will not travel with the team for their game against West Virginia on Saturday. Tight ends coach Joshua Eargle will serve as the Jayhawks' acting head coach for the game.

Miles said the following about his decision, per ESPN's Adam Rittenberg: "There is too much still unknown about this virus for me to feel 100 percent confident that I won't transmit it to someone who comes into close contact with me on the team charter, hotel or at the game Saturday."

According to ESPN's Mark Schlabach, the 66-year-old Miles said he entered into a 10-day quarantine at his home after announcing he tested positive Oct. 8. Miles handled his coaching duties remotely and didn't attend any practices.

Miles is in the midst of his second season as the head coach at Kansas after previous stints with Oklahoma State and LSU.

Overall, Miles owns a 145-67 record and he led LSU to a national championship in 2007. In his first season as head coach of the Jayhawks in 2019, Miles went 3-9.

Kansas, which hasn't won more than three games in a season since going 5-7 in 2009 and hasn't had a winning record since going 8-5 in 2008, is off to an 0-3 start this season.

The Jayhawks fell to Sun Belt team Coastal Carolina in their first game this season and have since been blown out by Baylor and Oklahoma State.

WVU, which is hosting Kansas at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Saturday, is 2-1 on the season.

Last week, the Mountaineers beat Baylor 27-21 to improve to 2-1, making them a big favorite against Kansas since the Jayhawks struggled to hang with Baylor.

On Saturday, Kansas will look to score its first victory over West Virginia since beating the Mountaineers 31-19 in 2013.

Kansas head football coach Les Miles announced he has been diagnosed with COVID-19 in a statement Thursday.

Miles said he will continue with his duties as head coach while undergoing a quarantine process.

Les Miles has tested positive for COVID-19. He received the test result today, he said. One day ago, he hosted an episode of Hawk Talk, where he told the crowd he had a cold. #kufball

Statement: pic.twitter.com/vhDTrpzK8B

— Scott Chasen (@ChasenScott) October 8, 2020

"Although I will physically not be able to attend practice for the time being, I will be using the technology available for remote working to stay connected during staff meetings, meetings with players, etc.," he said.

Kansas athletic director Jeff Long said the school believes Miles could return for the team's Oct. 17 matchup against West Virginia.

"Based on the other test results, no other coaches tested positive. As long as Coach Miles does not develop symptoms or have a fever, we anticipate he will be able to coach the West Virginia game on Oct. 17," Long said in a statement.

Long's statement is not fully accurate because Miles said he had a cold Wednesday. That would imply he is having some symptoms, which may hamper his ability to return for the game against West Virginia. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends an isolation period of at least 10 days, which is particularly important for symptomatic carriers.

Kansas is off to an 0-3 start in Miles' second season, bringing his overall mark to 3-12 at the school. The Jayhawks have not had a winning football season since 2008.

The University of Kansas suspended voluntary football workouts Friday because of an increase in positive COVID-19 tests.     

According to the school's official athletics website, 164 student-athletes were tested recently. Those tests yielded 16 positive results, 12 of which came from the football team. Overall, 45 Kansas student-athletes are in quarantine.

All Jayhawks football players and staff will self-quarantine for the next 14 days. When that time is up, everyone will be retested, and the program will decide whether to resume workouts.

Kansas athletic director Jeff Long released the following statement regarding the suspension of football workouts:

"After the increase in positive COVID-19 tests within our football program, our medical team at Kansas Team Health has recommended discontinuing voluntary workouts immediately. Our priority remains to keep our student-athletes safe and healthy, especially during this pandemic, and will follow the recommendations of our medical professionals.

"We will only resume our preparations after the 14-day quarantine is complete and our student-athletes and staff have been tested for the virus prior to participating in football activities. In the meantime, we continue to educate our student-athletes, as well as coaches and staff, on the importance of following the policies and procedures and recommendations from our Kansas Team Health physicians and the CDC."

Kansas head football coach Les Miles also commented:

"When we welcomed our young men back to campus a couple of weeks ago for voluntary workouts, even with the policies and procedures in place to try and protect them from becoming infected with the virus, events outside of our control has made the decision to pause these workouts necessary. Our trainers and doctors will remain in daily contact with each of the student-athletes that tested positive to support them and what we hope will involve only minor symptoms if any. We will follow medical recommendations on returning to activities."

In the weeks since college football teams have been allowed to start working out together, several high-profile programs have reported positive COVID-19 tests. Among them are LSU, Clemson, Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Ole Miss and Oklahoma.

Kansas' in-state rival, Kansas State, suspended football workouts on June 20 for 14 days after 14 student-athletes out of 130 tested positive for COVID-19.

The NCAA is moving forward with the idea that football will be played in the fall, but if the coronavirus cases keep rising, it is possible that the season could be pushed back to the spring or at least be delayed to some degree.

Kansas hasn't had a winning record since 2008, and it is coming off its second consecutive 3-9 campaign. Even so, there is some excitement surrounding the team with Miles at the helm since he won a national championship as LSU's coach in 2007 and owns a career record of 145-64.

Kansas head coach Les Miles is confident there will be a 2020 college football season. 

"We're gonna play college football in the fall, that's what's been said," Miles said Thursday on KCSP's Cody & Gold (h/t Jesse Pantuosco of Radio.com). "There's a bunch of guys who can't wait to play." 

Spring sports were canceled across the NCAA landscape as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which included practices and spring games for football. The NCAA recently announced a plan for "resocialization," but it will require infection rates of COVID-19 to decline for two weeks and will follow steps similar to the three phases of return laid out by the federal government.

Out of a poll of 114 Division I athletic directors, 99 percent said there will be football in some form during the 2020 season, per Brett McMurphy of Stadium. However, only 24 percent believe the year will start on time as scheduled, with 61 percent expecting a start in October or November.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick argued each conference could start at different times in a split season, per Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports.

Miles still remains confident, although he acknowledged the start of offseason work might be delayed to mid-August or later.

Whenever practices begin, the 66-year-old plans to take proper precautions.

"Now we got to make sure we’re safe with our kids," he said. "Our players, when they take the field, it’s got to be done with the idea that we’re doing it with them in mind."

Miles is heading into his second season with Kansas after going 3-9 in his first year. 

Kansas beat Boston College 48-24 on Friday, earning its first road victory over a Power Five team since 2008, a streak that extended to 48 games.

"I'm proud of them. I think the coaching staff did a great job," Jayhawks head coach Les Miles said after the game, per the Kansas City Star's Jesse Newell. "Those things are going to happen more regularly with our program at a great school like Kansas."

How’s that for a 200th career game, Coach? 😁 pic.twitter.com/I1j0eXjsXs

— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) September 14, 2019

Somethin’ special. pic.twitter.com/T9bersAgrR

— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) September 14, 2019

Carter Stanley finished 20-of-27 passing through the air for 238 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. Khalil Herbert and Pooka Williams Jr. combined to run for 308 yards and two scores as well.

Williams' 12-yard touchdown run gave Kansas a double-digit lead in the third quarter, and Herbert capped off the Jayhawks' scoring on a six-yard TD run with 5:44 left in the game.

When he succeeded David Beaty as head coach, Miles inherited the biggest rebuilding job among Power Five schools. Kansas hasn't won more than three games since the 2009 season.

Now, the Jayhawks are 2-1 with Big 12 play kicking off Sept. 21 against West Virginia.

Fans will know better than to take anything for granted. Kansas is only six days removed from a 12-7 home loss to Coastal Carolina in which it gained 280 yards of offense.

The Jayhawks dropped their last five meetings with West Virginia by an average of 26.6 points. But the Mountaineers only beat James Madison by seven points to open the season before suffering a 31-point loss to Missouri.

At the very least, keeping close with West Virginia would show Miles has the program headed in the right direction.

Rick Ross is here, standing on a makeshift stage at the 50-yard line of David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium an hour after the KU spring football game, wearing sunglasses and dressed in all black, performing for 5,000 or so people who hope that this night, of all nights, is the night when Kansas football will be reborn.        

It may seem like a strange scene for the beginning of a football resurrection: a mostly empty stadium...in the middle of April. But for the Kansas football program and one of the most tormented fanbases in sports, after a decade of defeat and futility, it feels appropriate.

Les Miles, the man who eats grass and stars in movies, is here as well, floating across the stage in a white Kansas pullover, which truth be told will take some getting used to.

He isn't quite sure where he's supposed to stand or when or how to raise his arms, but Miles is feeling it. Standing to the left of Ross, he gyrates awkwardly and spectacularly as "All I Do Is Win" is bellowed to the crowd.

Welcome to Kansas football in 2019. And welcome to the unlikeliest return of one of the now five active college football coaches to have won a national championship.

The other four coaches are stashed away at title-game regulars (Alabama's Nick Saban and Clemson's Dabo Swinney) or resource-rich schools with some recent history of success (Texas A&M's Jimbo Fisher and North Carolina's Mack Brown). They are not posted up at a program that has won a grand total of 18 football games since 2010. They are also not lining up for a colossal rebuild at the age of 65.

It's not like Miles didn't have other options. Networks would line up to lure his charismatic personality away from the sideline and into the studio. But here he is, at what most would consider rock bottom, looking carefree and at home.

After more than a decade at LSU and two long, restless seasons away from the sport, the Mad Hatter is back, unafraid of the long journey ahead.

---

Somewhere mid-sentence, Miles comes to a silent, uncomfortable halt. He picks up his phone, looking at the device as if laying eyes on it for the first time, and begins to methodically type a text—each letter punctuated by a facial expression more perplexed than the last.

It is the day before Kansas' spring game, and a film crew sits silently in the back of Miles' office, capturing the coach's return in a documentary. Although the room is without noise, the cameras and microphones continue to roll. No coach can turn dead air into captivating content quite like Miles.

On the other end of this text message is a high school quarterback, Miles says. At LSU, where he spent more than a decade, winning a national championship and finishing with an overall record of 114-34, recruiting was often thought to be his signature skill. But Kansas is not a place, historically, that the Patrick Petersons, Odell Beckham Jrs. or Tyrann Mathieus would consider. Miles hopes this player is one of many who will help him change that narrative.

What is clear, as he sits behind his white desk in silence, is that Miles has taken spectacular care of himself since he's been away. His face is tan. His body looks lean and healthy.

He credits sleep for his youthful appearance, which is not something you'll often hear from a head football coach. Most wear their insomnia like a badge of honor, but Miles seems at peace back in a position that regularly produces 18-hour work days.

"I've got plenty of energy, and age is not part of it," he says. "As we go forward, I want to win. And I'm gonna want to win in a grand scope. I guess what I'm saying is, I like the challenge. I like where I'm headed. I like where I'm at."

"Grand scope" is Miles' distinct way of saying he's in this for the long haul.

Only six months ago, it seemed reasonable to speculate whether Miles would ever coach again. He spent years searching for a program that would welcome him after he was fired from LSU following a 2-2 start in 2016. Despite his beloved status in Baton Rouge, Miles went through two coaching cycles without landing a job.

He appeared in commercials. He starred in multiple movies, including taking on the role as a NASA chief in the film The Challenger Disaster, which explored the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle.

He dabbled with covering college football as a member of the media for a short while. But that, despite the lucrative opportunities, didn't scratch the itch. If anything, it was a reminder of what was absent.

"I never lost the feel for coaching, the want to coach and the enjoyment of preparing that team to play," Miles says. "That's been with me since I left. Even though I did some other things and arguably well enough to continue to do them, I never lost the want to coach. Period."

---

The Uber driver has seen what football hell looks like, and over the course of an 11-minute drive to Memorial Stadium, he takes a painful trip through the past decade of Kansas football.

It begins in a place of great joy, 2007, when former head coach Mark Mangino led Kansas to a 12-1 record and an Orange Bowl win. The team finished seventh in the nation in the final AP poll.

From there, the program began a decadelong dive. Mangino went 8-5 in 2008 and 5-7 in 2009, then resigned after a university probe into his treatment of players. Turner Gill took over and lasted two seasons, winning five games and losing 19. Charlie Weis made it 28 games but lost 22 of them. Clint Bowen went 1-7 as his interim replacement. And David Beaty wasn't retained after last season, his fourth. His teams occasionally flashed glimpses of hope, but he finished his tenure 6-42.

Kansas has not won more than three games in a season since 2009 and has won only six conference games over the past decade. Up until September 2018, the Jayhawks had lost 46 straight road games.

"It's been a decade of s--t," the Uber driver says. "But we're behind Les."

Miles' decision to join Kansas traces back to last fall, when he first met with newly appointed athletic director Jeff Long, a man he's known for 30 years. As part of the hiring process, Long, who spent 10 years at Arkansas before coming to Lawrence, manipulated flight plans coming to and leaving Lawrence to throw the media off his trail.

"There's no more pressure than hiring a head basketball and head football coach," Long says. "I had to relieve some pressure or my brain will explode, so I had some fun with FlightAware and tail numbers. It relieved a little pressure."

What Long found when he met with Miles was a coach who looked and sounded much younger than his age would indicate. He heard everything he needed to hear, specifically a desire to evolve offensively, negating a stigma that chased Miles through the end of his tenure at LSU.

Long brought other administrators with him to the meeting with Miles last fall, too—to showcase what life would be like if Miles took the job.

"I've known Les for 30 years, and he's been unusual in a positive way," Long says. "He's extraordinary in many ways. But I needed someone objective there to be able to judge it as well."

While his tenure at LSU unquestionably built the Mad Hatter persona, that wasn't the piece of Miles' resume that excited Long the most. Before he joined the Tigers, Miles helped a dormant Oklahoma State football program find success. The Cowboys had won more than five games only once in 12 years before Miles arrived. They won at least seven in each of his final three seasons. They didn't win Big 12 titles or have national title hopes; they just had realistic, meaningful development year over year. That's what Long wants for Kansas.

"Get to a bowl game," he says. "We get to a bowl game, and it changes everything."

---

When he was fired, Miles never wanted to dip gently into retirement. He stayed in Baton Rouge and went to work at a condo near Tiger Stadium every day—a place where cherished memories and open wounds seemed to collide.

He watched film of high school players, hoping to naturally step right back into recruiting when the time came. He studied tape and watched the full slate of games on Saturdays, taking notes on plays and schemes that he could eventually run.

"I want to hire a great staff and chase a national championship at a place that wants this pursuit," Miles told Bleacher Report at the time. "I want an AD and president to say, 'I'm with you. Let's go do this.' I want them with me."

A year went by with conversations but no movement. And then another job-seeking cycle where Miles once again dabbled with certain vacancies but left without a job.

What began as a search to take over a program with yearly national championship aspirations ended with the one perhaps furthest from those aspirations. That's at least one way to look at how Miles landed back in football. But this outcome, as rare as it feels for a coach with his pedigree, also has an emotional tie that the cutthroat, business-oriented hiring process rarely produces.

"I want to coach football," Miles says now. "I think I could've taken a couple of other opportunities, but I wanted it to be a Power Five job. I wanted it to be with an athletic director that I really felt like we could compete together with."

It didn't have to be perfect. He signed a five-year contract with an annual salary of $2.775 million, according to Jesse Newell of the Kansas City Star, but also gave up $5 million in accepting a buyout from LSU to take the job. He could have kept that money and made millions on top of it as a fixture on Saturday mornings, saying peculiar and engaging things while being himself on camera. Instead, the chance to coach again won out, because he genuinely loves what he does.

"There's certainly a challenge here," Miles says. "I mean, I get that. But this is not something over the top. You have a lot to work with. It's a great school. This is a beautiful community."

He isn't a caretaker. Nor is he a reviver who, if the program turns, plans to give way to someone else to enjoy the spoils. He hasn't put a timetable on how much longer he wants to coach, and he sees no reason to right now. Not with the work just beginning.

---

The field before the spring game is a collection of the past, present and future of Kansas football. As Miles' team readies itself, recruits and alumni gather on the sideline. Both are well-represented to take in this new era, even if everyone isn't quite sure what it will look like.

"LES IS MORE" T-shirts are being sold at the team store. And the words "The Jayhawks Are Coming," Kansas' anthem for 2019, can be seen throughout the stadium.

"Welcome to Late Night Under the Lights," the PA announcer says. There may only be 5,000 or so in attendance, but that's more than those affiliated with Kansas can ever remember having for a spring game. "And welcome to the Les Miles era."

The game itself provides mixed results, as most spring football games do. Whether it's a glimpse into the future or merely a way to expedite the evaluation of his quarterbacks, deep balls soar throughout the evening. The majority of them find the turf.

Given the stigma Miles is trying to escape, though, the exercise carries weight.

During halftime, clips of Miles play throughout the stadium. An acted scene from The Challenger Disaster, which draws applause. An impression of Hannibal Lecter, which draws laughter. An elongated skit with Kansas basketball head coach, Bill Self, which draws the biggest reaction of the evening. The full Mad Hatter portfolio is on display.

Blue easily handles White by the score of 45-7. That offers little insight into what will happen next when the results start to count, but it does offer something the program has not experienced in the past 10 years: hope.

That sentiment is mutual, by the way. For as much as Miles brings to Kansas, it has allowed him a chance to do something he genuinely loves.

"I've never really seen a school or a program that was destined to finish second in their games," Miles says. "This place truly is beautiful and should have victory."

Moments after the game finishes, the makeshift stage is rapidly assembled. Temporary fences are arranged. Many students make their way from the stands to the turf to get a closer look at Ross, the evening's second act. 

No one seems to leave; if anything, they move closer. When Ross appears, a jolt of energy shoots throughout the stadium. When Miles joins him on stage, the vibrations of the response—a combination of Ross' performance and the crowd's collective joy—send shock waves through the ground.

There will be time to bring this football program back to life. Long, difficult hours—perhaps years—to reshape a decade of misfortune. In many ways, this is what Miles has been searching for.

But for at least a few minutes, as Miles joyously pumps his arms out of sync and drifts in and out of movements with no beginning or end, it can wait.

                

Adam Kramer covers college football for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @KegsnEggs.

Former Kansas Jayhawks head coach David Beaty has filed a lawsuit against the university, alleging school officials are attempting to find a way to avoid paying him his $3 million buyout. 

The Athletic's Stewart Mandel shared a portion of Beaty's filing:

David Beaty is suing Kansas, claiming the school is trying to dig up dirt on him to try to get out of paying a $3M buyout. pic.twitter.com/on1GA7em8a

— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) March 12, 2019

Kansas announced in November it intended to fire Beaty, with the coach staying on through the end of the 2018 season. His $3 million buyout would be distributed over six payments.

According to SB Nation's Steven Godfrey, Kansas wouldn't be on the hook for Beaty's buyout if it could successfully argue it fired him with cause.

On Dec. 14, the school sent Beaty a letter informing him it was looking into whether one of his assistants had committed NCAA violations more than two years ago. Alan Bullington, one of the lawyers representing Beaty, told Godfrey that his representatives "made four separate attempts to communicate with Kansas regarding specific details of an alleged violation and have not received communication back."

Godfrey reported the lawsuit also alleges Kansas hindered Beaty's chances of getting another job by informing prospective employers he "is the subject of an NCAA investigation."

Beaty spent four years at Kansas, compiling a 6-42 record.

Weeks after confirming Beaty's imminent departure, Kansas introduced Les Miles as its next head coach. Horns247's Taylor Estes reported in February the Texas Longhorns were considering Beaty for an analyst role on their coaching staff.