Les Miles Reportedly Offered LSU Student Settlement over Harassment Allegations

A settlement former LSU head football coach Les Miles reached with a student several years ago has reportedly surfaced amid an investigation into how the university has handled sexual misconduct and domestic violence complaints over the years, including allegations against football players. 

According to Andrea Gallo and Brooks Kubena of The Advocate, "about a decade ago" an LSU athletic department student intern said that Miles had been "hitting on her," leading to a settlement between the parties.

Miles denied making advances toward the student intern but would not comment on the settlement. Miles' attorney, Peter Ginsberg, said the description of the settlement was "discernibly incomplete and inaccurate, and its publication would recklessly cast Mr. Miles in a false light."

The reported settlement was discovered amid law firm Husch Blackwell's probe into LSU, as it prepares to deliver a report about the school's handling of such cases.

When asked about the settlement, which Gallo and Kubena reported does not appear in searches of Baton Rouge court records, LSU vice president of strategic communications Jim Sabourin said it had surfaced during the Husch Blackwell investigation, but the university was "not a party to it and we have not seen it."

Miles, 67, was the head coach at LSU from 2005-16 after a four-year stint as the head coach at Oklahoma State.

In his 12 seasons leading the Tigers, Miles went 114-34 and led them to two SEC titles and one national championship.

After a 2-2 start in 2016, LSU fired Miles and replaced him with Ed Orgeron, who went on to lead the Tigers to a national title in 2019.

Following a two-year hiatus from coaching, Miles became the head coach at Kansas prior to the 2019 campaign.

In two seasons with the Jayhawks, Miles has posted a 3-18 record, including a 1-16 mark in Big 12 play.