It's official: the Hat is back.
After weeks of speculation, Kansas named Les Miles as its next head coach on Sunday.
Miles signed a 5-year contract worth $2.775 million annually with retention bonuses to be paid in November 2020 and November 2022. He will be formally introduced in a press conference at 6 p.m. ET. If the Jayhawks can piece together six wins in any season under Miles, that guarantees him a one time, one year extension. Additional bonus opportunities are here:
The hire consummates a long-term romance between KU AD Jeff Long and Miles, whose relationship dates back to when they were rising professionals at Michigan three decades ago. Long attempted to hire Miles as his head coach at Arkansas in 2012, a pursuit that ended with Miles getting an extension at LSU and Long hiring Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema.
Miles went 114-34 at LSU's head coach from 2005-16, claiming the 2007 national championship and two SEC championships. He has prior Big 12 experience in racking up a 28-21 record as Oklahoma State's head coach from 2001-04.
He has been out of coaching since a mid-season firing at LSU in 2016. In the interim, Miles pursued a career in entertainment as an actor and a podcaster.
Miles, who turned 65 last Saturday, inherits a serious rebuild at Kansas. The Jayhawks have not won more than one Big 12 game since 2008, winning six total conference games over their past 10 seasons.
Kansas will close out the David Beaty era on Friday against No. 15 Texas. Once the clock strikes zero on Friday afternoon, the keys to KU's broken program will be officially in Miles's hands, and it'll be his job to fix it.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Update> At his introductory presser Miles was his typical funny self; but at times he seemed to lose his focus.