Report: Les Miles Meeting With Minnesota


Former LSU coach Les Miles reportedly flew to the Twin Cities and is meeting with Minnesota officials regarding the Golden Gophers’ head coaching job.


Les Miles’ name has been discussed for nearly every major coaching job since his dismissal from LSU.

The latest rumor seems to have some traction, though.

Michael Kim of 120 Sports reports that Miles hopped a flight to the Twin Cities on Wednesday and is schedule to meet, or already has met, with Minnesota officials.

The nature of the talks is unknown, but landing a coach of Miles’ caliber would be the second bombshell for relatively new athletic director Mike Coyle in an extremely short span. Coyle fired coach Tracy Claeys on Tuesday due to the fallout from a sexual assault investigation that led to 10 Gophers being suspended.

Reports surfaced Wednesday night that Coyle and other Minnesota officials met with Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck in Chicago, where Fleck’s agent is based. They reportedly left without making Fleck an official offer.

Miles, Fleck, North Dakota State coach Chris Kleiman, Boise State coach Bryan Harsin – whom Coyle hired when he was athletic director for the Broncos – among others have been rumored for the Minnesota job. But Miles clearly would be the jewels from those names.

LSU unceremoniously fired Miles following the Tigers’ 18-13 loss to Auburn on Sept. 24 that dropped the one-time title favorite to 2-2 on the season. Since that point, Miles has been linked to numerous jobs, such as the Houston vacancy, but there haven’t been any strong indications that he was close to taking another position.

A meeting with Minnesota seems to be the best indication that Miles could end up back on the sidelines next season, should he and the Gophers come to an agreement.

Miles is 141-55 at Oklahoma State and LSU since becoming a head coach in 2001. He won a national championship with the Tigers in 2007 and brought them back to the title game in 2011.

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