Kansas Football: Can Les Miles turn Jayhawks around in 2019?

Kansas football made an attention-grabbing hire in head coach Les Miles, but can he build the Jayhawks into Big 12 contenders?

If you’re not familiar with the Jayhawks’ Big 12 dominance, that’s because it happens in another sport — basketball. Their basketball team is what’s called a “blue-blood” program, while their football team is, well, a basement-dweller. Someone came to carry them out.

Les Miles plans to change that as the new head coach, though, and his 17-year track record speaks for itself: 142 career wins, a .721 career winning percentage, nine bowl victories, including the 2006 Sugar Bowl and the 2007 BCS National Championship; he also coached another BCS title game (2011). Pretty decent resume, right?

However, Kansas football is a unique challenge. Not since 2009 have they won five games in a single season, and you’ve got to go back even further to 2007 for a double-digit win campaign.

The Jayhawks have had four head coaches since then, Miles being No. 5. It’s not a question of “if” Miles will bring Kansas into college football relevance, though, but rather a question of “when”. Because he’s done so at each of his previous stops.

Miles’ best three-year run at LSU happened during years one through three (34-6 record, three bowl wins, including BCS National Championship). And while he’s been given a jump start at Kansas after being hired in November, don’t expect the Jayhawks to compete for the College Football Playoff — right away.