Kansas football: CFN ranks Les Miles 7th best coach in Big 12

Kansas football head coach Les Miles was recently ranked as the No. 7 overall head coach in the Big 12 Conference by College Football News.

To put it bluntly, Kansas football has struggled to find a competent head coach for the past 10+ seasons. One after the other has failed, and now, national champion Les Miles will try to succeed where many coaches have had a hard time finding success.

One thing Miles has going for him though is his pedigree. Miles has won a national title, two SEC championships, and multiple New Year’s Six bowls. If there’s one thing that separates Miles from his predecessors at Kansas, it’s the fact that he’s already had a vast amount of success.

Despite this, Miles finished his first season as the head coach of the Jayhawks with a 3-9 record. Still, that was the same record that Kansas had in 2018, so the Jayhawks didn’t regress.

In College Football News’ Big 12 Preseason College Football Head Coach Rankings for the 2020 season, Miles was ranked as the No. 7 overall coach in the conference, which is fair. Miles’ first season wasn’t good, it wasn’t awful, but there a lot of coaches in the Big 12 who’ve had much more recent success than Miles.

If Miles wants to move up the list, he’ll obviously need to win some more games with the Jayhawks. He wouldn’t have to create miracles, but if he could take Kansas to a bowl game or two over the next few years he’d certainly deserve to move up in the standings. Not only that, but he’d further cement himself as a great coach by winning at a historically tough place to win at.

While it’s too early to declare the Les Miles era a failure or success, the Jayhawks do appear to be trending in the right direction. With any luck, Kansas will make strides and become a competitive team in the Big 12 very soon.