As awful a week as you could expect for USC football Coach Steve Sarkisian. On Friday night Sark and company suffered a very embarrassing loss to Sarkisian’s former team, the Washington Huskies. On Sunday, USC Trojans Athletic Director Pat Haden asked Sarkisian to take an indefinite leave of absence.
This was accompanied by revelations that players and assistant coaches had observed Steve Sarkisian drunk at team meetings and during the game versus Arizona State.
On Monday, Sarkisian was fired.
BREAKING: #USC assistants pulled Steve Sarkisian out of player huddle on sideline during Arizona State game. Believed he was not sober
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) October 11, 2015
#USC players noted Sarkisian not sober at team meeting, then he went missing, never went to practice field. Talked to Pat Haden on phone
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) October 11, 2015
Clay Helton will serve as interim Head Coach; beginning on Saturday night when USC takes on their huge intersectional rival Notre Dame.
Here’s the statement from USC football:
After careful consideration of what is in the best interest of the university and our student-athletes, I have made the decision to terminate Steve Sarkisian, effective immediately.
I want to thank Clay Helton for stepping into the interim head coach role, and I want to add how proud I am of our coaching staff and players and the way they are responding to this difficult situation.
Through all of this we remain concerned for Steve and hope that it will give him the opportunity to focus on his personal well being.
Multiple sources reported that USC made the swift decisive action due to the fact that they expected more damaging information to surface in the next few days. That makes perfect sense when you remember that big trouble is nothing new to Sarkisian at the University of Southern California.
Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin had exactly the same records through their first 18 games (12-6, 7-5 Pac 12)…The wheels started to come off much earlier, however. He got into hot water with the school for getting drunk at a booster event and dropping a bunch of F-bombs. Before that, he was accused of being racist by Anthony Brown.
So now, 2016 will see USC bring in its third head coach since 2013.
Before Sarkisian was hired, then Vanderbilt coach James Franklin and Boise State’s Chris Petersen were reported to be the top candidates. Haden obviously went in a different direction, and no doubt had a ton of buyer’s remorse for doing so. He cut his losses on that mistake today.
I know these are lean and mean times for USC fans. However, you can re-live the Pete Carroll dynasty era Tuesday night with the ESPN 30 for 30 “Trojan War.” The documentary kicks off the latest season of 30 for 30, here’s our review of the film. It’s good, but not great, as we ranked #12 in our all time top 15 list of 30 for 30 films.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
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