Steve Sarkisian Was Fired From USC Less Than 24 Hours After His "Indefinite Leave Of Absence"

Statement from USC AD Pat Haden – “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.”

Well that was fast. The timing of this seems EXTREMELY bizarre to me — one day Sark’s on a leave of absence and going to rehab, the next day he’s fired in carefully worded statements that reek of covering one’s ass in a lawsuit — but the firing had to be done sooner or later. It’s honestly embarrassing for everyone involved at this point and as a USC alum I just have to laugh at it. I love the school to death and USC football is a highlight of my choice in colleges but this situation sums up why USC is such a joke to most of the country right now. Rumors of the head coach being drunk in public are so prominent that players and coaches tweet about it and all USC did was turn a blind eye and hope for the best, praying that Sark could just stay functionally alcoholic long enough because we had a couple great recruiting classes and could smell a shot at a playoff berth. Another blind eye turned to a problem bubbling beneath the surface and now everyone has to suffer for it while we become a punchline yet again, the one thing you can’t afford to be when trying to rebuild a college football powerhouse. We’ve gone full Miami.

All that’s left now is to see if decisive action helps. Five-star recruits at positions of need are canceling official visits, boosters are grumbling all over the place, and there’s nowhere to go but up from here. Hopefully the AD Pat Haden’s head hits the chopping block sooner than later so we can focus on the fun part: Baselessly speculating on who the next head coach is. I’m not saying I batted my eyelashes at the TV screen while watching Chip Kelly score over 35 points beating up on those poor New Orleans Saints but I’m not saying I didn’t either.