He was placed on an indefinite leave of absence Sunday when he didn’t show up for practice, and athletic director Pat Haden declared the coach “not healthy”.
Advertisement
As for the decision to move forward with Sarkisian after he embarrassed himself on stage at Salute to Troy after mixing medications with alcohol, Haden indicated he was governed by compassion.
He said Clay Helton would take over as interim head coach.
“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”.
USC coach Steve Sarkisian amassed a 34-29 record at UW from 2009 to 2013. “We support him as a team”. “Pulling for him. He’s up against a few big challenges, and he’s got to ahead and take care of it. It’s not about coaching now”. It’s about his personal life and getting things in order.
“At the time of Steve’s hire, I firmly believed he was the right choice and fit for USC”, Haden said.
Sarkisian has entered a rehabilitation program, a close friend said.
“Pullin’ for him”, Carroll said of the man he hired in January 2001 to be an offensive assistant at USC. “I know who I am”.
Helton made two staff changes, assigning tight ends coach Marques Tuiasosopo to replace him as the quarterbacks coach and promoting Lenny Vandermade to tight ends coach. Numerous receipts, which detail Sarkisian’s expenses while on the road, include large amounts of alcohol. We wish him the best as he fights his addiction issues.
ESPN has reported Sarkisian is going through a divorce. They have three children. He laid out his accomplishments helping USC to their best academic scores in history this year.
Haden said, “I will work very hard to get this right for football”.
USC’s 17-12 loss to Washington on Thursday in a game where the Trojans were favored by more than two touchdowns ended that.
“I also reached out to his agent many times”, Haden said.
In that conversation, Haden said he laid out the school’s expectations for Sarkisian’s future behavior.
A day later, Sarkisian apologized in a statement on USC’s athletic website. And the man holding the job for now, Clay Helton, will approach it with an Ed Orgeron-like zeal.
“This is a tough job”, Petersen said Monday. “They know the success we had last time this went on, what we had to do”. Or, perhaps, Haden and the department didn’t look hard enough.
Football players will come back to rehearse Tuesday only one day after USC’s head football mentor was let go. Sarkisian was hired a year ago to revive the Trojans.
Grier wasn’t a distraction Tuesday; he wasn’t seen during the portion of practice that was open to the media. At the very least, it appears Haden will get hiring power for his second head football coach. Understandable, but there may be less excuse for that considering Helton isn’t your average interim coach. Before he was the coach at Washington, Sarkisian was a co-offensive coordinator at USC. Haden made headlines early last season by going down to the sideline to yell at officials during a game at Stanford at Sarkisian’s request.
Haden said he had a “private, detailed, serious conversation” with Sarkisian after Salute to Troy, the August. 22 school rally at which Sarkisian slurred his words during a speech and had to be pulled off stage.
Advertisement
September 19: The No. 6 Trojans lose their first game of the season to then-unranked Stanford 41-31 in Los Angeles.
