Sarkisian left as coach of Washington two years ago to take the USC job.
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“It’s not about relief, it’s not about satisfaction”, said the Trojans coach, who was sacked today.
News circulated from player to player by way of texts and phone calls, further jolting a highly touted team that had already stumbled to a 3-2 record, slipping out of the national rankings.
Speculation will immediately turn to Philadelphia, where Kelly is known as a coach the USC brass would love to have.
Helton began his career as a graduate assistant at Duke in 1995.
Helton is something of a quarterback guru, having played the position at both Houston and Auburn.
It’s been a tumultuous season for coach Steve Sarkisian and Southern Cal. Sunday, Sarkisian was told to take a leave of absence from the team.
“I then spoke with our coaches and team”.
USC’s Athletic Director Pat Haden announced the decision during a news conference on Sunday, where he disclosed Sarkisian was “not healthy”. Most recently, USC – which entered the season ranked No. 8 in the AP poll – was upset 17-12 at home by Washington last Thursday night.
USC announced Monday that head coach Steve Sarkisian has been terminated from his contract.
As with any interim head coach, the casual fan may not be too familiar with the name Clay Helton.
Shame on Athletic Director Pat Haden for waiting this long to give Sarkisian help, and shame on USC President Max Nikias for allowing him to wait. Haden fired Kiffin five games into the 2013 season.
A day after placing head coach Steve Sarkisian on an indefinite leave of absence, USC has terminated the contract of the head coach effective immediately.
“It breaks my heart to see how this has gone”.
The Los Angeles Times also published a story on Monday detailing Sarkisian’s history with alcohol, citing several receipts obtained from Sarkisian’s time at Washington.
That is until Monday, when a day after putting him on indefinite leave, something changed – more bad stuff that we don’t know about perhaps – and Haden finally pulled the plug on the relationship.
“We all are hopeful that Steve gets his life back together and gets things in order”, Rams coach Jeff Fisher said. One player’s parent told ESPN the team was forging ahead while hoping for the best outcome for Sarkisian.
“They wouldn’t let him come to practice”, the source added.
Fisher, a USC alum, also extended his support. His behavior at Salute to Troy was reportedly so erratic that Haden had to remove him from the stage.
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The headquarters guesses that Sarkisian’s legal representation will be chasing an ADA case in the near future, but that’s just us…
