“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”, Haden says in a statement.
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Helton, the Trojans’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, served as the interim coach prior to Sarkisian’s hiring and led the Trojans to a win in the Las Vegas Bowl. Orgeron injected life into the program after Kiffin went 3-2 to start the season (and finished 7-6 the year before), but USC did not bring him in as the full-time coach after the search process. The Trojans embarrassingly lost a 17-12 decision to Washington on Thursday.
Sarkisian was the second full-time coach after almost a decade under Pete Carroll, and had been the first head coach hire by Haden. “While the details of our conversation will remain between us, I am confident he heard my message loud and clear”.
Faced with mounting reports of erratic behavior by its football coach, USC fired the troubled Steve Sarkisian on Monday afternoon.
ESPN quoted an unidentified USC player, who told the network’s Shelley Smith by text that Sarkisian “showed up lit to meetings again today”.
In August, Sarkisian appeared to be drunk during a pep rally when he disparaged other Pac-12 schools and used obscene language in front of USC boosters.
He apologized later, saying “the way I acted was irresponsible and something I don’t condone”. I guess he’s having a hard time coping with that, and it’s affecting his football aspect of it. And who knows what other ugly stories are out there involving a sick coach in a program that was too fundamentally weak to help him? “Whatever he’s going through, I pray he finds peace”.
Before the season, Sarkisian announced he would receive treatment after admitting he mixed alcohol and unspecified medication during a donor event. He then served as the University of Washington’s head coach from 2008-2013, leaving the Huskies to take the job at USC.
This was not the only time on Monday that Carroll would comment on this.
An LA Times Report uncovered a long list of receipts with large alcohol tabs while Sarkisian was at UW.
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I wonder if the latest Sarkisian episode would have been swept under the run of if USC was unbeaten?
