There are media folks who just rip for the sake of ripping and aren't well versed in the fine art of systematically dismantling someone in print.
Scott Reid of the Orange County Register presents a clinic on how to rip with this column saying it's time for Steve Sarkisian and Pat Haden to go. It's not just taking shots. It's constructing a premise, piece by piece, and making it hard anyone to disagree.
It’s really as simple as this: Steve Sarkisian showed up drunk for work.
At most jobs this would be met with significant consequences. Even Sterling Cooper had its limits.
But not at Pat Haden’s USC.
For telling offensive jokes while making the rounds at Salute to Troy clearly intoxicated, for getting on stage in front of alums, boosters, parents, children, his bosses, and dropping a f-bomb before being yanked off stage, for showing up drunk at work, all Sarkisian has had to do is some calisthenics known as “up downs.”
“He did up downs at a practice?” Desmond Howard, the former Michigan Heisman Trophy winner, said on ESPN’s GameDay over the weekend. “That’s laughable.”
Indeed Haden’s USC has become a national joke.
A season that was supposed to signal the Trojans return to national prominence has become a 12-game punch line; an autumn full of chants of “Cutty Sark” in Tempe and South Bend, “Seven Win Sark” taunts replaced by “Six Pack Steve” in Eugene, “(Expletive) Fight On” T-shirts in Westwood.
Make no mistake the joke is on Haden, the Trojans athletic director, as much as it is on Sarkisian. It’s on Haden that the Trojans start the season with a national embarrassment on their sideline.
And this:
Haden’s leadership style has been inconsistent; impulsive at times, non-existent at others. There have also been more than a few signs of the same arrogance so prominent in the Garrett era.
Upset with by Washington State AD Bill Moos’ proposal to change the Pac-12’s revenue distribution, Haden suggested during an October 2010 conference meeting that USC would explore leaving the league, according to Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian in “The System.” But then Stanford AD Bob Bowlsby, the authors wrote, “had no patience for Haden’s bluster and called his bluff, saying everyone knew that wasn’t going to happen.”
Haden was quick to suspend basketball coach Kevin O’Neill for what turned out to be one game at the 2011 Pac-12 tournament after he was involved in a confrontation with an Arizona booster in a hotel lobby. Alcohol was involved in the incident. There is no record of how many up downs O’Neill was required to perform.
Haden stood by Lane Kiffin after a 2012 season in which the Trojans finished a 7-6 campaign with three straight losses and a team locker-room altercation at the Sun Bowl. He then fired Kiffin in the middle of the night on an airport runway five games into the 2013 season.
But Haden’s tenure will ultimately be judged by the end result of his most important decision since returning to USC — hiring Sarkisian.
The column was written before last night, when Haden finally ended his silence and gave his reasoning in the Sarkisian decision.
"We've had some glitches, myself included," he said, adding, "Every decision I've made, like I said, even though a lot people disagree with them, I do try to give it a great deal of thought in what's in the interest of USC."
"I understand a lot of people are going to disagree with my decision — it happens all the time," Haden said during USC's 'Trojans Live' radio show. "I believe the course of action we chose was really in the best interest of USC and Steve Sarkisian and maybe just an important, or more importantly, our players."
Haden did not address if any other possible courses of action were considered.
Haden said "a lot of careful thought was given" before his decision was made and that he had "thoughtful conversations" with medical professionals and others "so we could draw up a confidential plan."
He said the counseling part of Sarkisian's treatment had "started off well, from what he's told me."
Haden said his aim was to "represent the university the best way I can and not embarrass it."
Haden was reprimanded and fined last season after he went onto the field at Stanford to speak with officials. Haden had been summoned by Sarkisian.
A few Tuesday links:
-- In Tallahassee, Jimbo Fisher says it wasn't easy to break the news to Sean Maguire that Everett Golson is the starter.
Sean Maguire waited his turn. Patiently.
He waited in 2012 while he redshirted. He waited in 2013 as Jameis Winston became the biggest star in college football. He waited in 2014 as Winston kept starring and the Seminoles kept winning.
Even as other quarterbacks left the program — knowing they couldn’t beat out the Heisman Trophy winner – Maguire stayed at Florida State. And waited his turn.
This was supposed to be his moment, his time, to lead the Seminoles’ offense.
But in his fourth year in the system he was beaten out by a player who has been in it for four weeks.
Ouch.
I would think even the most hardened college football fans, the ones who value wins above all else all the time, would feel bad for Maguire.
I know I do. And I know Jimbo Fisher does, too.
“Oh, man, it’s hard,” the FSU head coach said about telling Maguire he had been beaten out by Everett Golson. “It’s not an easy thing to do.”
And this:
When I was talking to him about it I compared it to those gut-wrenching scenes in HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” when the head coach has to bring a player into his office and tell him he’s been released.
Those moments are so tough to watch.
“Exactly right,” Fisher said. “And you care about these kids. You really do. Not just as players. But as people.”
He’s a head coach of a program that’s gone 29-1 in its last 30 games. He’s demanding. And relentless. And whatever the opposite of warm and fuzzy is – that’s what describes Jimbo Fisher on a football field.
But there was real anguish in his voice when he was talking about having to tell Maguire the news.
Of course, it was even less fun for Maguire, who will now be a backup for the fourth straight year.
But in the end, picking Golson was the right move for this team.
-- Jared Shanker of ESPN says Golson brings a running element to FSU's offense.
Fisher said his decision came down to who can move the offense best, and he brought up Golson's different skill set, which includes an ability to evade the rush and make first downs with his feet. As the new offensive line and receivers get their feet wet, the quarterback could be scrambling to extend plays. Golson, who has run for more than 500 yards in his career, is able to do that, and running back Mario Pender said the offense has been working on scramble drills a lot. Linebacker Terrance Smith said he thinks Golson's running ability was the "X-factor" in the quarterback competition.
Maguire has been in the Seminoles' system for four years, but he might require a few more playmakers to be successful. Golson should be able to create opportunities for the offense, and the Seminoles are going to need that as a talented but young offense adjusts to bigger roles. Ultimately, it's what gave Golson the leg up.
-- This Mississippi columnist reacts to the news that Chad Kelly is the starter ... maybe.
No, I think Freeze knows that Kelly is his man, but just wants him to earn the job on the field and make it clear to everyone why that is the case. There’s some history here, because it’s basically what he did in 2012, the only other quarterback competition in Freeze’s college head coaching history.
That one was Bo Wallace vs. Barry Brunetti, and we all knew who was going to win because Wallace just had too much upside to lose. He was bigger, stronger (remember, this was pre-shoulder injury) and had just come off a fantastic junior college season at East Mississippi (sound familiar?). Freeze kept everyone in suspense for weeks though, which I always suspected was more about getting Wallace to earn the job rather than have it given to him. Wallace was named the starter in the week before the opener, but any slippage (in practice or games) over the next year caused Freeze to publicly suggest Wallace could lose the job.
Wallace never did, but the quarterback position at Ole Miss is deeper now and the backups will be more of a threat moving forward. So if you want to keep all three going at 100 percent (and in Oxford), why not at least suggest that the man who starts on Saturday has to earn his way after that?
-- Will Syracuse's offense be any less putrid this season? SI investigates.
Syracuse ranked 113th out of 125 Division-I teams in total offense last year (329.9 yards per game), and those around the program are predicting a significant rise in production. In his first full year as offensive coordinator, Tim Lester is implementing a system predicated on zone reads and the arms and legs of senior quarterback Terrel Hunt. But Hunt — who missed the last seven games of 2014 with a fractured fibula — can't carry the offense on his own, and sophomores Ervin Philips and Steve Ishmael are expected to help.
-- And we close with some funk sounds from Karl Denson's Tiny Universe:
LW
