If you are looking for a positive today, remember this: USC recruits USC. It only requires a competent coach to be successful because USC attracts the top players in the country with its tradition, location, etc. Steve Sarkisian is at least competent so if he does not try to reinvent the wheel, USC should be successful.
Now is he Pete Carroll? No. But he’s also not Lane Kiffin. So if he brings in good assistants, he should be fine. And he should be a friendly face for the program, which is also something that was missing until Ed Orgeron took over.
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“fine” is certainly where SC wonks want to be. Haha. SC recruits itself. Just ask Lane and the clowns that came before Pete.
Funny thing is, we’re 9-4 in what we can all agree has been a disappointing year. But 9-4 would be a great year for any era in UCLA’s history.
Yup. They’re 9-3 and going to an irrelevant bowl (like us) but they’re celebrating like the won the BCS.
That’s a bit of an exaggeraton for me and my Bruin friends. However, two in a row over SC leads to more momentum for SoCal and OOS recruiting, which is the foundation for the future. To be 9-3 coming off a year where we played more freshmen than any FBS program? We are optimistic, but not giddy.
who is “they”? We’re celebrating beating the carp out of USC for the second year running. That’s it.
poor trOXans, one day you’ll smash your rival into pieces on their home field and get their coach fired!!!
oh, i’m STILL tingly all over, and i really mean ALL OVER, if you know what i mean!!!
Wait a minute, 2 weeks ago we rushed the field and were ready to make Ed the Mayor of LA.
nope. It’s a good year at UCLA, not great. But the guy who got you your quality wins is now gone. SC had more talent than anyone other than perhaps Oregon this year and lost to Wazzu. And ASU. And, of course, THE MIGHTY BRUINS!
I agree with your comment about SC having a lot of talent, but competing for championships requires talent + bodies. We didn’t have bodies.
you actually had plenty of bodies doing no playing.
Oh right, the walk ons. Great point.
And we used, what?….1-3 subs on defense?…….even the TV announcers mentioned that most schools rotate in between 7-10 players on the DL?…….No worries…
Condolences THoarse..I think your AD blew this one.
No worries…Needless to say, I am not thrilled about the hire, but what choice do I have, at this point?….time will tell, I suppose…..oh, well…. I guess it will give the cackling trolls something to blog about until next season…….
We agree, this was as uninspired a hire as any in the history of USC football.
Thanks…. By the way…Can I finally be removed from your rigid list of “rah-rah’s”?
Disappointed in Haden. I always respected Haden, even as a Bruin, but I don’t think he handled any of this situation with class…including firing a guy at the airport. And now, the debacle with Ed O. Never really liked Ed O, but he was a Trojan through and through…and his loyalty was shown the door.
I hear you…. I can’t help but think that some significant boosters/donors must have had their fingers in this one….
nope. You have several able bodies, on scholarship, not playing this year. They’re called red shirts. Could have been used, but weren’t.
Dude, we took fewer than 50 scholarship players to Notre Dame.
We had 12 incoming freshman scholarship players on the whole roster this year. Two were out with season-ending injuries. One of the redshirts was a quarterback. Gather some facts before you pop off.
that’s not the same as not having bodies. SC chose not to use bodies. You had 74 scholarship players this year. How many OL did UCLA lose this year? How many RB’s went out? We routinely played 18 freshmen. 18! All I’m hearing from you is wahhhh.
tollner, hackett, robinson part 2, larry smith, lame kiffin…go ahead and laugh. suckesian is next on this list.
Great points, except those guys’ achievements would have made them a legend in Westwood.
Tollner won a Rose Bowl.
Smith won a Rose Bowl.
Robinson2 won a Rose Bowl.
Kiffin’s 2010 team went 10-2 and might have gone in 2010 if we were eligible.
Hackett was the worst of the bunch and he finished 3rd in the conference one year, which is better than you guys are going to do this year.
am I supposed to be impressed? alright, well, and during that time, Donaue went to the Rose Bowl 4 times, won 3 of them, plus a Fiesta, Freedom, Cotton and John Hancock. plus came in first in the conference 5 times, second in the conference 6 times, but sadly, only once third in the conference (tying your hero Hackett on that one). Look, McKay was your Wooden and as we both know, those years are well behind both of us. You had a great mini-run with cheaty Petey until he flamed out and ditched your sanctioned souls for the pros. Now you are back to mediocrity. Deal with it. Trojan “dominance” is a mirage. No one wants to coach there, and now no one will want to play there, either.
Yes, you are supposed to be impressed, because I am enlightening you with facts you didn’t bother to look up.
Since Larry Smith won the 1985 Rose Bowl, UCLA has won only a single Rose Bowl, not 3. Nice work on the John Hancock bowl btw. I’m sure it was a great moment in Westwood lore.
Carroll didn’t exactly have a “mini-run”. He accomplished more in nine years than UCLA has in its entire history several times over.
He didn’t cheat, either, so you can add that to your list of inaccuracies.
Again, USC at 9-4 is apparently “mediocrity”, but UCLA at 9-3 is a great year. The difference in standards is clear.
actually, i love pete carroll. he is doing wonderful things for us up here in Seattle. thanks!
Nobody I know thinks 9-3 is a great year. I think it was a good year when you are playing 3 freshmen on the OL and defeat your rival with a great DL by 21 points and have the chance to win 10 games…while playing 18 freshmen overall. We call it a good start.
Understand the expectation argument though. We fired a BB coach after he won the PAC12. At SC, he would have gotten a lifetime deal.
Donahue was coach at ucla for twenty f’n years. And by your standards he cheated.
Milquetoast should not be the goal at USC. You go great or you go home.
Wolf, I expect no fewer than 20 posts from you over the next week, flip flopping and contradicting yourself at every turn. Chop chop!
You win with the best recruits. Period. One of the top 5 recruiters in the nation is UW’s Tosh Lupoi. He did great at Cal before he was stolen away by Sark. Scotty, can you get on the horn with your contacts (both of them) to confirm Lupoi is coming with Sark.
Lupoi would be the silver lining to this hire. I still don’t like the hire though.
That’s right Cal was winning all those Rose Bowls and in the Top 10 every year thanks to Lupoi.
GoTroy22: Go to school…learn something…
The more I think about it, the more I realize the Pete Carrol hire and subsequent run was a complete abaration.
aberration
Saul’s typo was an aberration………see?…. I even used the word in a sentence!
good one! I simply figured he’d gotten his education at USC.
or that commuter school on the west side of town……. 🙂
Thank you. Damn iphone
Scottie still uses a Blackberry……
The other silver lining is that your attention will hopefully be taken away from constantly dwelling on Kiffin……
First Kiffin now Sark?????
USC is USC. Top of the football pyramid with 9 other programs year in year out.
USC went through the worst NCAA sanctions…9-4, 10-2, 7-6 and 9-4.
Let that sit in. USC’s record playing with 30 less scholarship players got 1 coach fired and another great coach(o) to not be picked. The record during those 4 year’s is better than UCLA’s best year’s of the last 20 years. So bad is our state of football at SC that UCLA says we’re down. Down apparently means having one more loss.(it of course doesn’t mean we’re down 30 F**kn players.)
At USC we fire coaches for what UCLA calls dominance of L.A.
Look, no one knows what’s next with Sark and wether we’ll win championships. We won’t know anything until 5 years from now.
Coach O is great…let that sit in. Nothing more to say on that. Only an idiot would argue against Coach O and only a fool would act like they have divinity over who to choose as head coach. Haden will do what’s best. That transition isn’t easy and that’s what your seeing. The same players who Coach O motivated will mostly be there for Sark. It’s the Players stupid!
Our players…are the greatest kids…get them excited and focused after loosing someone important to them and it will take care of itself.
These good kids…will be upset. If Haden was right, Sark will get them focused and winning just like THEY did this year. The players win…the coach coaches and WE(I) have no say in anything. So Fight ON!! Miss you coach O. It’ll all work out in the end for everyone…..everyone but UCLA and their decision to hold a press conference in our tunnel.
30 less (sic) scholarships? Harhar. You keep telling yourself that.
10 scholarships per year totaling 30.
Brilliant Stu, not even the facts are important when you post.
Technically I think we played with 55 scholarships when we beat UCLA 50-0. So yeah…30. Thirty. Three Zero. 30.
Believe we we had 48 scholarship players against ND in south bend and loss by 4 points. Yeah…total domination by ND of USC.
Not to worry son….all you need will be coming. USC finishes NCAA probation this Spring. The landlords of L.A will be raising rent. And we all know the Public schools of the UC system don’t like higher tuition. Sorry..harhar
LOL. Go count the number of scholarship players on the roster. Go ahead. I dares ya! It’s not 55.
But I digress – you didn’t even go to SC. Harhar!
I’ll make it easy for you – SC has 74 scholarship players this year.
Sanctions end after the final game of the 2014 season.
Here comes the waambulance!!!
See, that is what is taking SC alums so long to figure out: USC is no longer USC. It reminds me of UCLA BB folks who think that if you simply wave a wand and speak the name “Wooden” three times, teams are going to bow down to you in fear and defeat.
SC dominates UCLA for a decade, shoving it in our faces, but as soon as our program rebounds and is stronger than yours, you start carping about “tradition” and how “mean” UCLA is for claiming they own L.A.
Tradition doesn’t win football games, attract top coaches (i.e. SC settled for Sark after being rejected by the high profile options), or get you into BCS games–let alone help you win your division in conference play.
Deny on. And good luck with Sark, especially since Coach O said “no thanks” and is moving on as he should.
Your rebound get’s our coaches fired?!
And I disagree about our dominance. It hasn’t been for decades it’s been forever.
USC didn’t shove anything in your face.Every team in the pac 10(12) and nationally did this. We just happen to play you every year. It’s not our fault you’ve sucked. Nor is it our fault you also loss your strangle hold on Basketball. We are not you. We’ve kept our winning ways even during probation.
Your behind Fresno State in all time wins at like….39 or something.
Look, you don’t know anything about college football. It’s all conjecture and what you want. You(all UCLA fans) want us to ignore history like the Nazi’s and a politician trying to cover a scandal.
Your school doesn’t win. It’s just about 550%. So it’s no wonder you think tradition doesn’t win anything. It’s always tomorrow or in the future for the doomers of the world and UCLA fans. Facts…be damned
Pretty tough to win 550% of your games. No wonder SC dropped that offer. You didn’t qualify academically.
Our? Haha – dude, you didn’t even go to the school. Go cheer for CSUN or whatever clown college you actually went to.
And actually, this year it’s 35-14. That’s today, bro!
Only real clowns call other schools of higher education- CSUN- a clown school. Either that or you are just a real snob.
CSUN, baby!…. The home of Paula Abdul, Richard Dreyfuss, Terri Garr, Helen Hunt, Adam Kennedy, Cheech Marin (from Cheech and Chong), Eve Plumb (The Brady Bunch), Debra Winger, Eva Longoria, and, Buckets favorite, Joe McDonnell…….
wait, another CSUN grad here discussing big-boy football? LOL!
Go troll somewhere else.
We’re 9-4 even being four years into sanctions so harsh we only run one or two subs on defense. You’re only a half game better at 9-3 after a well-earned win over SC with a full squad.
That’s how you know we’re still USC and you’re still UCLA. 9-4 would be a great year in any era of UCLA football, but at SC our standards are still high enough that it’s considered subpar.
You were crushed twice.
You’re a little detached from reality.
Crushed? 50-0 is crushed. Call back later troll.
The distant past…that’s all SC has to hold onto now. LOL.
And no, UCLA doesn’t “own the Rose Bowl”. You haven’t won that game since Ronald Reagan was in office.
Check the records in the SC-UCLA games at the RB. Yeah, we own your a$$
And I’m NOT a USC alum. I was recruited to play for UCLA(when fields was you L.B coach) and USC. USC offered me and pulled the scholarship…and I ended up somewhere else.
So…NO I did not go to USC…but I always wanted to. The greatest school. And in spite of them choosing another great L.B over me…My heart bleeds Cardinal and gold since I went to my first game as a boy.
and…I remember getting recruited and sitting where ever I wanted to at the Rose Bowl…because NO ONE was there. In hind sight I should have walked on at SC. I’d rather pay to be part of SC than get a scholarship to UCLA. Which you offered me after I had committed else where. It would not have mattered.
USC is USC. And while I don’t know what UCLA is I tell my 3 year old son your a little blue bear that gives you the clap.
Saw a guy at UCLA on Sunday with a Bruin Pride shirt on. He had sooo much pride in the Bruins that his shirt was brand new. Maybe now you guys can get 65,000 to your games. With all the new 15 minute Bruin pride….floating around. Better sell some more shirts before reality sets in.
haha, how pathetic. Like an abused spouse. But not surprising – few of SC’s “biggest fans” are actually grads. More like Raider fans with no place else to go!
Just shows ya who owns this town, even in a down year USC has more fans than fucla in one of their “big” years.
Sore loser. 35-14. 38-28. Shall we start guessing the score next year? I say 42-10 when Hundley once again runs over pUSC. Good luck with Kessler, Browne, and your other Lurch-like, 1970s-style QBs who couldn’t run from a fire…
But hey, at least you “traded up” from Kitten to Kardashian!
Don’t forget that they took 30 in Kessler / Wittek’s recruiting class…
UCLA had a poor run because of bad coaching after the streak of 8 wins over SuC, something that SuC has never done! After one poor hire (Dorrell), a Washington coach was not the answer! I am glad that you didn’t learn from our mistake!
Either way and it can’t be denied, UCLA is the place to be! All SuC has going these days are the Shrek mascots, the Fantasyland motif, and Sarkiffin! By the way, Sarkiffin didn’t beat the Bruins either!
Seemed disappointing at first – tough to even appear to be slighting such a died-in-the-wool Trojan like Coach O – but I’ve always had a lot of respect for Sark. And it’s been pretty darned touch playing in that Pac-12 North over the last 3 or 4 years. There was no slam dunk coach out there that was gettable. I think we’ll warm up to Sark fairly quickly.
Why the great respect for Sark? Exactly what has he done but coach UW to five complete years of utter mediocrity after taking over a program that had no direction to go but straight up! Call me underwhelmed. Nothing we can do about it except pretend we all were praying for Sark all this time. Wow. What a big get for the mighty Trojans! The only way this works out is if Mora leaves UCLA for UW. In that case, I’m buying. Otherwise, just start calling USC Mediocre U.
Yeah, he ain’t sexy. But sexy wasn’t available. And Pete Carroll was certainly not sexy. Neither was Mora. “RE-TREAD”. I think Sark will have a lot to prove – I’m looking forward to seeing him grasp the opportunity.
My question remains, why all the respect for Sark? He hasn’t done jack. Nada. Ask the UW faithful. Comparing him, a mediocre college coach, to Carroll and Mora, is quite a stretch. With Carroll and Mora, nobody really knew what they were getting because they were strictly NFL guys. With Sark, we know what we are getting: a mediocre college coach. Cool! I now respect Sark so much for deserting his mediocre team. Again, what’s the other reason you respect him so much?
I don’t generally find myself in agreement with Jack B. We certainly aren’t fans of one another. However, he is right on this. One thing that is missed here is that it looks like Haden made up his mind weeks ago. He could have always had Sarkisian..this year, next year, the year after that. Sarkisian is like the girl you settle for at 2am when the bar closes. Haden took her home at 10!. Orgeron accomplished more this year than Sark has accomplished at UW in his time there. If Ed O didn’t get the job done, Sark was available at ANY time. Haden comes out to be a phony with little class. Fires a guy at the airport and then shows no loyalty or appreciation for Ed O.
Who cares if Haden fired a guy at the airport? It’s like breaking up with a girl. There is no right time. The holiday season seems to work. Kiffin deserved no better than he got. Just get it over with. As far as Ed goes, he is not HC material at a place like USC. Just isn’t. Had a great short run, helped the team in a tough spot. Deserves lots of credit, but not the full-time job. No sense getting overly maudlin here. The real problem here is Sark, not how Orgeron or Kiffin were handled. Sark’s mediocre. Unless his record at UW isn’t a proper measure, USC is headed for mediocrity as well. But once the Trojans are off probation, things will get a lot better, regardless of who is coaching. Thirty more players on a roster will do that to a team.
Agree with you on the hire. Seemed to me you could have even taken a leap on someone and still come back to Sark if you needed to. He was always there for the taking and close to being canned at UW.
“…. the girl you settle for at 2am when the bar closes…..” …. Dude!…even though I don’t drink anymore, I want to be your wingman!…. we could cause a little trouble and break some hearts at several of the finer water holes in The OC!….sign me up!
Way too old for that cr@p anymore!
I hear you…. I’m usually in bed by 9:00am… those days are far behind me, as well…..
Pat Haden is a real disaster for USC. Did President Max Nikias approve of the Sarkisian hire too ? What stooges. Sarkisian was 34 and 29 at Washington. Lousy record for a coach, and he wasn’t even on NCAA probation. Chris Petersen declined the job when Haden insisted certain people be retained on staff. Why is Haden even making these demands of a potential new head coach. Time for Haden to resign his position and go hang out with his buddy Kiffin in Manhattan Beach.
Fine, he was 34-29, but look at the progression. UW was 0-12 the year before he took over. Think about that. Straight up winless. Now they’re 8-4.
with wins over…..? Oh yeah, nobody.
Same as Mora, whose only big wins are over USC.
So he beat Sark, and SC, but somehow Sark at SC is great news? LOL!
Sark lost at ASU by more than Kiffin did this year. And this was his best team. Lost closely at Stanford, blown out at home by Oregon and lost by 10 to UCLA. Quite the year.
Mora to Washington, fucla sinks even lower. Poor babies.
Ya, imagine how easy it is to improve the venerable Washington Huskies when they are winless! Not too tough. Most any coach could do that. Sark just got done barely (and I mean barely) beating an average at best WSU team in Seattle. He got killed by STAN, ORE, ASU and UCLA. Face it. USC signed a mediocre college coach. I know several Husky fans and they aren’t even sad Sark is going. In fact, they’re more excited about getting a better man. USC rarely beats really good teams any more and it’s been that way so long, we’ve gotten used to it, and hired a completely mediocre college coach who will continue the trend.
See Terry Palinski’s post below.
Sark is no Saban, Meyer or Miles, none of whom ever saw the likes of the blow-out losses that Sark did. Sark couldn’t even win this year and his team was loaded with what we all want, an experienced, talented, SR QB. Bottom line is most Husky fans are glad Sark is gone. That should tell you something. That was not the case at MICH ST, BG or OKS.
Florida
wolfman you are ALL OVER this story, the press wires can’t even stay with you, dog!!!
is Dr Paul in the house??
they say to see a Dr if you are all “tingly” for more than four hours……well i’ve been TINGLY ALL OVER for going on two days now, and frankly, i’m getting scared!!
DOC PAUL what do i do????
In your case, more like RuPaul……..
boring comments. at least get him good if you’re gonna go after buckets.
they got no game, bro.
You’re right, Bucket …I have zero game… you and Butt Thomas are the best…. you clearly have no rivals……sorry to bore you, Butt buddies……
whoa, T-HOSE!!! i can hear the anger, shame and hurt in your words!!!
didn’t you hear the news???? Sark is back!!!!
I don’t worry about the things I cannot control, and that includes you..or in your case, conTROLL……
and what’s your excuse?
That’ the residual heroine Charlie.
You get out your Fleshlight and go to town.
Call me underwhelmed. We hire a mediocre coach because we don’t really need a good one? We’ve got much bigger problems than probation, obviously.
The problem is Pat Haden who knows little about hiring or retaining a good football coach. This guy is old and needs to retire to a front porch somewhere in a rocking chair.
I will hope for the best.
Some food for thought though:
Saban at Mich St before he went to LSU was: 6-5-1, 6-6, 7-5, 6-6 and 9-2. best conf finish was 2nd in his last year. Before that he finished 5th and 6th every year.
Meyer before Utah was 8-3 & 9-3 and never won his conf. at Bowling Green.
Les Miles at Ok St before LSU was 4-7, 8-5, 9-4 and 7-5.
I am going to bet not one of these schools fans were happy about the hire record wise. The major difference was that they went to schools that had a better program and could get better recruits.
As a UCLA fan I could not be any happier with usc’s decision to hire Steve Sarkisian. I think it is funny how everyone on usc’s list of top candidates bowed out leaving usc to pick Sarkisian who was a throw in name at the beginning. Sarkisian was usc’s #7 pick going in, but when, Petersen, Sumlin, Franklin, Smith, Del Rio and Saban (I did not even include Orgeron either) told usc to pound sand, they had to fall back on a guy who was 34-29 in the 4 years he was head coach at UW. I hope usc fans do not actually believe that Sarkisian is anything more than a .500 coach, because he is not.
And I love how Orgeron blew out of usc when he wasn’t offered the job. Good for him. It really does look like UCLA is building a dynasty in Los Angeles. It is going to be a long, long time before usc ever becomes prominent again.
more telling than Sark’s record at UW was his record when trailing at the half. Lane couldn’t make adjustments and Sark is no different. At least Coach O understood how to adjust, sorta.
I believe this hire should be called “Kiffin 2”.
Yes, everything you think about football is true.
No matter what actually has happened or what will happen, it will not matter to what ever logic you come up with to justify UCLA’s dismal performance in football up until today. Because in spite of the ten or so coaches you bleed through to get Mora(who’s heart is in the Pro’s) and the random winning season that comes along on your 20 year sideways performing football teams…your understanding of football is important. It matters. It is so relevant that while you haven’t been able to predict USC’s success, you have it all figured out.
It’s such a shame UCLA could not have used your insight during it’s 100 years of winning just above average at 550%.
Really…I would have thought the gods of mediocre football doing the 8 clap would have asked you to consult with them while you hired and fired so many coaches. Incredible how blessed we are to hear you all knowing advise on something the school you defend knows nothing about.
Thank you…for your biased conjecture filled with your hopes and dreams. The lottery ticket of football sense.
Again with that 550% number. Guessing you weren’t a math major after SC pulled their offer from you. They rejected you and yet you come back for more trying to find acceptance. So sad.
It is very reasonable to understand why so many top coaches would bow out of a program that is under sanctions, expects the coach to compete like they are not, and kicks them to the curb in an airport parking lot when things don’t pan out.
Sark is the wrong guy at the wrong time.
A dynasty!? Pleeeaaasssee! Someone’s been drinking that Mora Kool-Aid. Coach Carroll had the Trojans in the Orange Bowl by his 2nd year. Have fun in El Paso.
Dynasties need to start somewhere and I don’t see how usc is going to be anything in this city for a minimum of 5 more years (when usc gets tired of being a .500 team under Sarkisian and fires him). So that means a minimum of 7 years that UCLA will dominate and who knows how long after that.
And we will have fun blowing out Washington in El Paso this year. Just because usc wasn’t prepared for a lowsy Georgia State last year in the same bowl does not mean it is a bad bowl. By the way, enjoy your @$$ whooping by Fresno State in the first bowl game of the year. Talking about a lowsy bowl, any game before Christmas is usually reserved for DII teams.
I understand your thinking but UCLA has to do a little more than beat a down SC team to qualify as a dynasty. Good job though gutties. You guys earned bragging rights in the city fair & square.
We may be bowling before Christmas but I’ll take a Vegas vacation over an El Paso one any day. You’re probably right about Fresno State though, I don’t see SC being excited to play after today’s events.
If SuC recruites SuC and is a “Top 3” job (LOL), why doesn’t any coach want to coach there? With all that money supposedly to hire a coach, they end up with Sarkiffin? Wowwwww!
Also, after being on probation, why do you keep hiring coaches who looked the other way during all the “lack of institutional control”? I guess Todd Mc”Dog Fight” wasn’t available!
Awesome move.
Fight on Coach Sark!
So Pat Haden hired the coach he could control, the other flunkie from the Pete Carroll era, Steve Sarkisian…the other being Lane Kiffin. Both of whom rode Norm Chow’s coattail until they thought they had a grasp on his offense playbook, thought they knew better, thought they could do better, but all they got was exposed. Pat Haden didn’t learn from Mike Garrett’s mistake, in fact, Haden fell in love with Lane Kiffin. If it weren’t for the Trojan players revolting against Kiffin by deciding not to play for him, they still might be stuck with him as their coach because Pat Haden sure wasn’t seeing what everyone else was seeing, Kiffin coaching at the height of incompetence and arrogance. I don’t see Steve Sarkisian faring much better than Lane Kiffin and his short lived disastrous tenure at SC, as he and Kiffin are cut from the same cloth. Have a look at their head coaching track records, both have been mediocre at best.
Honestly, there are UCLA Bruin, Oregon Duck, Notre Dame, Boise St. fans, as well as the rest of the fanbases around the PAC-12 and the rest of the country for that matter, who are rejoicing all over the internet about Pat Haden not being smart and or savvy enough to pull off hiring Chris Petersen from Boise St. The thought of Chris Petersen becoming USC’s head football coach really had the aforementioned fanbases shaking in their boots…seriously, many went so far as to admit it on the blogs and message boards and then they breathed a giant sigh of relief when it was announced Steve Sarkisian was Pat Haden’s choice.