USC Morning Buzz: Pat Haden Explained His Decision

In the previous post, Pat Haden gave his reasons for how he handled the Steve Sarkisian situation. You can agree or disagree with his decision, as he said.

Just a couple points: If this was in the best interest of USC and Sarkisian, why was Kevin O’Neill suspended in a similar circumstance? Would a player get away with this without any kind of suspension? And most importantly, if medical professionals say a drug like Xanax was involved, shouldn’t there be some type of acknowledgement that it might not just be an alcohol issue?

67 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Pat Haden Explained His Decision

    • Major speculation by Scooter,
      “Maybe if drug like heroin or cocaine or meth were involved….”
      Maybe Sark’s “medical” issue is protected by HIPPA laws
      Scooter’s journalism is only protected by an editor

  1. Mr Wolf:
    All interesting points, especially considering you use zero speculation, but can you get to the good stuff what happen with Mr Adams? My sources tell me there is a huge back story one that nobody wants to come out. The good thing is this is getting almost zero press coverage. It really pays sometimes to be the little sister.

    JW
    #whystealthephone?

    • Maybe the Uber guy took a picture of Adams doing something he shouldnt have been doing in the uber car – that’s probably why the phone was taken by force…

    • Woody does his J.J. Hunsecker imitation – innuendo suffices for fact. No wonder Woody’s marginal.

    • My sources tell me charges will likely be reduced to”Acting like Sarkisian in public” but unlike Seven Shot Steve’s performance, Adams will probably actually face consequences in the form of suspension because he is at UCLA and not SoCal.

      • Mr Trojan:
        My problem is that NOBODY cares about UCLA so like yourself I need to get all my info on one of the many USC boards infected by us wannabes. Keep up the good work.

        JW
        #uclafansarelonely

        • gooooooooooolllynerrd’s problem that even his pert hamster turned him down for the Nerd Prom Saturday night at the Ventura Fairgrounds.

    • My sources tell me the gooooooooooolllynerrd was found tied up and only wearing his woooooookiee head in a Ventura Harbor skiff Sunday morning.

  2. Sark gave up the play calling because he was TOLD to do so. If he has anxiety issues and he’s dropping Xanax, I’m sure the AD wants a coach with a clear head calling the plays. Sark is a mess, if he has issues he really needs to step away and get them under control, I don’t think anyone would think lesser of him for doing so. If he tries to coach with these issues, he’s not going to get better since we all know that being a head coach is a 24/7 job during the season and USC is a high pressure job.

  3. Hundreds of meds don’t mix well with alcohol. Where did you get Xanax? Speculation? Conjecture?

  4. Point one, the O’Neil event was NOT similar. Point two, a player is an athlete/student not an employee/coach, handling a player would be different. Point three, a health professional speculating in the press is not the same as medical people with actual knowledge of the case and who have developed a treatment plan. Wolf you quoted Haden “We developed a confidential plan going forward”. Unless Sark has some public event let’s leave it at that.

      • Golden, he dropped meds and drank and got all F’ed up, what meds would do that ? Tylenol ? Aspirin ? He’s getting divorced, he’s got a drinking problem, he’s not well mentally. Xanax, Valium, Prozac, who knows, but he’s on something.

          • State the DA’s chg’s filed in re: Adams as of today.. Take your time YoYo.

            Typical Klownster, all fat mouth, and no facts

          • He was arrested and charged with felony robbery, a violation of Penal Code section 212.5 and released on 100G bail. The case hasn’t been sent to the DA yet. He was schedule to appear at 4pm but his hearing was postponed until 9/22/15. It’s possible since he was bailed this won’t go to trial until after this season. The courts are backed up and it’s not unusual when bail has been granted to waive time.

          • All pro forma stuff and Adams will undoubtedly plead this down, like they all do, but we all know he’s a little gutty robber thug. So the damage has been done. Best not be around him when he wants your stuff.

          • Most likely unless he was violent, they will reduce it misdemeanor theft. He may have extenuating circumstances, last week he was tweeting he was under attack from Satan. He may have something going on. Taking one from wolf’s MO, he’s at the right age for schizophrenia to present itself. He may have been hearing voices.

          • Really? Maybe he meant he was under attack from Mora. I don’t think diminished capacity will help him here, but he’s got a full-time arms length victim/witness on his back. I agree with you. He’s cooked anyway.

          • Jackie,
            He does want your stuff. You’ll see Ish again later this season. Last time we played SoCal Cody threw as many interceptions as TD’s, this year I predict more interceptions and that Adams will have one of them.

          • There may be something seriously wrong with the young man. Last week he tweeted he was under attack from Satan.

      • Wow, BM finally gets it! Maybe there is hope for the rest of the brainless rah rahs after all.

  5. When first heard about this, I was thinking that so long as Sarkesian gives a heartfelt apology and owns up to it, this will go away.

    After listening to it again, I don’t really see how he owned up to it. His press conference seemed to be him minimizing the severity and then pivoting to how great the team is going to be.

    Here are his quotes

    “I’d like to apologize but moving forward I can win championships”

    “Meds and alcohol don’t mix but I can’t wait to start coaching”

    “I don’t think I have a drinking problem, but in the meantime I’m going to be the head coach. I want to win championships ”

    “I’m not proud of these things but I know I am a good coach and I know we are going to win championships”

      • That’s my point; sweeping this under the rug won’t work.

        The Trojans learned this with Garret and Kiffen. Saying it is not a big deal only makes it worse.

        Like it or not Wolfe/sports talk/sports media will not allow USC to move forward until this crisis is resolved. They will continue to pile on. And it will only get worse at the next misstep.

        Even die hard USC fans like Lisa Leslie are furious at the response.

        The problem is that the damage is more subtle and long term. Take recruiting. Opposing recruiters will tell the athletes’ parents that USC lacks leadership to take care of their child.

          • Danny, you can’t reason with these rah rah idiots. They see nothing wrong until the shat hits the fan with loss after loss to sub par teams and then they will all want Sark fired.

          • A few years back a USC running back named Reggie Bush was accused of violating college football rules.

            Rather than accepting the misstep, USC leadership decided to hide the facts and minimize the accusations, in the hopes it would go away.

            When the demand for an explanation persisted, both the board as well as USC leadership spewed snide comments in the hopes that their childish behavior would make it go away.

            I remember comments like
            “It’s not a big deal”
            “You’re an idiot because….”
            “Well, look at [fill in the blank]. They did something bad too, so look at them instead of us”

            Sound familiar?

            USC MBA has an excellent crisis management course, and the football leadership should follow it. They teach some simple rules when in a crisis. Own the mistake. Be open and honest. Show genuine remorse. Fix the problem

        • Wolfy said it himself – odds for a title stay the same, and the recruiting class only seems to be getting stronger – and as I said, move along

        • Wow Danny…voice of reason! Finally! Don’t be disillusioned by the blind rah rah’s on this comment board.

  6. Breaking News: USC Journalism Graduate Scott Wolf hired to teach his new class at USC called Speculative Journalism. It has an emphasis on non-fact gathering and posting salacious comments with no backup in order to facilitate discussion. 3 units credit.

  7. You don’t KNOW that Xanax was involved, Wolf, and it’s a joke that you keep suggesting that it was. And the equivalent action by a student would be Kessler grabbing the mic at a frat party when drunk and saying, “Let’s F’n Beat Arkansas State!” while slurring words. He didn’t get behind the wheel. He didn’t assault a female. If that was the standard, you’d never have 11 players on offense or defense to play the games! Pull your head out….

  8. Pat Haden is only concerned about winning the NC. He doesn’t want to suspend Seven-Drink Sark for the first game and risk losing to the mighty Arkansas State Inbreeders.

    • Look at today’s Daily News – UCLA players are proud they aren’t being noticed as they were last year. That is a telling self-assessment of what their confidence and skill set.

      Look at you and all the others who flock here and mock – it would appear this is all you have just as beating USC every year is your ‘bowl game’.

      Waiting to see what Guerrero will be forced to do – the poor UCLA player is currently facing felony assault. UCLA had better hope they play well this Saturday.

  9. I keep seeing that Sark came to work drunk and made a mess. The Salute to Troy is more like the office party. It was an invitation only event.
    Also look at the comments. Would a sober coach saying other teams suck to a group of salivating fans make headlines? And dropping the F bomb has gotten more mileage than Miley showing her nipples on TV . I doubt the head coach across town didn’t drop an F bomb when he heard about a player robbing an Uber driver.
    My allergy medicine tells me to not mix with alcohol. Why is this still news?

    • Any ten year old knows booze and meds don’t mix – but Sark the HFBC of Klown U didn’t, or didn’t care.

      • I never said he was smart in doing what he did. I am simply pointing out how silly this whole thing is. For the record I am hoping that the kid over at UCLA was just trying to borrow the phone, because he doesn’t need the grief and might be a good football player against any other team.

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