Pat Haden To Retire In June As A.D. But Serve New Role

HELTON.HADENUSC announced Pat Haden will resign as athletic director on June 30. But USC president Max Nikias said Haden “has agreed to a one-year term to guide our renovation of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Beginning July 1, 2016, and ending June 30, 2017, he will maintain an office in the Bovard Administration Building, working closely with me and reporting directly to me as he heads a fundraising initiative focused on renewing the nation’s most venerable stadium and the home of Trojan football.”

Nikias also said he “will be working closely with Nick Brill, principal and co-founder of the Brill Neumann executive search firm, to identify USC’s next athletic director. His firm brings valuable experience working with USC, and me directly, on previous executive searches, including senior vice president positions. The process will be national in scope, with all proceedings held in the strictest confidence, for the benefit of USC Athletics and all qualified candidates.”

UPDATED: How does it affect Clay Helton? Depends who gets the job. If Steve Lopes gets promoted from within, probably no change. But if someone from outside gets the job, then things would obviously be different.

78 thoughts on “Pat Haden To Retire In June As A.D. But Serve New Role

  1. I really hope Brill Neumann weren’t the ones who identified Sark as USC’s next football coach.

      • This is the first time anyone has ever said that Korn Ferry recommended Chris Peterson for the head coach position ! Where did this information come from ? As for I’ve HAD ENough, there is no reason why he can’t leave now. TODAY ! And then Nikias saying the search for a new AD will be NATIONAL and kept in strict confidence ? B.S. This is code for we’ll pick one of our frat buddies to be the new AD.

  2. This is terrible news for all Trojans. Pat has been the perfect leader for USC over the last few years. I am glad he will at least leave us Trojans with the best football staff in the country. To pay our respects to Pat I am requesting we all give him a giant, “FIGHT ON”!

  3. Knowing how USC operates, they will hire a search firm , then hire someone within. ..lol but nevertheless, this will ensure that the current coaching staff will stay on their toes .

    • Speaking of ‘staying on their toes’… I am confident that the FNG (a term borrowed from my military conscription days) will instill all the skills necessary for our coaching staff to successfully cross-train into a secondary occupation…as a back-up just in case next season does not measure up-to-snuff. I understand that auditions will soon be held for Swan Lake …a performance to be performed at the newly constructed Westwood Home for indigent Bruins.

  4. I don’t think it affects Helton so much because it is pretty well-known that Helton is Max’s boy.

  5. Well if they want to stay with incompetence, why not hire JustBlows as the new AD? (That is, if JustBlows can get out of the 10-year contract he signed to be Taco Bell’s bathroom attendant)

  6. The bigger question is “How does it affect the blogger?” ….. of course, it makes his job that much easier as he gets to ask us these sort of “thought provoking” questions and speculate for the next 6 months…..

    • POINT OF CLARIFICATION!
      A tad less than FIVE months. (slightly more than 10 fortnights)
      146 days and counting…

    • Things are a mess for SW.Spring approaches. Basketball is having a great season. We swept and humiliated ucla.We killed it on recruiting, Haden is leaving. And the biggest spring controversy of past: Adoree will be jumping this spring, missing spring football…. The worst nightmare..
      Well, SW has Wilcox, past coaches and Snoopdog.

  7. Pat will leave with mixed reviews. His job was to fix the football program and he made a HUGE error in hiring Sark. We will know soon enough about Helton. It appears that the BB program is in good shape and so is baseball. So he did make some changes that worked out. My beef is that he and Max did not stand up to the NCAA. They backed off with their tail between their legs. I think they will look like whimps when it is all said and done and discovered that the NCAA had a vendetta against USC. I do know this. He made mistakes but he cared about USC.

  8. I guess it’s time to have a woman as A.D. someone who is not beholden to any one program.

      • I was thinking maybe Lisa Lesley. She would bring some interesting things to the school.

          • I’ll drink to that!
            Actually, I have been thinking of recommending a name change…not that Helen (of Troy) is not a good one, but better than that…something that defines the person.
            I propose we refer to her as “Wheels!”, short for…(wait for it)………………………………….
            …HEL*on WHEELS!
            -definitely her own person…No wishey-washie here-

        • Trust me, if you had ever conversed with her, you would recommend someone else.

          -A touch on the mean-spirited side-.

  9. USC can’t seem to get their athletic hires right, one can only wonder who the AD will be, any guesses ?

    • In the spirit of poetic justice, with a pinch of karma infused irony, how about Petros?

    • Trustees prefer an ex-jock with no previous experience as an AD as their ideal candidate so he can fumble around for the 1st 5-years and wreck havoc with the football program. It happened with MG until he got lucky with PC. There is absolutely no reason why USC with its recruiting base 2nd to none & and can write any check necessary to hire a Nick Saban, Urban Meyer or even a Jim Harbaugh. But it refuses too because the AD’s ego doesn’t want to play 2nd banana to anyone.

  10. Thank you to Pat Haden for taking a pay cut to serve his alma mater in a position that became highly scrutinized/criticized and stressful. Fight On to Pat for his dedication to USC!!!!!!!!!!!!

  11. Let me guess, jk McKay will be going out with him! Those two are like Siamese twins, they can’t be apart from each other. You can only be around for someone for so much, before you get sick of them, but Haden and McKay don’t have that problem.

  12. I hope Pat makes us all eat our words and Clay Helton can shock college football by kicking some a**!

  13. Coach #6 is on his way, I also expect another “$8 Million” a big name coach will not want… .Sept. 3rd can’t get here fast enough!

    #CANTWAIT

    • And, let me guess, your Windows Millennium will get a virus and keep you off this site on September 3rd. ; )

        • Ok, and JoJo Starbuck was married to T. Bradshaw, and JoJo White played for the Celtics, and The Beatles reference a JoJo on their song Get Back. Thanks for the info.

    • Football
      USC 40
      UCLA 21

      USC BASKETBALL 2 WINS
      UCLA BASKETBALL 0 (Zero)

      “I love L.A.!”

        • You should be worrying about the storied UCLA basketball team having a 13-10 record and on the brink of missing the NCAA & NIT tournaments…

          You talk and talk.
          BadKarmaBruins!

          • #8n6 how many coaches did it take to get you there, Bruin BBall will be just fine minor bump on the road.. .

            Have you seen the class they just brought in not to mention most of this year squad will be coming back

            #Staytuned

  14. If this was even close to being in the works before Helton was hired then Pat should not have been involved in hiring. In addition, the uncertainty of Hadens longevity as AD i am sure was a factor in getting a big time coach. Every AD wants their own guys if they are going to be responsible for the results.

    • Read Gary Klein’s recent article, then see if you can get a free pass to The Peristyle and find a few of Dan Weber’s articles. There is a strong insinuation between the limes that Haden was too ill to participate too much in a coaching search (bolster by the fact that he formally interviewed no one) and Max pulled the trigger on Helton, with Haden agreeing.

      • Good insight i hadnt seen that article. I dont think Haden has looked good for a while. The job cant help his health either.

  15. Also, i wonder if the suit by Sark is a factor in his retirement? Maybe he didnt have everything documented the way he should have in this matter. The quick firing after an announced leave of absence hopefully went thru a lot of legal review befor it occurred.

    • That makes sense.
      I think they call it “The Pete Carroll Exit Strategy”
      Run before the fire department shows up.

  16. Pat Haden has done a fine job as our AD and I think all of us alumni are proud of him. He made a mistake with the Sark hire but hindsight is 20/20. Andy Enfield seems to now have things going in the right direction since he has recruited players who believe in his system. Even baseball which was always dominant made it back to the national spotlight. Thank you Pat for your service.

    The next AD should be someone who understands how to work at USC and understands the demands of the alumni.

    FIGHT ON!

    • LBoy,
      As a Bruin fan, I couldn’t agree more that St. Pat did a great job, at least for us.
      I’m guessing that you guys were in the same house at SoCal.

      • Well for all the years when we couldn’t beat UCLA in football and basketball in the last 3 years at least he is leaving with the tide turning. SC is now back as the top program in LA. If we got Pete Carroll, then Bruin fans and the rest of the nation better watch out because we’ll be at the Alabama level again.

      • Wow!…Where do you get your inside information?
        They were both in Kappa Kappa Fullacrap

  17. Wow! I hate to see this “great” trOXan go! Your very own, from player to admin! Yet all the hate from you rah rahs!
    I wish Haden good luck as he step up in his career to call games on Notre Dame Football!!

    #Hadenatrojanthatkeepsongiving

  18. Haden’s tenure will be tainted by 1. Not fighting the NCAA Nazis, 2. Not getting rid of the Kifboy after the Sun Bowl. 3. Hiring Sarkboy with no verification 4. Not firing Sarkboy after Tribute to Troy incident. 5. Bryce Dixon boo-boo. Other than these issues a fine job.

  19. Well, most of your posters missed the SUCLA game, but Gus Williams 1970s SC hero) had his number retired and Gus was quite the MC giving tribute to his teammates and Pat Haden. Haden received a respectful if not warm round of applause, and I had no idea that was Pat’s last public farewell of any renown.
    I will always treasure Haden winning the 1974 National Championship with a come from behind victory over wicked Woody Hayes and Ohio St in the 1975 Rose Bowl
    Oh, and Pat also gave me a great idea about time. He once said you can get a lot done in a 3-hour period if focused. I still use that advice whenever some 3-hour pro football game is challenging me for my time.

  20. Good riddance. Appropriate that he gets a year to deal with the Coliseum Albatross. For that to succeed, he needs the Rams, the Olympics, and a long term NFL renter. Otherwise, say hello to $5000/seat PSLs end zone to end zone. It’s the only way the math adds up.

    We’d really be better off taking nice pictures of the facility for the history books, bulldozing it, and building an appropriate college football venue. Nostalgia is costing a lot of money, and unfortunately, those costs are all on the University now.

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