USC Coach Steve Sarkisian Asked To Take A Leave of Absence
Steve Sarkisian will take an indefinitely leave of absence from the USC Football program. This might not be good for UCLA.
News has been reported that USC Trojans Head Coach Steve Sarkisian is taking a leave of absence from his duties and Offensive Coordinator Clay Helton will take over as interim head coach. This less than a week before the Trojans head to South Bend to take on the #15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.
I'm told players just met w/Pat Haden and Clay Helton is interim coach as Haden has asked Sarkisian to take a temp. leave of absence #USC
— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) October 11, 2015
Per our USC sister site on the Fansided Network, Reign of Troy, aside from the Trojans underachieving with a 12-6 record with Sarkisian in one and a half seasons, Sarkisian started prep for Notre Dame this week, but was ‘in no condition to work‘.
USC Athletic Director Pat Haden had addressed the situation and said that (once again per RoT), “It was clear to me that [Sarkisian] is not healthy” and will take a leave of absence to seek help.
UCLA Bruins
Now that raises the question about what condition Sarkisian was in. Before the season, Sarkisian had embarrassed himself at a ‘Salute to Troy’ dinner where he was inebriated and pulled off stage during his less-than-professional speech. Is the is the same type of deal? If so, jokes aside, Sarkisian needs to get help.
Now if this is not an issue with alcoholism and Steve Sarkisian is a “hot mess”, as the kids like to say, then this could very well be the end of the Sarkisian era at USC. Although no matter what, it seems like he could have coached his last game for the Trojans.
This is not a good thing… for UCLA Football fans.
With this situation looking like USC is positioning themselves to seek out a new head coach, we could very well see the end of mediocre Trojan football. There is no doubt that after two bumbled head coaching hires, Pat Haden and USC will look to snag only the best coach available and finally move away from the failed Pete Carroll coaching tree in trying to emulate their success under the former USC coach.
Still, this is only the beginning of what should be a long process with Sarkisian, so expect a lot of news coming out of the school across town in the next several months.
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