Terribly disappointing news out of USC this morning. Unfortunately, athletic director Pat Haden decided to fire Lane Kiffin as head football coach of the Trojans following the team’s horrendous 62-41 loss at Arizona State on Saturday night.
Haden stood behind Kiffin multiple times even when people questioned whether the coach deserved his job. But Haden cited things like graduation rate and Kiffin’s ability as a playcaller when deciding to keep him on as coach. He even kept Kiffin after the team’s embarrassing 10-7 home loss to Washington State in their second game of the season. But the rout at Arizona State was too much.
According to LA Daily News writer Scott Wolf, Haden made the decision to fire Kiffin when the Sun Devils went on a 28-0 run in the third quarter. He reportedly met with advisers in a tiny room and decided then that Kiffin had to go. USC was down 20-14 at halftime, but the Trojans scored early in the third to go up 21-20. They then allowed four straight TDs to fall behind 48-21.
The 62 points were the most USC ever allowed to Arizona State. Also in the Kiffin era, Oregon and Stanford set records for most points scored in school history against USC.
The story of how Kiffin was fired is as memorable and embarrassing as it gets.
According to Wolf, Kiffin was pulled off the team’s bus at Landmark Aviation Terminal in LAX to meet with Haden. Kiffin apparently thought it would be a routine, brief meeting and even left a bag on the bus. Kiffin told the bus driver to wait for him, while USC officials told the driver to head back to campus to drop off the players. It was during this meeting that Haden told Kiffin he was done and gave the coach the option of being terminated or resigning. Kiffin chose to be fired.
Ed Orgeron will be the interim head coach, which is also a joke. He’s as clueless about running a team as Kiffin.
Kiffin’s firing has been long overdue. I never would have hired him as coach in the first place and thought he would bring USC down the way he did. As a Bruins fan, I can only hope the Trojans botch the next hiring, though I don’t think we’ll be that lucky.
And from now on, I will always think of Lane Kiffin whenever I’m near Landmark Aviation Terminal at LAX.
