USC’s football team consists of many things: A star Quarterback, top-rated running backs, star receivers, offensive linemen that were second to none when committing, defensive players that were all four- and five-star recruits, and oh, a coach that has never won more than nine games in his career.
One of those just doesn’t fit in the rest.
USC Coach, Steve Sarkisian, is a mediocre leader who is the reason USC has been, and will continue to be, the reason why USC will not get over the hump in the upcoming years. He appears to have little knowledge of the game and cannot do much outside of recruit.
Pat Haden hired Sarkisian to replace another incompetent head coach, Lane Kiffin, in an effort to get back to “the good ol’ Pete Carroll days.” Both were part of the Pete Carroll era that brought USC football back in the previous decade and both were great, as assistants. Sarkisian is in over his head because he wants to call the plays, a job for the offensive coordinator; and coach the whole team. This has caused confusion, especially on the defensive end where many believe Sarkisian doesn’t even know his personnel, leaving duties to a poor defensive coordinator, Justin Wilcox.
Sarkisian’s nickname coming to USC was 7-win-Steve because of his inability to amass more than seven wins while at Washington until his final year. This may have been an okay record going to a mediocre football program, but USC is one of the most prestigious jobs in the country, and the fans expect more. Many were expecting the home run hires such as Jim Harbaugh, John Gruden, Jack Del Rio, Chris Petersen, or Urban Meyer, but were left scratching their heads with what seemed to be a rushed hiring of a guy who was the definition of average. The only part of his resume that didn’t have question marks was his ability to recruit, and he has delivered in that one category.
Many were worried about the hiring of Sarkisian before the season as a more cheerful version of another mediocre coach, Lane Kiffin. They were afraid of predictable traits they have seen in the past: A stubborn mind that would not adjust if need be, one who just didn’t know the game as well his as opposition, and an excess of goofing off. Many of those fears were realized when the season didn’t go as planned. Sarkisian’s first loss against Boston College showed his stubbornness on offense when he refused to go away from the run that clearly wasn’t working until he was forced too late in the game when it was too late. He refused to change defensive coordinators when Wilcox was clearly incompetent because he couldn’t seem to stop any of the tougher offenses towards the end of games.
Sarkisian’s poor knowledge of the game was apparent when he called poor plays such as bubble screens (a Lane Kiffin special) at the end of the Arizona State game. If Sarkisian had run the ball, time would have run out and Arizona State would never have gotten that Hail Mary pass off that is an iconic play of the year for many college football fans, with USC being on the wrong side of it. The team goofed around on the sideline with the walk-ons dancing around and making fools of USC football. USC fans used to make jokes about UCLA football players on the sidelines trying to pump up the crowd as glorified cheerleaders, and Sarkisian brought that same joke-like mentality to USC. The team lacked discipline and focus as fans watched a series of last-minute collapses. Utah came back on a game winning drive, ASU had two touchdowns in less than three minutes, Arizona would have beaten USC had it not been for a missed field goal, Nebraska nearly came back from a huge deficit, and USC couldn’t stop Boston College, who had an outdated offense that relied on running the ball on almost every play.
Sarkisian really tried to inflate stats as well, opening up the playbook and throwing deep against the lesser teams such as Colorado, Cal, Oregon State, etc… Kessler only have one interception against those teams; however, against the better teams, Sarkisian decided to play a completely different game by not trusting his QB, and resulting in Kessler having much poorer games against UCLA, ASU, Stanford, Utah, and Arizona. FOX Sports Analyst, Petros Papadakis, said that USC is a team that is “night and day” because Sarkisian is afraid to trust Kessler against tougher opponents, and that it’s on Sark to trust his QB more.
USC’s roster is just too talented to have such poor coaching cost the team so many games. Cody Kessler was one of the top quarterbacks coming out of high school, and Max Browne was the top quarterback of his class. The vanilla offensive play calling of bubble screens and running up the middle that came in huge spurts cost the Trojans too many games because Sarkisian was playing not to lose rather than to win. The defense was filled with players who were 4 and 5 star recruits coming out of high school and even top notch draft selections.
For USC to take the next step, the team must find a head coach with an elite caliber resume. Steve Sarkisian deserves to be a head coach, just not at one of the top programs in the country. His inability to learn from his mistakes as shown throughout the year with teams coming back from huge deficits will cost the USC program more wins in the future. The team’s talent across the board is elite, and at the very least, Sarkisian is going to have to get some real assistant coaches like Pete Carroll did in his time at USC instead of the Mickey Mouse Club he’s currently running.