The USC Trojans are looking for a new head football coach with Steve Sarkisian fired and some names that have some up in connection with the job include Chip Kelly, Kevin Sumlin, Kyle Whittingham, Jeff Fisher, Jack Del Rio, Greg Schiano and Pat Fitzgerald among others. Sarkisian took a leave of absence and was later fired by USC AD Pat Haden after issues came up regarding alcohol problems with the head coach.
Haden had a press conference to discuss the situation and according to ESPN.com, Haden said that the "decision" he made to hire Sarkisian "didn't work out, and I own that." Haden said that the situation was "very difficult" and that he felt this course of action was in the best interests of the school and for Sarkisian. The situation regarding the leave of absence and firing started on Sunday when Haden found out Sarkisian was not at practice and later he "determined that [Sarkisian] was not healthy."
Haden later announced that Sarkisian was taking a leave of absence and details began to come out about issues related to alcohol. Haden later said that Sarkisian "did not meet USC's standards" and made the decision to terminate his contract. Earlier in the year Sarkisian made headlines after he "appeared to be under the influence at a team function" and following the news of his firing, ESPN reported that Sarkisian reportedly was intoxicated during meetings with the team.
The Trojans promoted Clay Helton to take over as interim coach and now Haden has to find a new head coach to take over for Helton once the season is over. There has been a lot of speculation about what direction Haden will go with the hire and some big names have been getting thrown around regarding the opening. According to ESPN Radio host Paul Finebaum, Eagles head coach Chip Kelly and Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin will be "leading candidates" for the job.
Kelly has been linked to other jobs in the past since taking over as the Eagles head coach, including Texas and Florida and in those instances Kelly said that he was not interested in leaving his job. Kelly may feel the same way now, but he has numerous connections to the Pac-12 after his time at Oregon and this could be a job that makes him think about heading back to the college ranks. Most college coaches try to remain in the NFL once they make that jump, but Jim Harbaugh showed this year that he did not have any issues going from the San Francisco 49ers to Michigan.
CBS Sports put together a list of names that could be options for USC and that list also included Kelly. The site also lists Chris Petersen, who took over for Sarkisian at Washington, Sumlin as well as Kyle Whittingham, who has been getting a lot of attention for the job. Whittingham has Utah as one of the top teams in the country and he wouldn't be the first Utes coach to go from Utah to the big time, as Urban Meyer made that move before as well.
Check here for more details on the USC job search, Kelly, Sumlin and more on Sarkisian being fired.
