The USC Trojans entered the 2015 college football season with expectations that they could contend for both a Pac-12 title and potentially even a spot in the College Football Playoff. We’re barely into the thick of conference play but you can forget about that.
The outlook surrounding the program has changed dramatically in a hurry. While this was supposed to be the year that they put sanctions, Lane Kiffin and all sorts of post-Pete Carroll disasters behind them, that all changed this week. Here’s why USC’s season has been a disaster and will only get worse.
Sarkisian Fired
The school announced on Monday that they have fired head coach Steve Sarkisian, who is expected to seek outside help in order to deal with personal issues. He’s hit rock bottom with his alcohol problems after reportedly showing up completely drunk for Saturday’s 17-12 loss to Washington. There have been reports of multiple instances in which Sarkisian has shown up at practices or games under the influence and after just 18 games he will go down as the shortest tenured coach in the program’s history.
The Trojans had an opportunity to stop this problem before it started as Sarkisian showed up at a preseason event and was slurring his speech and was visibly drunk. However, athletic director Pat Haden decided to give Sark one more chance.
That has proven to be a mistake. Offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Clay Helton will step in as the interim head coach while Sarkisian seeks help away from the football field but it will really be difficult for the Trojans to get over losing their head coach this season.
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Two Losses Already
A 41-31 home loss to Stanford was considered a major setback at the time but they could have recovered from that. Especially when you consider that Stanford has climbed the rankings. However, when USC dropped its second loss of the season at home to Washington, it was clear this program is in trouble. Washington isn’t exactly a stalwart in the conference as their only two wins on the season came against Sacramento State and Utah State. USC has now lost twice at home and in disturbing fashion both times. Forget the problems with Sarkisian. This team just isn’t as good as we expected.
A Tough Upcoming Schedule
The fact that the Trojans’ two losses have both come at home is one thing but when you consider that they both came against unranked opponents, there is obvious reason for concern – especially when you consider that their upcoming schedule is about to get much harder. USC is scheduled to play a trio of ranked opponents in Notre Dame, Utah and California in the next three weeks with two of those three games on the road and the only home game against the fourth-ranked Utes.
The remainder of the schedule includes home games against Arizona and UCLA as well as road games against an improved Colorado team. They also have to go on the road to Oregon but they’re having a down season. They better get it together or they might not even make a bowl game.
Tuerk Out For The Season
With all of the talk about Sarkisian, Athletic Director Pat Haden and how tough the schedule will be the rest of the way, it was easy to forget that USC also just lost its star center Max Tuerk for the rest of the season. He tore a ligament in his knee in the loss to Washington. Tuerk had started 38 games for the Trojans and will be replaced by sophomore Toa Lobendahn.
That wasn’t the only injury concern either as USC also lost defensive end Claude Pelon and receiver Steven Mitchell Jr. Almost everything that could go wrong for USC has gone wrong so far this year and when you consider all of the obstacles they have been forced to deal with, there is a good chance things gets worse before they get better for the Trojans in what has become an absolute disaster of a season.
