Ed Orgeron will take the reins of the Southern California football program for the rest of the 2013 season, athletics director Pat Haden announced at a news conference Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles.
"Our history has been great, and we need to be great again," Haden said.
Orgeron, 52, will step in after Haden fired Lane Kiffin on Sunday morning in the wake of the Trojans' 62-41 loss Saturday at Arizona State.
"My job is to do what is best for USC," Haden said. "I personally have a great deal of respect for Lane. ... He did the absolute best he can.
"Lane was clearly disappointed. He really, really tried to keep his job."
Haden said he informed Orgeron that he would be taking over early Sunday morning. Haden said he decided to fire Kiffin on Saturday night but acknowledged "this has been brewing for a while."
USC (3-2) has a bye this week and returns to play Oct. 10 at home against Arizona (3-1).
"It's never the perfect time to make a change. … particularly in college athletics, college football, but I thought this was the right time," Haden said. He acknowledged some thought the move could have come last year after a 7-6 season, but said he also hoped it was an aberration because Kiffin had won 10 games the previous season.
But after seeing the team get off to a slow start, Haden said, "It became a gut feeling that we weren't making the progress that I thought we should be making."
"I thought it was the right time, and that's my job."
Orgeron has served as defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator since Kiffin's arrival at USC before the 2010 season. He also served the same roles at Tennessee during Kiffin's one season there in 2009.
Orgeron has head coaching experience, going 10-25 in three seasons as head coach at Mississippi from 2005-07.
Kiffin, 38, was dismissed after the Trojans' seventh loss in their last 11 games and an 0-2 start in Pac-12 play this season. The 62 points allowed Saturday matched a school-worst.
Kiffin was 28-15 in three-plus seasons at USC and 35-21 overall as a college head coach, having spent the 2009 season at Tennessee before moving to USC. He also was 5-15 as head coach of the NFL's Oakland Raiders in 2007-08.
Orgeron said it had been "a tough morning for everyone," but said he "understood the circumstances" and had held positive meetings with the coaching staff and team.
No comeback
Kiffin came into the season under pressure after the Trojans suffered through a debacle in 2012, when the preseason No.1 Trojans famously flopped, especially down the stretch, losing five of their last six games and looking fairly disinterested in a 21-7 Sun Bowl loss to Georgia Tech.
They finished the season unranked.
Nevertheless, Haden released a video before fall camp that seemed about as ironclad a vote of confidence as possible -- or at least gave Kiffin a chance to redeem himself with a solid start.
"He is not (on the hot seat)," Haden said in the video. "I'm behind Lane Kiffin 100%. I have great confidence in him. He's a very hard-working, detail-oriented coach. He's a dynamic play-caller in my estimation, and he's an exceptional recruiter."
A few days after he released the video, Haden said in an an interview with USA TODAY Sports that he wanted to avoid answering question after question about Kiffin's job status.
"I've been around sports a long time and I've seen what can happen," Haden said at the time. "It kind of becomes a Bataan death march. I didn't want that."
Early Sunday morning, he made sure it did not become that.
This year's Trojans opened the season as one of the most unpredictable teams in college football. With a new quarterback (Matt Barkley started the last four years) and a new defensive coordinator (Kiffin replaced his own father, Monte Kiffin, after a dismal defensive season) -- and with just 67 healthy scholarship players -- the thinking was that USC could suffer another nightmare season.
But there was hope that either of two redshirt sophomore quarterbacks -- Cody Kessler or Max Wittek – could emerge as a playmaker and their assortment of highly recruited skill players at running back and wide receiver, including All-American receiver Marqise Lee, USC's offense might put plenty of points on the board.
On defense, USC turned to a 3-4 alignment run by new coordinator Clancy Pendergast, who Haden on Sunday referred to as a "fantastic" defensive coach.
The results so far:
Kessler has made plays, and mistakes, like the pick-six he threw in Tempe Saturday night.
The running backs, primarily Tre Madden and Justin Davis, have shined. The receivers have not, and Lee was knocked out of the game with an injury Saturday night. His status is unknown.
Pendergast's defense had looked pretty good until Saturday night, when it was absolutely shredded.
Moreover, the concern that depth would be a major problem proved to be well-founded. At times in fall camp, Kiffin had to cut practice short because of a lack of healthy bodies.
The issue was spelled out quite clearly by Orgeron in an interview with USA TODAY Sports before the season.
"The sanctions have created a depth issue that has hurt us," Orgeron said. "You can see it on the field. Our first team is where it used to be. We still don't have a full second team that you feel really good about putting those guys in. And no third team."
Tough recovery
The sanctions continue for another year -- the Trojans are limited to 15 initial scholarships and 75 total again in 2014. But Kiffin told USA TODAY Sports before the season that the impact of the penalties will be felt longer than that.
"We think we can be back to 85 scholarship players after two full signing classes (in 2015 and '16), but we'd still be very young," Kiffin said. "Fifty of the players in 2016 would be in their first or second year. And those small classes will be your upperclassmen."
So, even presuming continued recruiting successes, USC might not be back to a full, deep, talent-rich squad reminiscent of Carroll's teams last decade until, say, 2017.
"The NCAA does not put this kind of penalty on you hoping you're going to win," Haden told USA TODAY Sports. "The teams that have had this kind of penalty – 20 to 25 scholarships; no one's gotten 30 – it's been tough sledding for them."
The defense was thin – and about as effective – as paper Saturday night, resembling the unit run last year by Monte Kiffin that gave up 62 points at home to Oregon – the same number of points the Trojans gave up Saturday night to Arizona State.
Orgeron said his meetings with coaches and players after he was named interim coach on Sunday had "a real positive vibe" and that all had "made a re-commitment to this season...We plan to give it all we got for the Trojan family."
"I think we're going to kind of circle the wagons a bit, play these eight games and let the chips fall where they may," he said. "I'm going to have some energy, some excitement, high-fiving guys. That's what I like to do."
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