USC Again Shows Poor Form, Hires Sarkisian Away From Washington

You gotta hand it to those Trojans, they don't give a damn about any "gentleman's agreements" when it comes to their head football coaches. Today, USC hired Washington head coach Steve Sarkisian to be their new head coach, even though he was under contract to a fellow Pac-12 school.

It's not the first time that Southern Cal has pulled this stunt. Following the 1986 season, they reached across the desert to Tucson, Arizona and hired Larry Smith away from the Wildcats with the much deeper coffers available to USC. Arizona fans, and even those from other conference schools, were outraged. The Trojans just shrugged.

The only other case of a conference coach jumping programs in recent memory is when Bruce Snyder left Cal for Arizona State following the 1991 season.  Although the Cal athletic director claimed that Snyder was lured away by bigger dollars in Tempe, Snyder vigorously denied that before his death in 2009.

Snyder had taken a very down Cal program and turned it into a 10 win team for the first time since Pappy Waldorf's 1949 Cal team. Snyder said that he had a handshake agreement with Cal AD Dave Maggard for a new contract, but that Maggard left Cal for a job with Miami before the contract was signed. The interim AD, Bob Bockrath, refused to honor the deal and Snyder felt he was honor-bound to leave Cal.

Rick Neuheisel left Colorado for Washington following the 1998 season, but Colorado was then in the Big 12 conference and NOT a fellow conference member.

Twice in 27 years, the USC Trojans have gone trolling for head coaches within their own conference. They know that it cannot happen to them because no one else in the Pac-12 pays nearly as much as USC. They also know that they do not even have to disclose how much they pay their head coaches, or AD's, since they are a private school with no state requirement to share that information.

Of course, critics of the program also point out that USC also has a history of their boosters paying at least some of their players very well also. That being the case, hiring coaches away from fellow conference members is hardly their biggest sin. Let's just not have to listen to them bitch and moan about how few players they have under scholarship, which was due entirely to the penalties handed down to them for cheating in the first place.

Update:

Any moral high ground held by Washington after Sarkisian was hired away was lost after UW reportedly offered to double the pay of UCLA coach Jim Mora to come to Washington. Mora turned them down, but did use the offer to sweeten his contract with the Bruins.

Fortunately for Washington, they were able to do what many other schools had tried and failed -- they convinced Chris Petersen to leave Boise State. Petersen has the highest winning percentage in the FBS with a 92-12 record over eight seasons with the Broncos.

Washington and Petersen hope the moves works better than it did for former Boise State coaches Dan Hawkins and Dirk Koetter. Both had great success at Boise State, but found the winning much harder to do in the big boy conferences the Pac-10 and the Big 12. Koetter could not turn things around at Arizona State and Hawkins pretty much destroyed the program at Colorado.

Why Pac-12 Coaches are Starting to Fear Sefo Liufau and the Colorado Buffaloes

Colorado's true freshman quarterback Sefo Liufau heads back home to Washington this week to lead his CU Buffs against the UW Huskies. Coaches and teammates alike hope and expect that Liufau will continue the strong start to his "era" as starting quarterback for the Buffaloes.

Washington coach Steve Sarkisian hopes the Huskies do not become the first conference "victim" this year to the Buffs and Liufau. Many consider a loss to Colorado a longshot, especially considering the long losing streak the Buffs have to conference opponents. The last time CU beat a Pac-12 team was all the way back to Sept. 22, 2012 against Washington State. It was the only win of the season for Colorado.

If one looks at the various team statistics for the Pac-12 conference this season, it is easy to see that Colorado ranks last or nearly last in most categories. What the stats DON'T show is that the numbers are changing drastically since Liufau became the quarterback for the Buffaloes.

Colorado is last in the Pac-12 in 3rd down conversions at 30.8%. Take away the 2 out of 33 conversions that CU had BEFORE switching to Liufau during conference play, and one finds that Liufau has led the Buffs to a conversion rate of almost 49%, which would be #1 in the conference.

Colorado's pass completion percentage is also at the bottom of the conference at only 51.5% of passes completed. When Liufau is on the field, however, things are much better. Sefo has completed 64.9% of his passes, and in three of the games he has played in the completion percentage has been at least 69%. Liufau's 64.9% would be third in the conference behind only UCLA and Oregon.

It is easy to see why Sarkisian and other coaches around the conference are starting to get concerned about the intangibles that Sefo Liufau brings to the Colorado offense. After all, he has started only three games and played in only one more at the collegiate level. Although he has been roughed up by opposing defenses, he has maintained his level-headed demeanor throughout his time at the helm of the CU offense.

As good as his play has been so far, opposing coaches know that Liufau will get better as he gets more experience. Then, the touchdown to field goal ratio when the Buffs get into the red zone will start to get better. Getting more points on the board will ease the duty of the Colorado defense, and time of possession will continue to grow as a strength for the Buffaloes.

Liufau is a Washington kid. He was a very successful high school quarterback there. His coaches from high school knew Sefo to be a great leader. Colorado's head coach, Mike MacIntyre, recognized those leadership abilities and burned Liufau's redshirt for the good of the team.

With each passing game, his teammates have grown to trust and respect him. Indeed, the way he stood up to the pounding (and cheap shots which drew penalties) from UCLA, inspired his offensive line to such a degree that by the end of the game they were willing to fight for him, leading to a skirmish with several Bruin players.

The emotional bonding into brotherhood between Liufau and his teammates is the crucial step that Colorado has been missing for years. As they continue to rebound from their lost decade away from the Top 25, the "coming together" of Colorado team will make them a much greater foe for any opponent.

UW coach Sarkisian does not want his Huskies to be the first victim to the rejuvenated Buffaloes and Liufau. That makes sense, because he knows that once those conference dominoes start to fall, a lot of teams in the Pac-12 will find out what it's like to be on the losing side across from Sefo Liufau.

Sefo Liufau will have droves of family and friends on hand at Husky Stadium this Saturday at 5 pm pacific time (6 pm mountain time). The game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network. Those friends and family will be there to support and cheer Sefo and the Buffaloes as they try to take the next step back to respect. Liufau and his coaches and teammates want desperately not to disappoint them.