Report: USC contacted Nick Saban’s agent to gauge interest in head coaching position
By Jack Crosby
On Monday, the USC Trojans hired away former assistant Steve Sarkisian from the Washington Huskies to fill their head coaching position after they fired Lane Kiffin earlier this season.
It was an abrupt end to what we all assumed was going to be a high-profile coaching search throughout the beginning of the offseason.
Now due to how quickly the hire was made–two days after the regular season ended–it’s believed that Sarkisian was the only person on athletic director Pat Haden’s radar from the beginning, and some have stated that. James Franklin from Vanderbilt and Chris Petersen from Boise State were merely smokescreens to deter away from the fact that they were grabbing Sarkisian from UW.
Basically, Sarkisian was the only choice from the get-go.
Well, no that’s not really the case, because there’s one coach in the nation that trumps everyone else when it comes to heading your program, no matter what the circumstance is, and yes, USC indeed made that phone call at one point.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the USC administration did reach out to Alabama coach Nick Saban’s representation about a possible move to the west coast. They didn’t say when the contact was actually made, but there was a feeler thrown out there, at the very least.
While it’s not all that shocking that they did this, it’s certainly something to think about, especially the shockwaves it would have sent had Saban actually given consideration to this.
It’s even more fun to think about the meltdowns that would have happened in Austin, Texas and Tuscaloosa, Alabama.