Steve Sarkisian: Leaving Washington for USC a ‘hard’ breakup

Steve Sarkisian was back at Pac-12 Media Days on Wednesday, but this time it was as the head coach of the USC Trojans where he was an assistant coach under Pete Carroll before leaving to take the head coaching job with the Washington Huskies in 2009.

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After compiling a 34-29 record with the Huskies and four straight seasons with at least seven wins, Sarkisian make the decision to come back to USC and take over the program that saw Ed Orgeron serve as the interim head coach after Lane Kiffin was fired during the season.

But as Sarkisian mentioned during Wednesday’s Media Days, it wasn’t an easy decision to walk away from the school who gave him his first head coaching job and equated it to a break up with a girlfriend.

Breaking up is hard to do, but Sarkisian’s decision to head back to USC should be one that turns into a beautiful marriage.

Sarkisian has recruited well in his brief tenure as the head coach of the Trojans, including finishing strong down the stretch for the 2014 class when USC received commitments from a pair of five-star recruits in Adoree Jackson and Damien Mama and four-star athlete John “Juju” Smith.

USC finished with the No. 10 class in the nation and No. 1 class in the Pac-12 last year and are in position to finish atop the Pac-12 class standings and could contend for a top-five class this year.

Expectations are high from the fan base that Sarkisian can get the program back to the top of the Pac-12 standings and competing for national titles once again and he can move on from his break up with a prettier, sexier program that really “gets him.”