If college athletic directors live and die with the head football coaches they hire, USC's Pat Haden may just have been placed on life support.
Haden asked coach Steve Sarkisian to take a leave of absence after he learned Sarkisian was intoxicated Sunday and incapable of conducting a Trojans practice -- three days after USC's 17-12 loss to the team the Trojans took Sarkisian away from, the Washington Huskies.
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And Haden has been crucified for the Sarkisian mess ever since.
The ironic part about Sarkisian's leave of absence is that it could keep him employed at USC longer than Haden.
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"Football will recover. I'm not sure about athletic director Pat Haden's reputation," CBS Sports' Dennis Dodd wrote. "The 62-year-old former Trojan quarterback is totally devoted to his school. He is a Rhodes Scholar who played and lived with class.
"But Haden had a chance to end this. He had a chance to tell Sarkisian to take a leave of absence back in August, perhaps even fire him. But he didn't."
Haden had to remove Sarkisian from a microphone when he was speaking during a "Salute to Troy" booster event because Sarkisian was drunk and cursing, as USA Today Sports reported.
After that incident, Sarkisian said he mixed alcohol and medicine and agreed to go into treatment to find out whether he did a problem. There never was a report about the outcome of the treatment. Haden allowed Sarkisian to remain coaching the team.
"Either way, this debacle is on Haden," USA Today Sports' George Schroeder wrote. "When the dust settles and temporary almost certainly turns into permanent for Sarkisian, it might be time to ask Haden to leave, too, for the latest in a series of high-profile missteps."
The media aren't the only ones calling for Haden's head. Fox Sports quoted one USC source voicing his dismay over the situation.
"What has Pat Haden done since he's been there?" the source asked. "You have all these unbelievable resources and history, and it's a group of people in charge that doesn't know what they're doing. They're grasping to have some attachment to Pete (Carroll), and they keep screwing it up. Instead of (Haden and Sarkisian) addressing the issue appropriately (in August), they let him skirt the issue. Obviously, he does have a problem. He should've stood there and said, 'I have a real problem. I'm getting real help.' It's just a bad situation for him, and bad for everyone at USC."
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