USC Morning Links: Orgeron and Sarkisian Shared an Agent and Other News

Sports agents sometimes have a balancing act with clients(Paresh Dave | LA Times)

"Take the list of coaching clients of a sports agent, and there’s a good chance that it could be mapped like a family tree. At the top branches, successful coaches such as Pete Carroll, and below them, several of that person’s current and former assistants usually follow. In Carroll’s case, that includes Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, Ed Orgeron and Sammy Knight. The tight setup meant that as Orgeron fought for a permanent coaching job at USC in November, his agent, Gary Uberstine, was also helping fellow client Sarkisian through the vetting process for the same gig."

Updates on 2014 Commits and Targets(Trenise Ferreira | Bleacher Report)

"The recruiting trail is about to heat up in Los Angeles, as the USC Trojans ended the year on a high note—they posted a 10-4 record after a tumultuous 2013, punctuated by a 45-20 thrashing of No. 20 Fresno State in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl. The wave of positive energy will give new head coach Steve Sarkisian a boost as he assembles his inaugural recruiting class. Sarkisian has many questions to answer as to whether he can get USC back to its days of dominance, but his skills as a recruiter leave no doubt. He took an 0-12 University of Washington team and made them into a regular Pac-12 North contender in five seasons, and he lured some of Southern California’s top talent to the rainy Pacific Northwest."

2013 Review: USC Defense(Johnny Curren | ESPN Pac-12 Blog)

"Determined to find a greater level of success against those uptempo, spread offenses that have shredded USC in recent years, Clancy Pendergast was brought in this past offseason by Lane Kiffin to replace his father, Monte Kiffin, as the team’s defensive coordinator. Installing a vastly different defense, both in terms of look and philosophy, this unit showed tremendous improvement, ranking No. 1 in the Pac-12 in passing defense and No. 2 in rushing defense."

USC Football: The Road Back to Glory(Rick McMahan | Bleacher Report)

"In fact, the Trojans can’t be expected to vie for a conference championship—much less a national title—until they are allowed to compete under the auspices of the same rules that are applied to everyone else. And that won’t occur until around 2015 or the year after, when USC will have stocked a roster that reflects the same number of scholarship players as those they compete against. Of course, this is not to say that Sarkisian will be able to use this as an excuse, because he won’t and Trojan fans wouldn’t allow him to anyway."

Tweets of Note:

* * *

If you have any tips, suggestions or submissions to our link dump, please shoot us an email to

reignoftroy@fansided.com

.