Report: USC offers Louisville AD Tom Jurich

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich has been tapped for USC’s opening in the same position after the impending retirement of Pat Haden, according to sports radio in Kentucky.

Tom Jurich, the long-time athletic director at Louisville, has an offer on the table from USC, Tony Vanneti reported on 790 KRD in Louisville, Kentucky.

On the one hand, landing Jurich, who has been with Louiville since 1999, would be a major coup for the Trojans.

In 2012 he was named the Sports Business Journal’s National Athletic Director of the Year. In October, Sports On Earth named him the top AD in the country for helping the Cardinals rise from Conference USA to the ACC, upgrading Louisville’s facilities and overseeing a national championship and two Final Four appearances in basketball.

However, there are a couple of big red flags on Jurich’s resume which may cause some to question USC’s targeting of him to replace Pat Haden, who will retire at the end of June.

Louisville basketball just announced a self-imposed post-season ban stemming from a scandal involving Rick Pitino’s program and a staff member paying for escorts to provide sex for recruits. Jurich has stood by the head coach.

There’s also the questionable handling of head football coach Bobby Petrino. After Petrino left to coach the Atlanta Falcons and then took over at Arkansas, he was fired by the Razorbacks for a scandal involving an adulterous relationship with a member of the athletic department staff. Despite the scandal, Jurich hired Petrino back on as the head coach at Louisville in 2014. Petrino also recently caught flack for rescinding a scholarship offer to a Louisville commit this Signing Day.

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USC has dealt with its fair share of scandals over the past decade from NCAA sanctions and Lane Kiffin’s poorly-handled firing to Josh Shaw’s fake story about rescuing his drowning cousin and Steve Sarkisian’s alcohol-related issues which led to his firing.

It seems odd for the Trojans to target a replacement for Haden who has so recently been embroiled in a scandal which might outdo USC’s own recent embarrassments.

Even more surprising would be USC’s willingness to step outside of the Trojan family for an athletic director, having done so just once in the past 90 years.

UPDATE: Jurich and a Louisville spokesperson denied the report that he is considering a move to USC.

“I am not going to (USC),” Jurich said. “People say what they want because I’m from there. They think I might go but I’m staying right where I am.”