USC Football Roundup: Trojans win arbitration over Steve Sarkisian (7/9)

The Trojans will not have to pay Steve Sarkisian for wrongful termination according to TMZ. That and more in the USC football roundup for July 9.

Former USC football head coach Steve Sarkisian lost his $30 million battle with the university over wrongful termination, TMZ reported on Monday.

An arbitrator rejected Sarkisian’s claims that he was wrongfully fired because alcoholism is a recognized disability, siding with USC’s argument that they made efforts to help the coach, who denied having a problem.

As a result, the university owes him none of the $12.6 million still on his USC contract, nor the claimed damages which made the lawsuit worth $30 million.

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Thus ends one of the more embarrassing sagas in USC football history.

Sarkisian was fired after allegedly appearing inebriated ahead of a practice following the Trojans loss to Washington at the Coliseum in 2015. That was after he was rebuked for appearing intoxicated and swearing during Salute to Troy before the season.

USC put Sarkisian on leave to get help for his alcohol problem and installed then-offensive coordinator Clay Helton as the interim head coach. While Sarkisian was formally fired, Helton went on to win the permanent head coaching job by guiding the Trojans to the Pac-12 South division title and a spot in the conference championship game.

Sarkisian is now the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, so he’s landed on his feet. He just won’t be $30 million richer.

College Football News Top 30s

Catching up on College Football News’ Top 30 position rankings going into the 2018 season, USC has some notable inclusions and exclusions to note.

Senior guard Chris Brown checks in at No. 16 among interior linemen, which sounds about right given his highs and lows from last year. However, right tackle Chuma Edoga didn’t make the cut on the list of tackles as might have been expected. A healthier senior season could vault him up in consideration.

Another snub to argue, perhaps, comes at running back where Stephen Carr went unmentioned. On one hand, Carr’s impact was limited by injury as a freshman. What he showed when healthy could certainly make the case for his inclusion.

CHECK OUT: Four biggest comeback players for USC in 2018

There were no snubs at linebacker where Porter Gustin landed at No. 17 and Cameron Smith ended up at No. 9.

If there was a surprise Trojan inclusion, it might be Christian Rector leaping into the Top 10 at defensive end. Even so, his production when healthy was off the charts and worthy of the praise.

Marvell Tell represented at No. 9 among safeties while Iman Marshall was the highest-ranked USC player on any list as the No. 4 corner in the country this year.

Phil Steele’s Top 25

Phil Steele, the college football magazine extraordinaire, ranked USC at No. 16 in his Top 25. That continues the trend of the Trojans slotting in the mid-teens ahead of the 2018 season. In other words, Steele is another prognosticator who expects USC to be good, but not great.

MORE: Chris Steele gives USC first Top 100 commit

PRP lessons

Garry Paskwietz at WeAreSC.com has some conclusions from the first month of player-run practices this summer, including thoughts on JT Daniels’ competing for the starting job and Brandon Pili’s meteoric rise continuing.

Today’s Trojan Trivia

Rector was the only player in the Pac-12 with 11 tackles for loss in just 12 games of action in 2017.