5 Worst USC football head coaching hires of all time

No. 3 Steve Sarkisian (2014-15)

Personal demons that no one could have seen coming derailed the No. 3 coach on our list, Steve Sarkisian. Hired from Washington over the popular interim USC head coach Ed Orgeron who filled in when Kiffin was fired, Sarkisian was tabbed as a brilliant offensive mind, something that USC has always valued. However, his off-field issues caused his downfall before he was through his second year in L.A.

Things started well for Sark, though. He guided USC to a 9-4 mark and a bowl win in 2014, his only full season with the program.

However, there were repeated incidents of him appearing to be intoxicated on the job and when representing the university at booster meetings. Then, in 2015, when he acted strangely at a team meeting and left the facility before practice, he was put on leave and fired the next day.

Sarkisian, who was going through a divorce at that time, claimed to have an addiction and he would later sue the university for wrongful termination of a person with a disability. That suite was not successful.

There was no indication of any of these substance abuse issues cropping up at Washington where Sarkisian was head coach from 2009-13. However, USC should have done a better job of vetting Sarkisian before handing him the reins of a program still not far removed from the glory days of the Carroll era.

This hire was a poor one because Sarkisian left the program in shambles just after the Kiffin debacle but also because it led to the hiring of the No. 2 man on our list.