Jim, A lot of talent on that team, but they sure killed themselves last night with poor decisions and penalties. The huskies looked great on defense.
I know a lot was made of Pederson's offense at Boise, but he had some real good defenses as well. He might find the road to improvement in the P12 will be via defense first.
ESPN has an article up now, he has asked for a leave of absence to take care of a undisclosed condition. Clay Helton will be the interim HC. What a mess. I do hope he gets the proper treatment and can recover to return to a normal life. I'll be shocked if he's ever on the USC sidelines again.
LATimes article on Sark Sounds like this isn't something that just developed. When he got in trouble pre-season for a drunken outburst at a Trojan function, he said it was mixing his meds/alcohol and it wouldn't happen again. Some pointed to a apparently messy divorce ongoing, etc. But this article says it goes back a lot further than that.
ND <t>Starting to hear a lot of stuff now on Sark that supposedly people knew before but did not come out. It will now.</t>
The question that many will ask, is how much did Pat Haden know before he hired him at USC, and if he didn't know why? Also reports are that there were signs of problems last year, yet Haden didn't know? I won't be shocked if Haden loses his job as well.
:idea: Haden should lose his job. The cover-up went as far as it could. He has tried to downplay these events, but it's impossible. The biggest fund raising event they have at USC is the "Salute to Troy" dinner. Big donors are there along with parents, alumni and friends. Sark was roaring drunk: "F__k UCLA!" "F__k Notre Dame!" "F__k Stanford!" and "F__kin Fight On!" He was screaming and slurring every foul word as a hushed crowd looked on in horror. Haden was there. The latest lie was that Sark missed the team meeting on Sunday morning. Nope. He was there, drunk as a skunk... He's been drinking before games too and slurring his words on the sideline. How long has this been going on?
I guess we'll have a good idea of how much juice Haden has with USC big name donor's and cigars. He's one of them, I wonder if he was doing their bidding with Sark or did he keep them in the dark. Since the LA Times article came out with specific charges of how Haden should have known about Sark's problem and how the incident at that USC function was not the first time he showed up "over" medicated. Wash players are saying that he was drunk at times when he was the HC. So they must have vetted Sark with the same intensity as Notre Dame verified all of George O'Leary's academic credentials before hiring him.
There was a story that he drank a bottle of Patron himself in the locker room after they pounded the Irish last year. I guess last week he showed up for practice so drunk that he had to be helped off the field.
That was quick! Went he was taking an "Extended Leave of Absence" to Fired in less than a full day. That's better acceleration than most sports cars. 8)