Sarkisian, who tutored two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks as an assistant under Pete Carroll at USC, comes back to the Trojan Family after five years as the Washington Huskies head coach. During his tenure in Seattle, he won 34 games despite inheriting a program which had won only 12 games in the previous five seasons.
"We are delighted to welcome Steve Sarkisian back to the Trojan Family," said Haden, who will hold a 2 p.m. PT press conference Tuesday in the John McKay Center to formally introduce his new head coach. "We conducted a very exhaustive and thorough search, pinpointing about 20 candidates and interviewing five of them. We kept coming back to Sark. He is the only one who was offered the job. I believe in my gut that he is the right coach for USC at this time."
Sarkisian said, "I am extremely excited to be coming home to USC and for the opportunity that USC presents to win championships. I can't wait to get started."
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While Sarkisian's coaching staff has not yet been announced, Ed Orgeron is leaving USC to pursue head coaching opportunities after leading the Trojans to a 6-2 mark as interim head coach.
"Ed is one of the greatest Trojans ever and we thank him for all he has done for the program," said Haden. "He and I had a very open and frank discussion. He understandably was disappointed when I told him we were going in a different direction. We talked about the possibility of him remaining at USC, but Ed wants to be a head coach and I am supportive of that. I told him I will do whatever I can to help him in that pursuit."
Sarkisian arrives at USC after leading UW to an 8-4 mark in 2013, which is the program's highest win total since 2000. He dialed up school record-setting numbers guiding the Huskies' offense this season, which finished No. 8 in the nation in total yards per game.
In his time as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at USC plus his head coaching experience at Washington, Sarkisian has groomed one-time NFL starting quarterbacks Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, Matt Cassel, Mark Sanchez and Jake Locker. As a player, Sarkisian set records as the BYU QB under Norm Chow, including leading the nation in pass efficiency as a senior.
