I never trusted Lane Kiffin so I was neither surprised no bothered to learn that early this morning, he had been fired as the football coach at USC.
Technically, the term USC used was "relieved of his duties,'' but I'm pretty sure it means the same thing. The decision came following USC's 62-41 loss at Arizona State.
The word came from USC athletic director Pat Haden.
Kiffin learned of his termination after the team returned to Los Angeles having lost seven of their last 11 games dating to last season. USC is 3-2 this year but 0-2 in the Pac-12 Conference.
Kiffin spend six seasons as an assistant under Pete Carroll at USC, then became the head coach of the Oakland Raiders for two seasons before getting fired. He was head coach at the University of Tennessee for one season and then bolted after going 6-7. That ended badly, as Kiffin left his false claims behind him in Knoxville. Some think Tennessee hasn't recovered from the Kiffin debacle.
And now he's gone from USC, 28-15, in four seasons. He's been caught in lies here, too.
Never could buy into Kiffin. And finally, neither could the Trojans.
Somewhere, he will probably make a great offensive coordinator, but he lacked the maturity and integrity to be a head coach. Or maybe he just lacked the guile to not get caught.
Whatever, he's done.
Among the south Orange County players at USC are offensive lineman Max Tuerk of Santa Margarita Catholic, fullback Jahleel Pinner of Mission Viejo High, tailback John Akiba from Mission Viejo and Saddleback College, receiver Christian Tober from San Clemente, tailback Alec Jaffe of Laguna Beach, tailback Tre Madden of Mission Viejo, and tailback Ross Taylor from Sage Hill.
Haden plans to hold a news conference later today to discuss his decision.
TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: What do you think of the decision to fire Lane Kiffin?
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