Lane Kiffin had to know he was on the hot seat in Southern Cal after the implosion that was last year’s entire season and especially after getting walloped by Arizona State on Saturday night, 62-41. In fact, during the third quarter of the game Saturday night, USC’s Athletic Director Pat Haden met with advisors at Sun Devil Stadium and made the decision to terminate Lane Kiffin.
The details of how the firing went down were recapped by Scott Wolf of the LA Daily News on his Twitter feed, USC Insider, and they seem a bit ruthless. Then again, this is a coach that took his number 1 preseason team to 7-6 last year, so I guess he had it coming.
Pat Haden summoned his administrators to #USC locker room during 3rd quarter when 28-0 ASU run and decided to fire Lane Kiffin
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) September 30, 2013
There were discussions on the plane ride back to L.A. and a final meeting was going to take place at #USC
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) September 30, 2013
Lane Kiffin remained on the bus when a #USC administrator blocked the gate and stopped bus, asking Kiffin to step off
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) September 30, 2013
Lane Kiffin told bus to stay but adminisrator told driver to go to #USC with Kiffin's briefcase still on the bus
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) September 30, 2013
Pat Haden then fired Lane Kiffin in parking lot at Landmark Aviation at LAX. A football staff member then got sent to USC to get briefcase
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) September 30, 2013
The USC Insider Twitter account also recounts the players initial reactions as they were informed of the demise of their head coach.
When Pat Haden met with players, there were broad smiles among team, witnesses said #USC
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) September 30, 2013
“It was like a breath of fresh air,'' a player said over Lane Kiffin's dismissal #USC
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) September 30, 2013
After leaving Tennessee in a lurch 4 years ago and jetting off to Southern Cal, a lot of people are saying that Karma had everything to do with this. I tend to agree.
