Texas coach Mack Brown is projected to suffer the same fate as Lane Kiffin. (Flickr)

The Trojans and Longhorns have had concurrent underwhelming starts to their 2013 campaign. The misery began Week 2 when USC's offense was strangled by Washington State in the Coliseum and Texas let BYU run roughshod to the tune of 550 rushing yards. Immediately the blame fell to the head coaches - Lane Kiffin and Mack Brown, respectively - who stood idly by as their programs were embarrassed. 

Three weeks later, the sentiments surrounding the fan base haven't changed.

The Trojans' loss to Wazzu was celebrated with a synchronous chorus of boos and was followed for at least two weeks with calls for Kiffin to be fired. Though he coached his team to two victories, Kiffin and his club fell flat at Arizona State this past weekend, surrendering a record 62 points for the second time in two years. 

USC AD Pat Haden and President C.L. Max Nikias didn't need the whole 60 minutes to decide Kiffin's fate. He was fired early Sunday morning, stranded in the LAX parking lot. 

SEE MORE: 3 Coaches That Could Replace Lane Kiffin

The Texas faithful will have to wait a little longer for the ax to fall on its skipper.

Longhorn fans are still calling for Brown's head on a platter three weeks after the BYU blowout. Even famed Texas running back Earl Campbell sided with the masses Monday, saying "Nobody likes to get fired or leave a job, but things happen. I'd go on record and say yes, I think it's time."

To add insult to injury, Texas AD DeLoss Dodds announced he would retire in August 2014 on Monday. Dodds had been the athletic director since 1981 and is responsible for the expansion of Texas's annual athletics budget to the largest in the nation. He oversaw the hiring of  Brown in 1998 and negotiated the lucrative deal with ESPN to form the Longhorn Network.

In short, just five weeks into the 2013 season, there are big shoes to fill at arguably the two biggest programs in the country.

Assuming Brown will be fired - and that is an easy assumption now that his AD is leaving him out to dry in the scrutinizing Austin heat - both USC and Texas will be seeking out new head coaches for not only the 2014 season, but the late 2013 recruiting trail. 

Pat Haden is on the clock. (USCRossier/Creative Commons)

With two bloated athletic budgets and storied football programs in need of head coaches, every big name in college football, and even the NFL, must be considered.

Already there have been rumors of Texas reaching out to Nick Saban, the stoic and steely-eyed recruiting hound from Alabama. 

Less than 24 hours after Kiffin's termination, SoCal speculation heated up over the return of notable coaching alumni, like Rams head coach Jeff Fisher and Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio.  

Regardless of whether any of this feverous philosophizing is grounded in reality, there is no doubt that early speculation is breeding a hasty decision-making process. 

Whether the USC and Texas programs like it or not, they are in a cold war against one another, racing to the moon - or at least to recruit the best coaching prospect on, and off, the market.

The list of possible candidates for both schools extends from Saban and the NFL vets to hot college commodities, like Vanderbilt's James Franklin, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin and Boise State's Chris Peterson. 

Even Trojan arch-nemesis and current Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly has been listed as an option for Haden to look into. So clearly any, and all, options will be considered.

But they must be done so quickly, so as to reconvince recruits and fans to believe in their floundering football factories. USC and Texas, forever linked by their championship matchup years ago, are now on the less familiar end of the competitive spectrum and they need to flip the switch with a huge coaching hire. Both Haden and the departing Dodds know there is too much money and too high of reputations at stake to take this process lightly or causally, especially when these two heavyweights are fighting for the same prize. 

So gentlemen, without further ado, let the race to rebuild begin.

Reach Senior Sports Editor Jeremy Bergman here. Follow him on Twitter.