Even after the USC football team scraped to a six-loss season in 2012, fell from the number one ranking in college football to unranked and failed to capitalize on the supreme talents of Matt Barkley and Marqise Lee, Pat Haden and the Trojan athletic program stayed faithful to the man originally brought in to surpass the NCAA sanctions and scholarship restrictions he had inherited. The goal was simple: Put USC football back on the dominant pedestal it once sat upon.

Fast forward now to the 2013 season. The Trojan faithful had rallied from that unspeakable 2012 campaign, the Coliseum was manicured and ready for football once again, and most of all, Lane Kiffin had been given another opportunity to show off the potential for dominance from a team many critics wrote off throughout the offseason.

When the AP Preseason Top 25 came out, a No. 24 ranking was perhaps a gift for USC. Although the threat of Lee still existed, little else solidified the Trojans as potential bowl game contenders. The questions surrounding USC football were ever-present: Will Kiffin rebound and produce a team resembling the 2011 team that went 10-2? Who will be the starting quarterback? Can USC contend for a Pac-12 title? Simple questions like these made the rounds daily, and Lane Kiffin was at the center of all the controversy. 

Fast-forward to August 30, 2013, USC Football and Lane Kiffin’s first chance to prove the critics wrong. Once the final whistle had blown, the Trojans had come away with a comfortable, yet unimpressive 30-13 win over Hawaii. The offense was weak, the turnovers were plentiful, and the play-calling was questionable. Postgame, Kiffin himself stated “we didn’t play very well on offense, we played very poorly.” USC flew back to Los Angeles that night with a 1-0 record, what they had come to Hawaii to accomplish.

On September 8, however, the floodgates of hatred opened wider than ever. A 10-7 loss at home to Washington State sent of a shock wave of anti-Kiffin resentment throughout the Trojan family. Every time Kiffin called a bubble screen, an echo of “boos” would reign loud throughout the Coliseum. “Kiff Don’t Kill My Vibe” shirts (a humorous take on the popular Kendrick Lamar song) had become a staple in the stands. Every time a third-down conversion was missed, “Fire Kiffin” chants exploded throughout South Central. Things were not looking good for the embattled head coach. 

A pair of solid wins against Boston College and Utah State rallied fans to believe that perhaps some hope still existed for the 2013 season. 

Then the calendar rolls around to September 28, 2013. The Trojans are in Tempe for a game against an Arizona State team that matched USC’s 0-1 conference record. The stage is set for a heated battle, and for Lane Kiffin to prove himself to the world that he knows what he’s doing behind the helm of Trojan Football. This was a game Kiffin surely wanted, no, needed, to win. By the end of the game, USC was 3-2 and Lane Kiffin’s tenure at USC was all but over. A 62-41 romp of the Trojans was the final straw that broke Pat Haden’s “100% confidence” in Lane Kiffin. “It’s a hard day for all of us inside USC Athletics” stated Haden in a press conference Sunday afternoon, “I fully supported Lane 100%, until last night.”

The ties were cut between Kiffin and USC early Sunday morning at LAX once the team had returned to California. Ed Orgeron will be the interim head coach, Clay Helton will call the offensive plays, and Kiffin will be looking for a new job. “Our history has been great,” said Haden, “and we need to be great again.”

The future of USC football is as questionable as ever. Maybe Orgeron can lead the team back to greatness and salvage the season. Maybe Helton can revamp the struggling Trojan offense. However, one thing in South Central L.A. will undoubtedly change: “Fire Kiffin” chants throughout the Coliseum will be packed away, and most likely replaced with the name of the next coach ready to take control of USC football. 

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