President Nikias shows support for Athletic Director Pat Haden
A day after the firing of coach Steve Sarkisian, President C. L. Max Nikias demonstrated his support for Athletic Director Pat Haden in a statement issued early Monday morning.
“As president of USC I am very, very fortunate to have Pat Haden as our Athletic Director — as is the entire Trojan Family,” Nikias said. “He is a man of true character and integrity, he cares deeply for our student athletes, and he always makes their well-being his highest priority.”
Haden had received criticism for the way he handled the Sarkisian situation, dating back to when he didn’t discipline the coach for his inappropriate behavior at the annual Salute to Troy event.
The 62-year-old Haden, who took over as athletic director in 2010, named offensive coordinator Clay Helton interim head coach after asking Sarkisian to take a leave of absence on Sunday.
“Pat Haden has been doing an outstanding job in leading Trojan Athletics in the past five years and I want to take this opportunity to reiterate my unwavering support for him,” Nikias said. “I look forward to working with Pat Haden as our USC AD for many years to come.”
Based on Nikias’s sentiments, it seems Haden’s job is secure for the time being.
On Tuesday, the Trojans got back on the practice field for the first time since Sarkisian was fired.
This is sad to hear. Because the lack of leadership and having an understanding of leadership, starts at the top. Unfortunately as this trickles down one can observe, what has Pat Haden done so “outstanding”…”in the past five years”, as described my President C. L. Max Nikias? Perhaps he has a different version on the definition of the term “outstanding” than I do. Just think in the past past five years USC has lost to UCLA every year, USC has an extremely high Head Coach turn over rate…..should I continue. So overall the leadership of the head coach seems to not be there. This puts USC at risk of loosing recruits, making the donors reconsider, etc. Perhaps the leaderships needs to also change not only at the mid management level of Athletic Director but consider impeachment and bring in new leadership. I am not suggesting that President C. L. Max Nikias has done a poor job in other areas leading the University because he has. However with reference to the USC Football Program and it’s leadership, it just seems the inevitable will continue and will occur in the near future unless major changes are taken.
In addition check the DT vote on whether USC should ask Pat Haden to step down. Currently the “yes” votes are over 60% The USC President should see this.