Time to salute Pat Haden

USC athletic director Pat Haden has made a lot of momentous decisions since taking over for his predecessor Mike Garret in 2010.

In just about four and half years, Haden has hired and fired a bundle of coaches, a combined seven different head coaches at the helm of USC’s football and basketball programs. Haden has also been forced to make head coaching transitions after he deposed of former baseball coach Frank Cruz and received the resignation from former women’s basketball head coach Michael Cooper in 2013.

During his tenure thus far, Haden has evidently stayed close to home with the majority of his coaching hires, electing to go with local product Steve Sarkisian to replace the detested Lane Kiffin, a Women of Troy legend in Cynthia Cooper-Dyke to take the reins of the women’s basketball program and finally Dan Hubbs, a three-year letterman for the USC baseball team in the early 1990s, to lead a program which is now off to its best start since 1988.

There’s no doubt that these coaching decisions have paid dividends, including a Holiday Bowl victory, a nationally ranked No. 1 recruiting class and the Women of Troy’s first ever Pac-12 championship.

The only hire that hasn’t really panned out the way Haden would have liked yet is that of Andy Enfield, whose team has greatly struggled, especially in Pac-12 play, during his two seasons at the helm.

Amidst all the talk surrounding these coaches, NCAA sanctions and College Football Playoff drama, there’s no doubt that Haden has been through a lot in just under half of a decade at USC. Remember that Haden received a lot of backlash and was later reprimanded by the Pac-12 for the “inappropriate sideline conduct” he exercised toward game officials in the Trojans’ 13-10 victory over Stanford in September.

This type of criticism is to be expected when your job is to run a program as polarizing as USC’s in addition to attempting to remain impartial on a 13-person selection committee that ultimately determines the fate of college football’s finest.

Fortunately, the Trojans are in the good hands of one of the most intelligent athletic directors in the country, with Haden as a former two-time academic All-American and Rhodes Scholar.

Athletic directors and their legacies are commonly defined by the splashes they make when bringing in and tossing out coaches of their respective athletic programs — and their wins and losses are only subjected to further evaluation and scrutiny in major sports like football and basketball, rather than the number of conference and national titles non-revenue teams have collected.

Haden has made the valiant effort to turn around that culture at USC.

I don’t believe that Haden has received enough credit for what he has done to expand the athletic landscape at USC. He has taken the program from 19 to 21 intercollegiate sports and celebrated the school’s 125 years of athletic tradition during the 2013-2014 season.

In just the past three years, Haden has established two new varsity sports that were once unfamiliar to USC — sand volleyball and women’s lacrosse, a sport that had been foreign to the West Coast until recent years.

Seemingly, Haden has made a tremendous effort to turn some of the attention and awareness to sports that don’t receive as much recognition or support as football or basketball.

He can only try so hard, though, as that goal hasn’t necessarily come to fruition quite yet.

Haden has been under a lot of pressure to take the athletic program through some of its darkest years, and he has, indeed, succeeded in lifting the dark cloud that had surrounded USC for some time.

As with any type of prominent leader, it’s tough to maintain the status quo and keep your organization out of trouble when it is already in hot water while simultaneously attempting to advance it in so many different ways.

It’s truly a continuous juggling act that only someone with Haden’s capabilities could accomplish.

He rescued USC at a time when his alma mater needed him most. and by doing so, he has lifted the athletic program from the depths of NCAA sanctions and controversy.

Haden, a former lawyer, has not only kept the USC athletic program compliant and out of trouble with the NCAA for the most part, but he has also made the university more “sexy” by dropping in new athletic facilities left and right, in addition to renovating a few others.

For example, the John McKay Center, a $70 million, 110,000 square-foot facility created just for USC athletics opened up in the summer of 2012 on Haden’s watch, and it is not only one of the most revered facilities in the nation, but also a large contributor to the allure for recruits interested in USC.

Not to forget, Merle Norman Stadium, the home of USC women’s sand volleyball; the renovations of Heritage Hall and finally, the Uytengsu Aquatics Center are all venues that Haden has opened as athletic director.

After having a very successful career in the private equity industry, Haden gave up a lot to step into his role today for his alma mater including businesses that had net profits around $100 million.

Reportedly, he had even turned down the job several times before finally accepting just under five years ago——- — and USC fans should be very glad that he did.

Mr. Haden, if you’re reading this, I would just like you to know that I, along with other members of the Trojan faithful, are really proud of what you’ve done for USC during your tenure thus far and we’re looking forward to seeing all of the other magnificent things you’re able accomplish at the helm of this historic athletic program in the years to come.

Darian Nourian is a junior majoring in print and digital journalism. He is also the sports editor of the Daily Trojan. His column, “Persian Persuasion,” runs Thursdays.