USC Turns Page on Garrett Era with Haden

The move, inevitable. With a new president Max Nikias coming into the fold at USC, one of the more pressing issues was finding a successor to AD Mike Garrett...by any means necessary.

After an extensive NCAA investigation uncovered major violations within the USC football, men's basketball and women's tennis programs, USC will made the long overdue move to replace Garrett and will replace him with another former Trojan, Pat Haden. USC has also made strides to further distance itself from the fiasco by removing any and all references to those student-athletes responsible for the sanctions. USC will even return Reggie Bush's Heisman to the Heisman Trust.

All of the "players" in the scandal are gone. Bush, O.J. Mayo, Tim Floyd, Pete Carroll are just a few that have since departed. Other lesser known names have followed. The last to "fall" was Garrett. He's not leaving the program as much as it looks like he's being forced out.

And what strikes me funny is that to this second Garrett barely even acknowledged the findings and sanctions. Oh, we heard that USC would appeal the sanctions levied against his beloved football program, but the only other peep he voiced was to a gathering of boosters. He stated that those that levied these penalties were jealous because "they wish they were all Trojans".

Defiant? Not a strong enough word here. Arrogant is more like it. Garrett snubbed his nose at the NCAA. How dare you penalize my sacred program? That was not the attitude USC needed then, or now. After all, the cash cow known as the football program has been placed in deep waters due, in part, to his office's inept handling of the situation. One football player. One men's hoops star. One women's tennis player. And then, the AD's office is the common link.

Garrett will receive a retirement package from the university. "Retirement" sounds better than "being replaced" or "terminated" or "released" or "fired". Let him have some dignity...

But now, the house has been cleaned, a new era of USC athletics will be born under Haden. And does this guy have intangibles.

In his days at USC, Haden personified a term that's so misused today, "student-athlete". He's a Rhodes Scholar and a two-time National Championship QB. Haden bring an air of respectability and class with him. Haden also serves on USC's Board of Trustees and has held that position for 19 years. He knows the way it should be and the way it will be under his watchful eye.

"We want to compete ferociously and win in every sport, but we want to do it ethically and within the rules. We're going to have a culture of compliance around here. Every meeting is going to start with the No. 1 item as compliance. ... We're going to try to be perfect. When we make mistakes, we're going to fess up, and we're going to try to do better next time."

Ethically and within the rules. Something that is lost far too often in college athletics as a whole these days. The whole "if you're not cheating, you're not trying" thing has sailed. Compliance. Another lost trait.

As you can gather, Haden is also media savvy, a glaring weakness of Garrett's. His days as the color commentator on Notre Dame football telecasts over the past decade are done. He's got a bigger job at hand and he realizes that.

"We're going to do better. We have to do better. We don't have any choices here. We stub our toe, there's going to be some problems."

A higher ground will be in order now. By bringing Haden back to USC full-time, the shame that has been brought on the athletic department can now attempt to restore the shine it once held.