Per ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, Ed Orgeron was “outraged” he was passed over for Steve Sarkisian for USC’s head coaching gig and resigned on Monday.
McMurphy also reported Orgeron turned down a raise to stay at USC and become a part of Sarkisian’s staff. Offensive coordinator Clay Helton will coach USC’s bowl game.
It sounds like an ugly split, and one that was probably waiting to happen. Orgeron went 6-2 as USC’s interim coach after Lane Kiffin was fired in September, vaulting the Trojans back into the top 25 until Saturday’s loss to UCLA. He beat a top-five Stanford team and also topped bowl-eligible teams in Arizona and Oregon State.
Still, Orgeron lost to Notre Dame and UCLA, and it’s far from a guarantee he could’ve sustained the success he had in Los Angeles. One would figure Orgeron will find work pretty quickly though, if not as a head coach as a well-paid coordinator somewhere.
