USC fires Lane Kiffin, Bloomington Jefferson grad, early Sunday

Southern California fired Lane Kiffin early Sunday morning, ending the coach's tumultuous tenure a few hours after the Trojans lost 62-41 at Arizona State.

USC posted a short news release on its sports website saying athletic director Pat Haden informed Kiffin of the decision "upon the team charter's arrival back in Los Angeles" after the ugly defeat. The Trojans (3-2, 0-2 Pac-12) matched the most points allowed in school history in their seventh loss in 11 games.

USC spokesman Tim Tessalone declined to confirm ESPN's report that Ed Orgeron, Kiffin's assistant head coach and the former Mississippi head coach, would take over in an interim role. Orgeron didn't return a message from the AP.

Kiffin addressed his eroding job security after Saturday's loss.

"I'm fine with that," he said. "I have been dealing with that for 12 months. That's fine. That's the last thing I'm worried about. We have to find a way to coach better and play better and get our backups ready."

Instead, USC must finish an already disappointing season without Kiffin while looking for another coach to reboot its proud program. The Trojans have a bye this week before returning Oct. 10 at the Coliseum against Arizona.

Kiffin went 28-15 in parts of four seasons in his self-described dream job, but USC is 0-2 in conference play for the first time since 2001 after losses to Arizona State and Washington State.

Haden will hold a news conference later Sunday. The firing comes less than five months after Haden said Kiffin had "been as good as he can be" in the face of USC's sanctions. Before this season began, Haden said he was "100 percent" behind the embattled Kiffin.

But like the precocious coach's other two head coaching jobs, his USC tenure had a quick, messy exit.

Kiffin, the Trojans' former co-offensive coordinator, was an NFL head coach at age 31, a head coach in the Southeastern Conference at 33 and USC's head coach at 34. If there was a consistent trend to those stops with the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee and the Trojans, it was turmoil.

With Oakland, he lasted only 20 games as an overmatched head coach before his departure became a messy public feud with Al Davis, the late Raiders owner. His arrival in Tennessee was not warmly received by all Volunteers fans, given the loyalties many had to the former coach there, Phillip Fulmer — and then he infuriated them when he left after just 14 months to head back to the Trojans.

Former USC athletic director Mike Garrett hired Kiffin away from Tennessee to replace Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, the architect of USC's dynasty over the previous decade. Kiffin was an assistant under Carroll, eventually running the Trojans' offense before Davis chose him to lead the Raiders.

Kiffin, 38, is a 1994 graduate of Bloomington Jefferson High School, where he played three sports and was an honorable mention selection at quarterback. His father, Monte, was an assistant coach with the Vikings, and later served as a college assistant under his son.

Just a few months after Kiffin took over, USC was hit with the heaviest sanctions leveled against a program in a quarter-century, including a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years. Kiffin had nothing to do with the misdeeds committed under Carroll and Garrett, who was swiftly dismissed and replaced by Haden, but was forced to recruit and coach despite the Trojans' loss of scholarship players.

Kiffin still faced enormous expectations at USC — especially last season, when the Trojans started out ranked No. 1 in the country with quarterback Matt Barkley and star receivers Robert Woods and Marqise Lee.

USC wound up falling out of the top 10 by mid-September, and out of the poll entirely by November — ending the season as the first team in nearly a half-century to open No. 1 and finish unranked. USC lost five of its last six games, including the Sun Bowl, and Kiffin parted ways with his father, defensive guru Monte Kiffin.

The scholarship restrictions gradually eroded the Trojans' depth, and last season's struggles clearly hurt the vaunted recruiting power of Kiffin and Orgeron. Between the sanctions and injuries, the Trojans played at Arizona State on Saturday night with 56 recruited scholarship players, well below its limit of 75 and the standard 85.

Last year, USC was reprimanded by the Pac-12 for underinflating footballs before a loss to Oregon. Kiffin also was criticized for switching jersey numbers on players in an attempt to deceive the Trojans' opponents.

Kiffin even closed USC's practices to the public after years of transparency under Carroll, who embraced USC's tradition of raucous open workouts. The Trojans cited NCAA compliance as the reason for the decision, but it didn't sit well with fans and alumni.

This season, Kiffin also closed his practices to the media. He dithered on his choice of a starting quarterback, waiting until the third game of the season to select Cody Kessler over Max Wittek.

The offense has been largely terrible this season, but Kiffin was finally undone by another dreadful game by his defense, which had been solid under new coordinator Clancy Pendergast until Arizona State piled up 612 yards.

USC's next game is in 11 days, giving the Trojans a bye week to regroup and heal. USC hasn't announced the severity of a left knee injury for Lee, the Biletnikoff Award winner last year. He is expected to have his knee evaluated later Sunday in Los Angeles.

Hours later, Lee's health became just one of the huge problems facing USC's proud, storied program.