In sports, coaches always make mistakes. There is a long list of coaches from college football teams that have made bad choices while training their athletes. There is now one more name to add to that list: the University of Southern California (USC) coach Steve Sarkisian.

When Sarkisian was hired as the head coach, he already was extremely familiar with USC, as he attended the school as a student athlete in the early 1990s. He then became the assistant football coach, the quarterback coach, and eventually the offensive coordinator for USC. Sarkisian later continued his coaching career at the University of Washington for five years until he was hired as the head coach for USC in 2013. Having a record of 43-33 in his college football career, and 9-4 in his inaugural season at USC in 2014, Sarkisian led the Trojans into the new season with the intention of continuing this impressive streak but not without stirring up a little trouble first.

In August, Sarkisian gave a speech at the USC football kick-off event. It would have been a motivational speech if Sarkisian had not been intoxicated during it. Sarkisian was said to be slurring his words, using explicit language while he spoke, and saying derogatory phrases to the other opponents due to the fact that he had accidentally mixed medicine with alcohol. When asked if he had a drinking problem, Sarkisian responded that he did not believe so but was going to receive treatment to find out.

The news of his drinking problem caused an uproar on social media, and Trojan fans were embarrassed of the fact that not only did Sarkisian make himself look bad but the program as well. When Sarkisian was first hired for the position, Pat Haden, the athletic director at USC, was delighted to welcome Sarkisian and thought he was the right coach for the team. However, although Haden is not thrilled with what happened, he has decided not to suspend Sarkisian for his actions. Knowing that many would disagree with his decision, Haden still stands firmly with his decision of letting Sarkisian stay because he believes that it is in the best interest for the football program and their players.

As USC fans, students, players, and Sarkisian try to move past this, there are still many who will not let this matter slide. The multiple opponents of USC still have something to say about the incident, especially USC’s rivals.

“Coaches are supposed to be inspirational, kind, but tough as well. Although coaches can make mistakes, giving a speech while drunk is unacceptable. Being drunk not only brings possible health problems, but it also affects your mind and can make you say and do stuff [you would] never do when you are sober. Sarkisian should not be coaching football and is an embarrassment to USC,” sophomore Caden Merrill a UCLA fan said.

As for the USC fans who support Sarkisian, their view is different on the situation. Being ashamed is one thing but being loyal and having faith is another.

“What Sarkisian did was completely humiliating. It really made us Trojans look unprofessional and disorganized, plus now all of the other opponents must think that USC is a joke. USC is really going to have to work hard this season to prove that they still can play good football and hopefully the mistake that Sarkisian made will somehow influence the players to work harder to move on from the incident. I believe that they can do it,” freshman Ben Liera, a USC fan, said.

Even though the offseason for Sarkisian was rough, he is trying to move forward with the season. Needing to recover from this bump in his career and ensuring that this will never happen again, Sarkisian and USC will have to work extremely hard to put this mishap behind them and fight on.