It's been quite the first season for USC head coach Steve Sarkisian, who just wrapped up his initial regular season campaign with a 49-14 win over Notre Dame Saturday at the Coliseum. The Trojans are 8-4 as they await their bowl fate.
As the Trojans make their way into bowl preparations, Sarkisian is still putting his footprint on the program.
"It takes 12 months," he said.
The head coach has the thought that his team will be a tough, hard-nosed, football team.
They didn't appear that way in a loss at the Rose Bowl a week ago and Sarkisian admitted to coaching with a "chip" on his shoulder in the days following as the team prepared for Notre Dame.
On Saturday, they had the look of a physical team, especially on the defensive end, playing aggressive and getting after the quarterback eventually forcing Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly to make a change at the position.
The "chip," Sarkisian says is not going away.
"It takes time to put your footprint on a program, and what you want to be and what you want to become," Sarkisian said, "and we're going to be a hard-nosed, tough-a** football team and I'm not going to waver off of that and we're going to continue to focus on that and if that means I have to coach that way every single day then that's what it means but we're not going to back down from that."
Sarkisian is scheduled to speak in front of a room full of high school football coaches and players Monday afternoon in Long Beach. The USC head coach will be the guest speaker at the CIF Southern Section annual championship luncheon.
Ironically enough, former USC interim head coach Ed Orgeron was scheduled to be the guest speaker at the luncheon at this time last year. That was until Orgeron backed out at the last minute after being made aware that he would not be the Trojans' next coach, in favor of Sark.
It's been 12 months and Sarkisian is still hard at work on his "footprint."
