Sarkisian addresses USC vacancy, says he’s ‘proud’ to be at Washington

One day after Lane Kiffin was terminated by USC, the subject of who his possible replacement would be zeroed in briefly on Washington coach Steve Sarkisian (among a few other names).

Sarkisian denied interest in the USC vacancy at his weekly press conference on Monday, adding that he was proud to be with the Huskies.

“I have great respect for USC and the rich history and tradition they have. But I’m proud to be the head coach of the 15th-ranked team in America right now and all the hard work we’ve put into this program the last five years to get to this point to be in an awesome matchup on national television this Saturday night against a national championship contender in Stanford,” Sarkisian said. “That’s where my focus is.”

The speculation about Sarkisian comes because he was an assistant at USC under Pete Carroll for several years before taking the Washington job.

The chances of Sarkisian being offered the job are remote, since USC is unlikely to hire yet another Carroll protege so soon after firing the last one. However, since the media needs to fill space, look for Sarkisian’s name to come up quite a bit in the next month or two as a possible replacement for Kiffin.

More likely than not, USC will go for a proven and successful college head coach without ties to the school.