The USC Trojans came away with a big win over the Stanford Cardinal Saturday, but their head football coach and athletic director are coming away with fines.
In a press release Monday, the Pac-12 announced USC's head football coach Steve Sarkisian and athletic director Pat Haden were fined $25,000. Sarkisian and Haden were punished for "inappropriate sideline conduct."
"The conduct by both Sarkisian and Haden were in clear violation of our Conference's Standards of Conduct policy," Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said in the release. "We appreciate the public apology and recognition of the errors in judgment, as well as Pat Haden's self-imposed 2-game sideline ban. We took this into consideration as we determined the discipline. Nonetheless, the actions fell short of our expectation of our head coaches and athletics directors as role models for our student-athletes and important leaders of our institutions."
According to ESPN, the Trojans had surrendered 35 yards due to penalties on three straight plays. Sarkisian was called for unsportsmanlike conduct and linebacker Hayes Pullard was flagged for targeting the ball carrier's helmet.
Sarkisian then contacted Haden, who was in the press box at the time and then came down to the field, a decision the coach now regrets. After Haden had reached the sideline he confronted the referees.
"It was just a spur-of-the-moment, gut feeling," Sarkisian said in a statement obtained by ESPN. "Quite honestly, looking back at it now, I regret putting Pat in that situation.
"Pat's job is not to manage the game and manage the officials. That's my job to do."
It would not be strange for Haden to be among the team on the sidelines, but he said he wished he had not started arguing with the officials. Haden said he will stay away from the USC sideline for at least the next two weeks.
"In retrospect, I should not have approached the game officials," Haden said in a statement. "I should have waited until after the game and gone through the appropriate channels."
USC ended up beating their Pac-12 rival 13-10 thanks to a 53-yard field goal with minutes left to play.