Lane Kiffin Canned As USC Head Coach--UPDATED WITH DETAILS

USC athletic director Pat Haden has seen enough of Lane Kiffin as the head coach of the Trojans.

USC athletics sent out this tweet:

Breaking news: Lane Kiffin has been relieved of his duties as USC's head football coach per AD Pat Haden.
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) September 29, 2013

 Haden broke the news to Kiffin when the charter arrived back to Los Angeles after USC was pummeled by Arizona State 62-41. The Trojans are 3-2 this season.

Kiffin's overall record in 4 seasons was 28-15. He got a lot of flack at the end of the 2012 season when he essentially fired his father, defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin.

((Update--Per @InsideUSC, writer Scott Wolf of the Los Angeles Daily News, it appears the firing happened when the team plane landed early Sunday morning at LAX. He was pulled off the team bus and notified--

Pat Haden, J.K. McKay, Steve Lopes, Mark Jackson (#USC administrators) met with Lane Kiffin at LAX parking lot to dismiss him
— InsideUSC (@InsideUSC) September 29, 2013

USC announced that athletic director Pat Haden will hold a Sunday afternoon press conference where it's expected he'll announce an interim coach and the school's plans moving forward.

((UPDATE 11:45am---ESPN reports former Ole Miss coach and current USC assistant Ed Orgeron will take over the team for the rest of the 2013 season))

Haden had supported Kiffin the past few weeks when others were calling for his head.  While Southern California was off to a 3-1 start heading into Saturday nights game against Arizona State those wins were very uninspiring.

Losing to Washington State in the L.A. Coliseum 10-7 in the second week of the season was inexcusable to Trojan fans.  Barely defeating Utah State 17-14 at home drove those fans crazy.

Haden stuck with Kiffin.

Then Saturday night during USC's first road game in hostile territory the Trojans rolled over and died.



USC's defense, which was one of the nations best, gave up 612 yards of total offense to Arizona State.  To add insult to injury the Sun Devils put up 62 points on the Trojans.

At times the Trojans looked uninterested and showed no enthusiasm.  Lane Kiffin looked like he was staring into space, almost totally lost.

Haden had seen enough.  The USC brand is way too important to college football.  It's the gold standard on the west coast.

God forbid that school in the powder blue, UCLA, should over take USC in L.A.

The move was made.  Lane Kiffin is unemployed before the season ended.

Now the question is what kind of rebuilding job is at stake for USC to maintain their brand in college football and out west.

Some heavy lifting is needed.