More than one source of college football news, including The New York Times, used the phrase "cleaning house" when discussing the hiring of former Trojans quarterback Pat Haden as new athletic director, which struck me as rather odd. Yes, Mike Garrett is out as AD and I do not think anyone will miss his bluster and they-are-picking-on-poor-USC stance regarding first the investigation into wrongdoing at the athletic department at Southern Cal and then the subsequent penalties. But how is Haden representative of a soon-to-be clean slate when Haden is not only a member of the school's board of trustees, but was considered an insider at Heritage Hall who supposedly had more say in the recent hiring of Lane Kiffin as head coach than Garrett, who had earned figurehead status after the numerous scandals, large and small, that developed under his watch? And even if it is not true that Haden had a role in Kiffin's hiring, how can anyone give the Trojans credit for cleaning house when Kiffin still resides in the coach's office?
Give credit to the school for cleaning house when they, in fact, remove everyone who was part of the establishment there of a climate that fostered, at best, a situation where higher ups looked the other way when cheating occurred.
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