Plastchke sucks big donkey balls and has no idea what he's talking about.

But we'll all have to wait and see what happens come next Tuesday when Haden officially takes the reins.

If Haden's story is consistent with my hypothesis, and Kiffin's story is that Haden explicitly directed Kiffin to go behind Fisher's back, it's pretty obvious whose story will be believed.

This should be the point where a good reputation for honesty helps Haden, and a bad one is lethal for Kiffin.

- No text -

or so I heard on ESPN radio earlier.

...I'm the guy who has been defending Haden for years on ND boards as both an announcer and a person. He goes to our parish and has done untold numbers of good things for family members and friends alike. I hope that it went down the way you hypothesized, but I'm losing faith.

And it's just a theory: Haden told Kiffin Pola would be a good OC candidate, but wrongly assumed Kiffin would go through the proper channels, or negligently failed to ensure Kiffin would do so. Hypothetical conversation:

KIFFIN: "Pat, great news! We hired Pola!"

HADEN: "Yeah, Lane, I know. I've read all about how you've pissed off Jeff Fisher. What the f**k?"

KIFFIN: "I thought you told me to hire Pola?"

HADEN: "Yeah, but not that way, you f**king imbecile!"

Of course, it's just a thought. Greg, you could be entirely right. I haven't forgotten that Haden was at USC when Marv Goux was in the midst of funneling ticket profits to Haden's teammates (and theoretically Haden himself).

So said Kiffin @ the PacWhatever media day today.

..."Pola has become the offensive coordinator at the unofficial request of new Athletic Director Pat Haden."

If this is correct (it is unattributed and there is no quote from Haden in the story), then I have been wrong about Haden these past 10 years. He's a dipwad for stealing from his fellow Trojan football alum, and this is going to ultimately blow up on him. On the other hand, I wouldn't expect SC to be down too long if this is the kind of attitude Haden is bringing to the SC table.