Steve Sarkisian ‘honored and humbled’ to be USC football coach

Steve Sarkisian said Tuesday that he was “honored and humbled” to be the new head football coach at USC.

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world,” Sarkisian told a crowd of nearly 100 members of the media, family members and others at the McKay Center on the USC campus.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said. “I can’t tell you the feeling I have.”

Sarkisian, 39, replaced popular interim coach Ed Orgeron, who led the Trojans to a 6-2 record after taking over for Lane Kiffin earlier this season. Orgeron left to find a head-coaching job elsewhere.

A former USC assistant football coach who has been head coach at Washington for the last five seasons, Sarkisian said “we will not shy away from the expectations” at USC.

“I came here to win championships,” he said. “We are not rebuilding at the University of Southern California. We can win right now.

“USC is about being the best,” Sarkisian said. “We have the resources, we have the people in place to make that happen.”

Sarkisian also paid tribute to Orgeron, saying “we all owe Coach O a great deal of gratitude.”

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