Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Perhaps owing to Trojan mythology, few in college football can manage a good bloodletting the way the University of Southern California can.
One coach, Lane Kiffin, was pulled off the team bus and fired in an airport parking lot. Another, Steve Sarkisian, went straight from getting axed to a rehab center. And John Robinson, in what seems quaint now, returned home from Christmas shopping to find a message on his answering machine informing him that he was no longer the team’s coach.
As the Trojans opened their season on Saturday night, it was with a distinct feeling that Clay Helton, their latest beleaguered coach, was operating above a trap door.