When chronicling the reasons why this would be the perfect time for Pat Haden to walk away, it's important to remember when he first showed up.
On June 10, 2010, the USC football program was leveled by the NCAA in a disciplinary storm that placed the Trojans on four years' probation and left the team in tatters.
Less than six weeks later, Haden was hired as athletic director.
This wasn't the middle of the mess, it was the beginning. He didn't walk into the rehabbing sounds of bulldozers and saws, he walked into the silence of scattered rubble and uprooted trees.