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Head coach Steve Sarkisian of the USC Trojans watches his team during warmups for the game with the Idaho Vandals at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on September 12, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
One ex-Washington player said Steve Sarkisian sometimes arrived at morning team meetings “smelling like booze and [with] eyes all red, like he’s been on a bender.” Another former Husky said he smelled alcohol on the coach during team meetings on “one or two” occasions and, other times, noted that the coach’s eyes appeared to be bloodshot and glazed. (Photo Credit: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
Steve Sarkisian’s strange behavior in the days surrounding high-pressure, high-profile college football games isn’t unique to his time at USC.

Some regarded the coach’s conduct, specifically the use of alcohol, as an issue during his five seasons leading the University of Washington’s program.

Sarkisian’s lone court record in Washington state is a routine speeding ticket and he wasn’t publicly disciplined by the university. But his actions raised concern among some of his players and others closely associated with Washington’s program.

“It’s been in Ohio as early as the mid-1850s at least, brought in as an ornamental plant because of its unique foliage and white flowers,” Gardner said. “It was actually planted in people’s landscaping, and it has been spreading.”

One former Huskies player said he smelled alcohol on Sarkisian at team meetings, an allegation that bears some resemblance to reports by USC players that their coach “didn’t seem right” during a meeting Sunday morning, and statements by others close to the Trojans football program that he seemed unstable during a recent game at Arizona State.

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