Hollywood soap operas are filmed not too far from the USC campus, but the daytime shows would have a hard time matching all the drama surrounding the school's football program this week.
In the past five days, the school's athletic director was reportedly hospitalized, a senior captain became a national hero after telling a story of saving his 7-year-old nephew from drowning, then was accused of lying about the story before finally admitting he made the story up.
Things took another strange twist on Thursday, as the program announced senior running back Anthony Brown had left the program. The former Trojan posted several disturbing messages on his personal Facebook and Instagram accounts that accused head coach Steve Sarkisian of being a racist.
If anything, the week leading up to the team's 2014 opener has made last year's run of three head coaches in three months look like a relatively calm period for the program.
"Quite honestly I'm shocked," Sarkisian said on Thursday of Brown's accusations. "It's ridiculous. Any of you guys that know me, ask any of our players. That's the furthest thing from the truth.
"I had encouraged him to play. I thought he could play. I didn't want him to quit."
Brown had made six career starts for USC as a cornerback and was expected to compete for the starting job at one of the spots this season. However, he was moved to running back early in fall camp due to depth issues at the position and was slated to be either the third- or fourth-string player in a rotation at the spot.
USC players quickly took to Twitter to dismiss the allegations Brown lobbed on social media.
USC hosts Fresno State on Saturday night, and it should be a highly anticipated opener -- finally, the drama will be on the field instead of off it.
You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.
