USC recently changed its policy this fall, prohibiting parents of the players from attending practices that aren't open to the public. Parents were notified in mid-August. Steve Sarkisian was asked about the change Wednesday and said the following:
"I just felt like it was the best interest for our football team. I want to give our players the best chance to come out here every day, perform really well and not worry about any outside distractions, be able to come over to you guys and express themselves in a positive light. And when it's done, if they want to go have breakfast or lunch with their families, that's great. But I just felt like in the best interest of our team, it was the right thing to do. Time will tell, we'll see what happens."
Sarkisian was then asked if there were distractions in years past.
"No," he said. "At the end of every year, you look at yourself, you look at your program, you look at everything you do and you say, how can we improve? Whether it's the schemes we run on offense, defense or special teams, whether it's the style in which we play, whatever that may be. And I feel like that was one aspect where I felt like we could improve. We could give our players a better chance to come out here focused on what they need to do to get themselves prepared to play for Saturdays. So that's why we did what we did."
"I just felt like it was the best interest for our football team. I want to give our players the best chance to come out here every day, perform really well and not worry about any outside distractions, be able to come over to you guys and express themselves in a positive light. And when it's done, if they want to go have breakfast or lunch with their families, that's great. But I just felt like in the best interest of our team, it was the right thing to do. Time will tell, we'll see what happens."
Sarkisian was then asked if there were distractions in years past.
"No," he said. "At the end of every year, you look at yourself, you look at your program, you look at everything you do and you say, how can we improve? Whether it's the schemes we run on offense, defense or special teams, whether it's the style in which we play, whatever that may be. And I feel like that was one aspect where I felt like we could improve. We could give our players a better chance to come out here focused on what they need to do to get themselves prepared to play for Saturdays. So that's why we did what we did."
