Posted by: Josh Kendall on November 9, 2012

Lane Kiffin addressed his role in this week's deflated balls controversy at Southern Cal following the Trojans' Thursday practice.

He had none, he said. Southern Cal's compliance department handled the entire situation, Kiffin said, including talking to players and coaches to see if any of them had any knowledge of the situation and firing the student manager who was determined to be singularly responsible.

"For all the conspiracy theorists who will think we were behind this, I don't think if we were trying to deflate balls we would direct a student manager on the Oregon sideline right in front of them to be deflating balls," Kiffin said. "If we knew that, our kickers wouldn't be very happy with that."

The Pac-12 fined the school $25,000 on Thursday for the rules violation. Kiffin acknowledged "it's not a positive" that issues keep popping up in his program. Earlier this season, he drew raised eyebrows when he directed two players to change numbers during a game to get a schematic advantage.

"I was disappointed because it was a distraction," Kiffin said. "It had no effect on the game. If anything it would have a negative effect, for our quarterback to be throwing two different kinds of balls. I don't know why it was done."

Kiffin was asked if he thought there was a cultural problem within the USC football program that made the student manager believe it would be OK to bend a rule.

"That's a fair question, but I don't believe that at all," he said. "I believe this is an isolated incident."

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Josh Kendall is a staff writer for CoachingSearch.com and has covered the SEC for more than 15 years for papers such as the Athens Banner-Herald, Macon Telegraph, and The State. He’s the father of two boys who he’s hoping don’t inherit his wide receiver frame and offensive guard feet. Follow @EyeOnCoaches on twitter and send your feedback to josh@coachingsearch.com