USC football: Lane Kiffin still mum on why he chose Kessler as QB

USC Coach Lane Kiffin remained mum Tuesday about why he chose Cody Kessler over Max Wittek as the starting quarterback.

On Sunday, a day after the coach was booed at the Coliseum for his play-calling, Kiffin had told reporters he was in the final stages of deciding between Kessler and Wittek and would provide the reasoning for his decision Monday after he informed the players.

But on Monday, after announcing via Twitter that his starter would be Kessler, Kiffin declined to provide any details in a school-produced video, “for protection of the guys.”

“I’m not going to get into … ‘This guy did this, this guy didn’t do that,’ ” he said.

On Tuesday, during the weekly Pac-12 Conference coaches teleconference, Kiffin again declined to say what separated the two.

“I just made a decision that, really, there’s so much negativity around them already outside of this building, to start pointing out what this guy didn’t do or why this guy got the job, I just don’t think this is the right thing to do for those kids who are going through a lot,” Kiffin said. “So we’ve got to support ‘em, we’ve got to coach better, play better around them and get a win this week.”

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