USC Morning Buzz: Clay Helton Needs A Crisp Performance

HELTON.ALABAMAIt’s time for the weekly notes column, where I mention that win or lose, Clay Helton needs USC to look organized under the watchful eye of new athletic director Lynn Swann.

Excerpt: You cannot keep your job with eight players on the field for an extra point. Or by forgetting to cover Christian McCaffrey. Or committing six false starts.

There needs to be a mindset change. That puts a lot of pressure on freshman quarterback Sam Darnold because he seems the only available savior. Full column here

41 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Clay Helton Needs A Crisp Performance

  1. Another desperate hire proving Pat Haden et. al assumed running an athletic dept. was as difficult as doing color analysis for NBC or 30 second ‘bumpers’ extolling an ‘athlete of the week’.

    There sure are a lot of quality high=-end head coaching material out there – if you get tabbed to be such at USC why it matters not who you are. I (Capper) have a ‘hunch’ in these matters and JK, my $800K a year enabler, always sees what I see.

    We have another 10 more weeks of this mess and another 2 years before even a modicum of change.

  2. Utah coach , Kyle Whittingham is a smart guy with a physical team, Clay Helton is not. USC’S roster are full of 3 and 4 star athletes while the Utes have a JC quarterback ,from Santa Monica college, and a bunch of over achieving, players. Can Whittingham get revenge from last season’s 42-24 loss ?

  3. It will be interesting to see if Hellton can get this dumpster fire of a team under control. The worst unit on this team is the O line. Any chance of a run block this game?

    • Very disappointing that this veteran O Line plays so sloppy. I thought last years O line coach was supposed to be so horrible. What’s the new guy doing? And for that matter, what is Baxter doing?

  4. USC has lost its mojo, its aura. The Trojans are simply not a dominant football organization at this time. Crisp games with fewer penalties would certainly be an improvement but isn’t going to make the Trojans into the teams we USC fans expect to see take the field.

    For that to happen, you need a dominant, amazing coach who has something special most don’t have. There’s never a lot of those guys out there and the colleges that have them, like ‘Bama, Michigan, Ohio State and Louisville know what they’ve got. Houston just might be in that group too. Herman’s just getting started, so we shall see.

    Gomer’s a nice guy who might even be a good coach someday. But’s he’s not now, nor will he ever be, one of those special guys like Carroll, McKay or Robinson. That much is clearly evident. With Gomer, USC can improve a lot just by virtue of tradition and access to massive talent. But his ceiling is low unless 10-win seasons is always your high water mark even in good times.

    USC has passed several times recently on hooking the big fish. Shot ourselves in the foot I’m afraid by hiring Haden. Hopefully, we’ll finally get it right again when Gomer runs his course at USC. The guy’s not a dominant man nor a dominant coach and is already being coached up by Swann, by necessity.

    Good luck to Gomer. He’s gonna need it with the way he approaches the game, his players and USC’s expectations.

  5. Clay Helton is trying to salvage his coaching reputation so when he is released as the USC HC, he can find another job, probably in the MWC or some other mid-level program.

  6. Gross exaggeration, SW. “Darnold, seems to be the only available savior”. is not at all true, The Twenty Two Trojans on the field during the game must all perform wisely and in unity. Darnold is still your Fantasy, your Dream Whip. .

  7. The sadness lie’s in these kids lives none of them signed up to USC to experience such distinction & dysfunction trust me this is the same Stark culture there’s not much change they treat these kids like crap come in there homes & with all their false promises and lies Tee Martin &Nansen are the worst like to see how the OC will look if he’s booted back to side line when it happens if I was Max Brown I’d say how does it feel being demoted not given a fare shot Nasen is no better at LB coach just an Assistant to the Assistant to the damn Assistant they both lucked up last year a lost too Utah there gone

  8. Known Troyy since freshman year nice kid great player!!!! Wish him best of luck he earned it but hpoe we win ? SC don’t sleep on this kid*

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