Can You Guess Where Clay Helton Ranks On This List?

CBS Sports is ranking all first-year coaches after one month. And No. 1 is Mark Richt at Miami. Another guy USC would never consider, Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente, is No. 3. Where does Clay Helton? No. 29. How many coaches are there? 29.

34 thoughts on “Can You Guess Where Clay Helton Ranks On This List?

  1. I say be patient, let USC get some sort of stability and perhaps then a quality coach will be interested. Right now who would want the mess that is USC football given to us by Nikias/Haden.

    • Steve in my opinion we are way past the point of patience. It’s time to get it right. Hire a proven coach and be done with it. End of the disaster. 5 Losses to 5 ranked teams in 5 games is what you have here and that’s where the line stops. Wipe the slate completely clean. No ties to Kiffin, Sark, Helton and Carroll. A new culture is needed and that means a proven man.

      • What about the inhouse mantra of someone that “Knows USC”. I still do not think anything will happen in 2016. I think I am taking this position because I am so tired of reading what everyone thinks about the next HC. So I decided to mix things up a bit. Logically.

    • USC shouldn’t make its move until the guy we want is in the bag. But we shouldn’t be waiting around in the meantime. We’re already going down hill. When Mr. Big finally says okay, now or later, we cut the deal and move Gomer aside. Unless you like extended periods of mediocrity. Forget patience. I’ve seen enough.

      • Helton will be done should ASU beat them. Chants for change in the Coliseum will be loud on saturday!

      • Jack, in case you haven’t noticed, we have been in mediocrity since PC left which was 10 years ago. If you want it, and want it now, take a look at you have and have had. I prefer to get the program stable where a winner type of coach would want the job. Just my humble opinion, because i really see nothing going to change this season.

        • USC has hired unqualified coaches because of sanctions, Garrett and Haden. Those elements are all gone now. We aren’t stuck there anymore, having to take poor candidates because of sanctions and leadership.

          Mediocrity, which you concede should be expected this season, does not promote stability at USC. It will just promote further unrest, instability and a drop in attendance (yes, this is a front runner town) and recruiting, which may already be happening. What recruits think that Gomer and his staff will be here for 3-4 years? None.

          SC can attract a great coach right now if Swann is who I think he is. I don’t ascribe to the J.K. theory that nobody wanted the job. And if that were true, maybe McKay and Haden played a part in that.

          Gomer has already shown who he is. We should believe him rather than some fantasy of who we wish he were.

          I’m not saying fire Gomer now and start the search later, like Haden. I’m saying nail down the replacement now and then fire Gomer. If we can’t find our great coach now, wait until we can.

          Gomer’s never gonna be great and he’s never gonna make USC stable. He’s already the laughing stock of college football. Every day there’s some new poll or sports commentator disparaging him.

          We don’t need coaches who are #1 on the hot seat. The quicker we find out if a great coach is interested, the better.

    • Yes, that’s a realistic point. As much as I would love to see a coaching change right away, I don’t see Gomer leaving in the middle of the season unless the team skids 5 games in a row.

  2. Heres what happens. USC stays with Helton for another year, meanwhile Hermans get snatched up this year by a power 5 school , next year after Bama wins another championship we consider bringing back Lane Kiffin under the guise that he has matured and a new guy aftet Sabans tutelage

  3. Several coaches LSU has named as replacements have already said they are not leaving their current situations.

    The only not saying anything is Tom Herman. A college fb site says Herman will stay at Houston!

    • Sunday Fox said USC has the best chance to sign Tom Herman, also said USC is a better fit for him and his family since he’s from California and went to Cal Lutheran. His wife loves Texas, but it said southern California and the schools around the area would sway him and his wife.

  4. If anyone is surprised that CH is # 29 on the list or doesn’t think he belongs at #29, I suggest you see a medical professional. You may have a brain injury.

  5. Joel Klatt was very blunt about the current top dawg – Tim Herman. “He hasn’t been anywhere save Houston and the the team he has a lot of them aren’t his recruits. Herman doesn’t have a long resume (2 years w. Houston) any different than Sumlin did when he was at Houston – compare that with Petrino….good wherever he’s coached.”

    • Did you see the Oklahoma game? He absolutely embarrassed the Sooners. The projected #1 pick in the 2019 draft is a DT Ed Oliver for Houston. Tom Herman’s recruit. He recruited at OSU and he’s done it recently at Houston. His offense demolished Alabama in the playoffs. The guy has made his mark. He’s ready.

      • ‘Maybe’ maybe….he’s in a lower tier conference his sole top 5 OOC for 2016 was OK – played at home and bluntly Stoops is not a very good coach. Let’s see how the post-seaon plays out because to ‘jump’ on Herman is a bit too soon –

        • You wait on Herman, you lose. That’s the market. He’s the least risky candidate of anyone who might be available. That’s how the major powers view him. If SC let’s him get away, it’ll be interesting to see what our excuses are and who we get. Since we’ve hired more bad coaches in the last six years than any school in the country, it’s probably too much to ask of us to bring in the hottest young coach in America (by far) with southern Calif roots and an Urban Meyer OC pedigree.

          • That was the reason I made that alteration on my post above – the only other one that leaps out is Petrino and Bobby has some issues but he is a winner and Louisville i a great city but it’ll never be a top tier program.

  6. Well said. “Knowing USC” is simply winning. Just win. Clay Helton inherited a team full of 4⭐/5⭐ talent and is not getting it done. The only position that wasn’t filled with a veteran was QB. That’s what you call INEXCUSABLE.

  7. I don’t know which hire was worse, Clay Helton, or Wil Muschamp? Muschamp is either the biggest con man in college football, or his athletic director, Ray Tanner is Pat Haden’s idiot, clone. Look for Muschamp to be fired in two years, and Helton at the end of this season. And btw, if Scott Frost has a decent year at UCF, I bet he replaces, Mark Helfrich up at Oregon.

    • Yeah well news plash – no one wins at South Carolina – not Holtz, not Spurrier, no one – because Columbia, SC is the most isolated in time home for a Top 5 conference program in the entire USA – even Tucson-AZ and Pullman-WA have more going for them – no one wins at South Carolina and never will.

      Muschamp was a disaster at FL which is why he was able to sign up with South Carolina – in fact Kiffin was rumored to be heading there late two years ago – a graveyard for anyone’s coaching ambitions.

  8. I’d think twice about Les Miles. It’s not what did you do 10 years ago, it’s what have you done lately. It was a miracle that he didn’t get fired at the end of last year. He knew that he was on the hot seat. He knew that he had to completely turn that program around or he would get fired. After the season when they finely decided not to fire him, he made all kinds of bold statements that the program was going to change and they were going to start challenging for national championships, yet nothing changed. He lost 3 out of the last 4 games last season and this year he was only 2-2. If he couldn’t change that program around, knowing that he was currently walking the plank on the pirate ship and as a result, he gets fed to the sharks, why should we think that he could turn SC’s program around? Tom Herman is the guy, IF YOU CAN GET HIM! I like CH a lot. I want to see him succeed but if they have something going on behind the scenes where they have a chance to get Herman, then CH has got to go.

    • I agree. All Miles brings to the table is great defense, but he has a Kiffin like stubbornness to him. I’M ALL IN ON TOM HERMAN.

      • It’s true that defense wins championships but I would think about hiring a great DC. As far as a head coach is concerned, I think that I would go with a great offensive coach. The rules are being changed today to favor the offense(things like targeting and that kind of stuff). Fans love offense and the rules committee at the NCAA is responding. The name of the game today is to have an offense that can outscore the other team and to have a defense that can limit the other teams offense. That’s especially true in an offensive minded conference like the Pac-12. Think of Justin Wilcox. His defenses couldn’t stop these wide open Pac-12 offenses but now that he is in the Big-12 where they play a more grind-it-out type of offense, he’s doing much better. I’d do everything that I could do to get Herman.

        • Tom Herman’s offense won Urban Meyer a National Title end route to destroying Nick Saban’s defense in the semi final game and he torched Oregon in the National Title game. Three weeks ago he embarrassed Bob Stoops not only Offensively, but his DLINE looked awesome. Kids know Tom Herman from OSU and now from Houston. He went to Cal Lutheran so I think that works in SC’S favor. I think this month’s games will make or break Helton and I’m not too confident in him winning all 4. I think we will go hard after Tom Herman. He’s won with the top talent (Ohio State) and lesser talent (Houston).

          • SC has 8 games left. I don’t see a cupcake among them. To go 9-3 this year, we have to win all 8. Highly unlikely. To go 8-4 we have to win 7. I think that’s highly unlikely too. More than likely, we’re going to go 7-5 or 6-6 and hopefully not worse. If Herman is even slightly interested, we have to go after him ‘no holds barred’ and open up the checkbook(SC has the money) and hope he will say ‘yes cerritos’ to becoming the next SC head coach. If we can’t get him, then we think about somebody else.

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