USC Fans Dilemma

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The dilemma for many USC fans is the better Sam Darnold does, the better it is for Clay Helton. And there is clearly a contingent of fans right now who want Darnold to succeed but do not want Helton to win many more games this season.

124 thoughts on “USC Fans Dilemma”

  1. Ed Orgeron has a better chance of being LSU ‘s permanent coach then Clay Helton staying. So Sam Darnold can be productive without USC running the table, so all fans should cheer him on, I know I will. Lynn Swann, and many insiders know Helton is not the answer moving forward , and winning a handful of games isn’t going to save his job.

    • Yeah well let’s see how this plays out because if the team goes 8-4 (wins the rest save WA) I fail to see the logic of releasing Helton before a 2nd year. The paucity of decent available head coaches is no different than a bad draft year and right now it is a bad coach year – few out there.

      • If Lynn Swann happens to replace Helton, I guarantee he will already have a coach in place . Who do you think he is, Pat Haden? Lol

        • He IS Pat Haden. You still don’t get it.
          Same profile. Both Hero SoCal footballers, both with the exact same indoctrination and back rounds, neither with any experience in the job they are getting paid millions to do.
          They even belong to the same golf club.
          Remember the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

          • He hasn’t made one move yet as athletic director, so I can’t compare him to anybody. But I’m watching closely.

          • Ucla fans and trolls are petrified of what may happen with regards to the potential hire of a top tier HC at USC … They know they are irrelevant now.. The new HC will hurt them for years to come.. Recruiting would fall off.

          • Why would we be worried?
            SoCal administration has proven they can’t hire their way out of a paper bag and Fast Max hired St. Pat’s clone. No reason to worry, dude. We know Max & The Swan will F up

          • We obviously have conflicting sources. Will be very interesting to see who the HC actually is in Jan. If it’s Gomer, you’ll know who told you so.

          • My connect is involved with the BOTs.. I have been watching your comment flow.. Busy day, changes or possible staff additions.. But my contact knew of the Sark hire as well the Kiffin fire.. I trust the truth will come out soon. The schedule will determine his fate..

          • So you agree if Gomer doesn’t finish with a losing record, he’ll be back? If not, then under what conditions does he get let go?

            By the way. My contact read what I stated on a piece of paper, so no chance of misinterpretation.

          • He will not be back.. The schedule comment is just how it will play out.. He is not the face of the future!

          • The question is whether Nikias is changing the football culture at USC and wants a mediocre coach like Helton that is entertaining and beats the weak rivals.

          • Lol.. How long can Helton ride Darnold’s coattails.. Darnold faulters USC fautlers and bye bye Helton..

          • I don’t; see Darnhold faltering. The problem for USC is recruiting – Helton would never had gotten a Darnhold based on his coaching result – never.

          • You are FOS. bozo u has had 5 HFBC’s in 4 years. What hi-profile HC wants to come to bozo u and be fired on an airport tarmac.

            Besides 55, Swanny promised gave Helton 3 year to fix bozo u’s FB program.

            But you’re advocating it’s ok for Swann to plunge a knife in another bozo u HC’s back.

            bozo u earned its moniker.

          • Not happening JO.. Money will prevail.. The BOTs hold the cards.. Why are you so angry.?.. Ucla is irrelevant .. What happens at USC has always determined the success at Ucla..

          • UCLA’S relevant they’ve won countless big games under Mora.

            That was sarcasm. Ha!

          • He hasn’t made a move because he has no idea what to do. If he has a question, who is he going to call? His golf buddy St. Pat. What is Pat going to say? Cover your arse and collect that $2-3 million as long as you can.
            Good news for The Swan is that there’s lots of angry alumni money to hire a “name” coach, then he’s off the hook.
            Question is whether Max gives him a long enough leash to can Helton after the Colorado game or makes him wait If he has to wait, he barfs another recruiting season.

    • USC is all about image and if Helton goes 8-4 I don’t see them letting him go

        • If SC goes 6-6 and makes a minor bowl without getting totally blown out in some game like we did at ALA, then Gomer will be our coach in 2017. You can bank on that. SC would need to have a losing record for Swann to move – something he still hopes he can avoid.

          Petersen had losing P12 records his first two years.

          • Petersen threw all those crappy Sark recruits off the team and started over .., Gomer kept all the Sark recruits bad move

        • Why not? The rest of their schedule is beatable. UW is their only challenging game up in Seatlle.

          • USC is weak on both sides of the line of scrimmage, so it makes no difference who’s playing quarterback. That’s why they won’t run the table.

      • Was SoCal all about image when they fired Kiffin on the tarmac?
        When they hired Sark and kept him after his drunken Tribute to Troy?
        How about when St. Pat ran down from the rafters to argue with a referee?
        SoCal is all about money, not image.
        When the ticket sales and donations go down, they would fire their Mom at LAX.

    • Even if Swann wants to make a move, President Nikias has final say over who that guy will be.

      SC could finish .500 and nothing would happen unless Nikias gives the go sign.

      Nikias is such a football newbie that he just doesn’t get the USC football culture. He is trying to make USC into Stanford or some sort of Ivy League school. Hiring clean cut yes men (Haden, Helton, Sark, Swann) is the way to go for him. Helton – despite sucking as a HC – clearly fits the bill. It’s also why Orgeron wasn’t given a shot. He was too much football for a president who wants to wean USC away from football.

      President Nikias doesn’t want a guy with the best football resume. He wants a guy that the Ivy leagues would be satisfied with. And that’s completely different from hiring the best football guy.

      • I don’t think there’s some conspiracy to change the image of USC into some ivy league school. I just think Pat Haden made three ignorant, stupid, bone headed moves with the coaching staff . And they were so stupid, that people believe he did it on purpose. But guess what? He didn’t, because he actually believed Steve Sarkisian would take the program to new heights. Then he repeated the bone headed move with Helton. Haden is just a cocky, spineless little dweeb, who thinks he knows it all.

        • Come on Fred, when you hire someone who is doing Notre Dame football commentary who talks about “winning the right way” and whose first act is to surrender to the NCAA, you know exactly what you are getting.

        • President Nikias would never rubber stamp anyone Haden puts in front of him for a job.

          There is a controlling factor element that Haden had to abide by. Granted, Haden evaluated his choices horribly by landing on Sark. But it worked because Sark was a total yes man. (And look at how long it took for Helton to fill out his assistant coaching staff. That one stunk of higher up approval).

          All I’m saying is don’t believe that merely getting a HC with excellent football credentials is all there is. Bovard and HH won’t let just anyone come through the door unless they know they can exert some control over the HC.

          And control has taken priority over wins and won-loss records.

      • You really nailed it. Now that USC is a Top 15 school, the pressure from the dorky football hating administrators will be to eliminate the low brow “football culture” at USC. Pat Haden’s record is proof that they want to wean the school off crass male oriented athletics and become a wine and cheese, let’s go to the symphony and cheer for women’s sports university. Watch them start to put pressure on the Greek system.

        • I love SC. SC is not a top 15 school by any real ranking. And Harvard, Williams and Stanford (along with a host of other Ivy and top private universities) emphasize winning in athletics. Further, the second largest Greek system in the country is Cornell, an Ivy League school, and one of the schools with the highest proportion of Greek participation is Dartmouth, an Ivy League school (both schools which are ranked far higher than us academically as well).

          Honestly, that whole idea that you are speaking of is just off. And Max Nikias should fire himself if Ivy League or top flight academic credentials is the yardstick here because he sure doesn’t have them.

          • USC isn’t a top 15 univ. by a strict academic standard for sure. I think the methodology of this survey took into account more practical things like outcomes and satisfaction. The way society and government work now, I think accounting for outcomes and satisfaction is more important than measuring things that are just, well…academic.

          • No. All of the established rankings take into account academic reputation by peers and employers, income, competitiveness in getting best students, grad school placement, alumni giving rates, and a variety of conditions connected with academic quality as well (such as percentage of PhDs teaching, class size, etc.) And these measures are taken by a broad base of people who make decisions such as employers, grad schools who decide who they are going to take into their programs, etc.

            Asking a few people about their school spirit or measuring “diversity” by how many international students just isn’t a way of measuring schools…And no one is going to give that credence.

            I would love to point out the flaws in the standard and accepted rankings publications like the USNWR, or the Guardian table, etc. But on a realistic basis, not pretending USC is something everyone knows it is not, or maybe even should not be.

          • If all of these surveys are using the same methodology and coming to different conclusions, then none of them are worth paying attention to.

          • They are not using the same methodology. The respected and known rankings measure quantitative academic student quality, competitiveness in admissions, reputation and educational level of instructional staff, reputation, employment salaries, graduate school placement and resources. In none of these is USC nor has USC ever been a top 15 school.

            A new, alternative and relatively unknown ranking that said it was basing its ranking on international students as representing diversity and happiness of students came out. It ranked USC high on those things. That’s fine but no one is confusing that with quality of education and quality of institutional measurements.

            I happen to think that schools that emphasize more holistic admissions, that have and create a cohesive community, a school that emphasizes development of students rather than faculty research, a school that serves its community and region, etc. are all more important. Whether SC does those things well today is debatable but USC probably is better served by trying to be USC because it is not going to be Stanford ever.

          • That’s good info and I appreciate you taking the time. I’m not sure a large population of international students is the way to go if your goal is creating a cohesive community. However, it’s great for the bottom line.

    • Just hope he doesnt get hurt running around like he does. I like the idea of having a mobile QB going forward.

  2. It is about winning and recruiting and coaching,if they do it and win out they earned it

  3. My gut feeling is Haden missed his chance to bring in someone like Herman last year and now Texas and LSU have the inside track. Since Helton has made Darnold his starter, SC will win enough to buy him another year.

  4. I still cannot figure out all the Helton negativity. By all counts he is a decent human being and a proven recruiter. Give the man a chance to prove himself as a head coach. You can’t hire an inexperienced HC and not expect to get just that. Another quick firing will just add to SC’s reputation as as a dysfunctional program. And besides, who’s available that’s a proven winner? Give him some space and watch good things happen.

  5. WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN……….Sam, Justin, Rojo, Ju-Ju, Darreus, DL, LB’s, Secondary, Coach Helton. win the Southern Division, win the PAC-12, go BCS !!!

  6. What’s the possibility of SC pulling an Ohio St. and “Fickeling” Helton with an Urban Meyer-like coach? (If one exists)

    • SC tried that with Ed O and he got on the fastest plane out of L.A.

      Besides, why do we want to keep Gomer in any capacity? We’ve never been any good while he’s here. He’s a journeyman asst that Nikias wanted to be HC because he didn’t seem like a threat to be arrested.

    • Bad year for finding head coaches esp if Herman is gone and SI is confident TX is firing Strong in December. Slim pickings

  7. Herman is the guy if you can get him. But if you can’t, but if you can’t, I’d take a serious look at Scott Frost from UCF(University of Central Florida). He may be the next Tom Herman.

    • There’s a coach that might work. Protege of Chip Kelly. Played on Nebraskas national championship teams in 95,97. Played in the NFL for 3 years. His team is playing this Friday.

      • It may be too early to tell but he has either coached under or played under Bill Belichick, Bill Parcells, Bill Walsh, Tom Osborne, Jon Gruden and Chip Kelly. He took over a team that was 0-12 last year and so far he’s 3-2. He’s definitely somebody to keep an eye on.

  8. Just an FYI.
    Monday Night Football being dominated by E Kendricks, A Barr and Paul Perkins.
    #NFLBruins

    • Is Hundley starting this year? I don’t watch much pro football. Look at Hunter Echols twitter and you will hear his thoughts on USC and UCLA players in the NFL.

    • I’m a SC fan but you have to marvel at Anthony Barr. This guy is a Freak. What is he? Something like 6’5″ and about 245lbs. He’s about as fast a any running back.

  9. Wolf knows exactly how most of us feel, at least how I feel.
    Yay to Darnold⬆
    Nay to Helton⬇

      • Yep. Darnold is the obvious reason for the turnaround the last two games. We haven’t beaten a true opponent, but Sam is definitely our man.

        #Coattails

    • I hate to call you out Sam, but you were saying Yay to Max and Nay to Darnold. you were dead wrong then, but you’re right now?

      • For the RECORD I said in Game 1 I feel comfortable with a QB who’s been in the program 4 years already. That if Max falters give Sam his chance, never said Max was better than Sam or vice versa. And I already said twice over the last 3 weeks I was wrong for that.

  12. Yes, we don’t want to be successful because then we won’t be able to go get a coach to make us successful. We got it all figgerd.

  13. A crack of sunlight may open for someone. Cowherd is saying that Jon Gruden and ESPN may be at the end of their road soon. They’re forcing Gruden to take a pay cut OR they’re done with each other at the end of the year. Plus he’s rumored to be angry with “the mothership” for getting rid of his boy Mike Tirico. So we’re clear, Jon Gruden is the highest paid employee at ESPN.

    LYNN SWANNNNNN…….PLEASE GET THIS MAN!

  14. re. USC Fans Dilemma….

    I will cheer for the Trojans… But I sure as heck wouldn’t bet any of my hard earned money on them.

  15. Don’t care bout darnold. He wnt be here 4ever. Helton had his shot. Embarrasing to defend usc wen long time fan. Fired coaches for less. Pull out check books and get a coach that’s respected and has resume. Wish it happened asap. Raise the playing and send kids message. We will lose recruits now and future as well. Wake up and smell the scorched turf. I am stunned it’s not fixed but coaches have left one school mid season and joined another.

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