Tee Martin And Tennessee

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Despite the best efforts of a segment of Tennessee fans (and some sycophants in the national media), it does not appear that USC offensive coordinator Tee Martin is a serious candidate at Tennessee.

However, one totally plausible scenario is Martin becomes offensive coordinator for whoever get the job. Martin would like another job that does not seem like a step down. He is also frustrated over being a scapegoat for the offense when he does not call all the plays. There’s even some talk that Clay Helton would not mind if he departed.

But . . . does Lynn Swann allow Helton to appoint his brother as offensive coordinator if Martin departs?

85 thoughts on “Tee Martin And Tennessee”

  1. Lynn Swann has no choice, unless he extends Clay Helton’s contract, which would allow him to attract a top offensive coordinator, but something tells me, that ain’t gonna happen

    • You mean “there’s even some talk” instead of “something tells me”. Just kidding Fred. Lol

    • Swann will not extend Helton past his 3 year deal. Swann at some point in 2018 will look for a change should the team go backwards.. Swann is close to Tomilin and Cowher. So expect one of them to be on the sidelines in 2019..

  2. “There’s even some talk that Clay Helton would not mind it if Tee Martin took Tyson Helton with him if he departed.”

      • Every Trojan’s secret dream: A proven coach as Offensive Coordinator.
        Reward & Punishment Time: It wouldn’t hurt to ask Ronnie Bradford to pack his bags when Tee and Tyson leave —-nor would it be a bad idea to give Kenechi Udeze and Deland McCullough big raises.

        • Absolutely raise Udeze and McCullough – Rojo’s year (with a mediocre at best OL) and the CGG goal line stand against Stanford.

          Yes to Bradford leaving.

          • I’M really going to miss Mr. Jones. Watching him grow and develop has been a pleasure. Worked his way up to arguably the best RB in college football.

            The hard work will payoff with a lucrative NFL contract

    • I mentioned that to SteveG and Helton must have caught it in the wind. Little bro needs to hold his own.

        • Like Pendergast. He made his reputation as a DC for giving Oregon problems when he was at Cal so that was impressive at the time.
          Then he becomes the DC and the Cardinals make the Super Bowl, but that’s where he gets the bulk of his credit and it’s undeserving if you ask me because Kurt Warner carried that team on his back (Larry Fitzgerald was awesome too) that season. That was all Warner showing the doubters who said he was an arena QB. But Clancy walks with that on his resume.

          ***He gave up 7 touchdowns on 7 consecutive drives in the most important game he’s coached in since that super bowl.

          ***He wants to be able to control the Defensive Backs as well, but let his apprentice work it and he’s garbage.

          ***He doesn’t recruit.
          This is actually one of the biggest mistakes in judgement Helton has allowed.
          First off…What great player is gonna go# across the country or leave home to play for a DC that he’s never met or built trust with?
          ***How does a program such as USC+Lynn Swann+Clay Helton let something like this be possible? The Defensive Coordinator at USC not only is failing to meet the expectations or come close to the ones he promised, but he doesn’t recruit the players he’s controlling on the football field.

      • To be clear, I’m not knocking Tee —-I’m saying I hope he takes Clay’s little brother with him if he leaves —–so that we don’t have the 112th ranked offense in the nation in 2018.

        • Michael–per ESPN , USC was 9th in total yards; 12th in passing yards; 31st in rushing yards and 12th in receiving yards. I am a bit confused by the 112th ranked offense comment. Help a friend out.

          • I like Tyson Helton—–I think he’s a pretty darn good quarterback coach. But I don’t think he’s a great quarterback coach —–due mainly to Sam not developing this year (especially in easily fixable areas like ball handling on runs and not under-throwing the long ball). My worry is that—if Tee leaves —-Tyson will take over as Offensive Coordinator. He wouldn’t be terrible by any means —-but I don’t know if he’ll be what Clay needs to get by Stanford and Texas next year. And I don’t want to see Clay fail outta loyalty to his brother. He’s worked too hard to get this far.

          • Got it. USC was successful, even if they did not get to the playoff. However, successful teams and organizations continually look for ways to improve. Sometimes hard and painful decisions have to be made. I have absolutely no background in coaching or the technical details of each position. But I have watched enough football in my life that I can have an opinion based on what I have seen. IMO, the 2 biggest differences I see in USC when I view other top tier teams are these. 1) strength–USC athletes look like other teams ( hello AL) but they don’t display the same physicality as AL. Maybe the strength & conditioning program needs an upgrade. 2) The defensive backs appear to be the most inconsistent position group on the field(again look at AL). Coaching? or Athletes? I don’t know for sure, but an upgrade is needed.

          • Forgetting the strengths and weaknesses (he strikes me as too happy-go- lucky) of Tyson Helton for a moment, I think you have nailed the two areas in dire need of upgrade on the USC football team. Our guys think their S&C is tough cuz they’ve never known anything else —-but what we saw ON THE FIELD against Alabama and Notre Dame sez otherwise. As for our corners, you can’t look that clueless without some problems in coaching. Jack Jones and Iman Marshall make opposing coaches [and USC fans] feel the game can always be stolen from us if long balls start flying in the last 10 minutes.

          • Agreed. Throw in the flag happy PAC12 officials & you have a position that is almost impossible to play successfully. Proper technique (positioning , footwork , etc.. ) is essential. Ever watch BIG12 or SEC? I have seen many many defensive make a play without nary a second thought from the ref. Same play is a penalty in PAC12 100% of the time. The DLine played pretty darn well and had a solid # of sacks this year, as well as improved as the year went on. You would think that would have helped the DBacks performance-doesn’t appear that it did.

          • The best d-line in the world (and ours is pretty darn good) couldn’t bail out Jack or Iman. [But —I agree with you—-the SEC (and the NFL, for that matter) have a completely different take on pass interference than the goofy Pac 12].

  3. There’s “even some talk” is not reporting, it’s just gossip. Any sources? Quotes?

  4. Swann should order Helton to, or Helton should put his ego aside and hire Mike Riley as OC. Riley is a proven offensive mind with strong SC ties and would be huge upgrade for Helton’s staff. Pay Riley a ton of dough – enough to steer him away from the mid-level schools that might be interested in him as a head coach at this point.

  6. If you take Swann at his word, selection of the assistant coaches are Hugs call. As long as his brother is nearby, play calling will always be an issue and he certainly will never get rid of him much less scale his responsibilities back. The secondary is just as big an issue.

    • Swann has to call St. Pat before he knows what he’s going to do.

      There’s even some talk that Swann & St. Pat do a Vulcan mind meld so Swann knows what to do.
      It’s logical
      Beam me up Swanny!

  8. Tennessee still hasn’t shown any interest in Tee Martin.

    Tee Martin was coached up under the tutelage of Clay Helton and is considered hot trash.

    LOL!

  9. As a football fan for 50 years, Clay promoting Ty is a bad idea. SC has awesome talent and potential, and needs an experienced, top-tier OC. Ty Helton is not a CFP-caliber coordinator. Case in point: Ty calls third down plays, and SC is a mediocre 43rd in the nation in 3rd down conversion %. But as a Bruin….

    • You do your school proud with your comments- always well thought out.
      IDK I’ve seen some schools- namely LSU and FSU and maybe even UCLA- do less with more talent. In that sense, Tee and Tyson have screwed up the O that bad. On the other hand, when SC had a coordinator like Norm Chow, they seemed unbeatable at times.
      Chip Kelly might’ve been the best at utilizing and maximizing his talent at UO. We’ll see how he does in Westwood.

      • Cheers, Arturo. Helton is a nice guy, which will make it very hard for him to make the proper coaching decision—which would be to not promote his younger bro to OC if Martin bolts. As for Kelly, he’s not just shuffling the staff, he’s pushed the reset button on the entire program. He knew by letting Demetrice Martin go that he’d lose some recruits (which he has), but frankly, While a great recruiter, Coach Meat is not the greatest DB coach. Our corners got burned all season. Anyway, it will be interesting to watch things unfold for both staffs. Also, he could give a flip about star ratings: his first get was Kazmeir Allen, a speedy 3S guy in the fashion of D’Anthony Thomas. Just broke Tyler Ebell’s HS season TD record with 60+ at Tulare HS.

  11. I do believe if Helton had a top notch staff he would be around USC for a long time. We all know the three that must go, Ty, Bradford, and the O line coach. (There have been so many lately I gave up knowing their names) Hire Riley, give him the offense and a nice title with some money to go with it and let Tee learn from him and build his coaching ability and let him recruit. He does great with the WRs. My 2 cents.

    • I have not been a fan of keeping Tee, but if we can boot nepotism Tyson, bring the experience of Riley to help improve Martins knowledge of being an offensive coordinator, I would be for this staffing change at this point. I think Riley and Martin together would take Riley’s philosophy out of the last decade, while teaching Martin better fundamentals of developing an offensive game plan. What do you all think?

  12. Tee is the main line recruiter for USC. It would be a huge mistake to chase Tee away. I wish Tee was better at play calling and hopefully he will get better at it. But you have to have top talent to win championships. Tee is worth a pay raise if that is what it takes to keep him.

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