Clay Helton was officially named the next head coach of the USC Trojans football team and here’s what Twitter had to say about the internal promotion.
The USC Trojans made it public Monday morning that they will remove the interim tag on head coach Clay Helton, as he will be the official replacement of the fired Steve Sarkisian at USC.
OFFICIAL: Clay Helton named permanent USC head coach by athletic director Pat Haden. #FightOn
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) November 30, 2015
USC fans took to Twitter with their initial reactions to the promotion of Clay Helton to permanent head coach. Some feel that this was a logical hire while some question why USC pull the trigger so fast.
@insidetroy @BobbyWooSD clay Helton is an adult and program will not be embarrassing from that standpoint. I like clay and am happy for him
— Johnny J (@aztrojan11) November 30, 2015
Again... why did USC pull the trigger TODAY? Clay Helton wasn't going anywhere. No reason not to wait and see how season wrapped up. Sigh.
— RichSC (@OriginalRichSC) November 30, 2015
USC’s decision to promote from within had some NFL implications with regards to Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport.
#USC announces they're hiring former interim Clay Helton as their full-time coach. They had touched base with Chip Kelly, then made the move
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 30, 2015
Perhaps this means that USC wanted Chip Kelly but Kelly wanted to stay in Philadelphia. USC was one of the biggest head coaching vacancies in college football. Now that Clay Helton has been given the title of permanent head coach, that means that the head coaching gig at the University of Georgia is now the most appealing following Sunday’s firing of head coach Mark Richt. Overall, most USC fans seem like they are in favor of the Clay Helton promotion. He seems like a man of character that the USC Trojans have not had from a permanent head coach in a long time. Athletic director Pat Haden also said that this hire was not contingent on Helton beating arch rival UCLA to win the Pac-12 South. From losing their head coach mid-season to winning the ultra competitive Pac-12 South, congratulations to Clay Helton and his family and best of luck versus Stanford in the Pac-12 Championship in Santa Clara this weekend.