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USC keeping Clay Helton is great news for rest of the Pac-12

By Brad Berreman

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 23: USC Trojans head coach Clay Helton looks on during a college football game between the UCLA Bruins and the USC Trojans on November 23, 2019, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 23: USC Trojans head coach Clay Helton looks on during a college football game between the UCLA Bruins and the USC Trojans on November 23, 2019, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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With the decision to keep Clay Helton around as football coach, USC has done the rest of the Pac-12 a favor.

Clay Helton is back as USC football coach and that’s great news for the rest of the Pac-12 and not so much for the Trojans and their fans.

After the USC Trojans went 5-7 in 2018, the program’s worst record since the season before Pete Carroll arrived (2000), it seemed certain Helton would be fired. But then-athletic director Lynn Swann decided to keep him, and Helton went into this season on the hot seat.

The Trojans won their last three regular-season games to finish 8-4 this season. A win over Utah in September will stand as a signature win.

With the arrival of new athletic director, Mike Bohn came a re-sparking of the notion Helton would be fired no matter how this season ended. Candidates both high-profile (Urban Meyer, James Franklin) and less so (Bryan Harsin, Luke Fickell) surfaced, but ultimately Bohn decided to keep Helton for at least another year.

The decision to keep Helton apparently required at least four days of deliberation, since USC’s regular season ended against UCLA on Nov. 23. Bohn pointed to a level of “unwavering support” of Helton, and a lack of unanimous support to make a change.

A patently unnecessary delay in announcing a decision to keep Helton points to other candidates being considered. Scott Wolf of Inside USC has reported the school  “struck out” with former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops.

Helton won double-digit games in each of his first two full seasons as head coach at USC, including a Pac-12 title (2017) and a Rose Bowl win (2016). Recruiting had remained good, with the Trojans coming in top-10 in 247Sports’ composite rankings six straight years before 2019. But the 247’s update has them ranked 70th for the 2020 class right now (11th in the Pac-12), with ESPN pointing to just 11 commitments.

It’s pretty clear Helton’s shaky status has diminished the talent level coming in, to say nothing of his inability to coach up talent and fans jumping off the bandwagon in droves. He is under contract through 2023, but Wednesday’s decision still only realistically extends his employment into (and possibly only through) next season.

The rest of the Pac-12 can rejoice at the flagship program in the conference committing itself to 8-9 win territory for at least next season, and perhaps beyond if Helton gets another recruiting class to butcher. This same “will they or won’t they keep him?” dance is sure to come again around a year from now. At that point, maybe, Bohn will have seen enough to pull the trigger on a coaching change that will be two years overdue by then.

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