USC football: Kedon Slovis deserves better than Clay Helton

Kedon Slovis deserves a better USC football head coach than Clay Helton.

If Kedon Slovis head a better head coach than Clay Helton, USC football would be a real contender.

Though the No. 20 USC Trojans improved to 2-0 on the season Saturday, they could just as easily be 0-2 on the year. They hung on by the skin of their teeth to hold off the Arizona State Sun Devils last week at home. USC needed late fourth-quarter heroics out of Slovis to defeat the Arizona Wildcats down in Tucson. If Slovis had a top-10 coach, the Trojans could be a playoff-bound team.

Clay Helton’s buyout is such an albatross that he is not getting canned this year

Helton’s buyout is not as massive as coaches of other Power 5 teams, but it is a significant one. The Trojans will not buy the underperforming head coach out of his contract until after next season. USC will want that number to get below eight figures first. Factor in the global pandemic and Helton can feel rest assured he is not going to spend any time on the hot seat this season.

Against Arizona, Slovis completed 30-of-43 passes for 325 yards and a touchdown running offensive coordinator Graham Harrell‘s Air Raid system. The shame in it all is had Slovis played any worse, the Trojans would not have won this game in Tucson. As cool as the Air Raid might look on the stats sheet, both Troy Polamalu and Urban Meyer know what needs to happen to fix USC.

When USC is at its best, the Trojans dominate recruitment in Southern California, play phenomenal defense and impose their will on the opponent with a punishing rushing attack. If it worked for John McKay, John Robinson and Pete Carroll, then why is Helton totally down with USC being a finesse team? Sure, it will win the team enough games, but it will not contend for a championship.

Slovis is only a sophomore. He played so well last year that he forced 2018’s starter, JT Daniels, to transfer to the Georgia Bulldogs. As it stands now, Slovis will be a first-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft after his true junior year. He may not be the talent of a Carson Palmer coming out, but he will go in the top 10 like Matt Leinart, Mark Sanchez and Sam Darnold did before him in recent years.

Unfortunately, the timing is not in Slovis’ favor for him to get the coach his talent truly deserves.

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