Clay Helton contract: What’s Clay Helton owed in his buyout from USC?

The financial implications of the Clay Helton contract probably delayed his firing by two years. Now he’s owed a buyout, but it’s not as big as it was.

Clay Helton has been on the hot seat at USC for years. Somehow, he’s managed to keep his job despite disappointing results.

It’s actually not much of a mystery why he didn’t get fired before. His buyout was simply too high after signing a lucrative contract extension after taking USC to the Cotton Bowl and losing to Ohio State in 2017.

Clay Helton contract: Trojans to pay a big buyout to be rid of head coach

It turned out, losing to Stanford on Saturday was the final straw.

Now that he’s been fired, Helton’s buyout is expected to be somewhere between $10 and $15 million, per Pete Thamel.

Basically, he had two years left on his deal on top of this one, with $5 million owed to him each year.

Considering the buyout was closer to $20 million in 2018 and 2019, the decision to fire him now and not then makes a lot of sense.

Many Trojan fans would have gladly seen him kicked to the curb much earlier. The focus now gets to turn towards finding a replacement. Athletic director Mike Bohn has a huge decision on his hands with the program in desperate need of a strong hire capable of restoring faith in a fanbase in danger of tuning out.

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