DOWN-HOME TIES, BIG-TIME MANDATE
Helton has fond memories of Texas, but the heat is on USC coach to avenge loss to UT
LOS ANGELES — A few days before Southern Cal’s season-opening game against Western Michigan, Trojans coach Clay Helton’s thoughts were on Texas.
Not the Texas Longhorns, the team USC was scheduled to meet more than two weeks later in a much-anticipated rematch of the 2006 Rose Bowl game for the national championship.
His thoughts were on Sugar Land, where rising waters from floods had forced his mother-in-law out of her house. Concerned neighbors came in a boat to take her to higher ground.
Now, with his mother-inlaw back at home in a house that was spared any significant damage, Helton should be able to turn his full attention to the game Trojans fans have had circled on their calendars since it was scheduled in 2010.
“We haven’t had a chance to play Texas since the national championship game,” Helton said. “It’s something I’ve heard a bunch about for years. Our fans come up to me and say, ‘Please, coach, whatever else happens, can you please beat Texas?’ ”
Yet, as Saturday’s game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum approaches, Helton’s attention is again divided — between the Longhorns and the floods in Florida.
Before Hurricane Irma reached the state Sunday, his parents — his father is former University of Houston coach Kim Helton — were forced to evacuate their home in Everglades City in southwestern Florida and seek shelter in Tampa.
Unlike Clay Helton’s mother-in-law in Sugar Land, his parents believe they will be returning within the next couple of days to devastation.
“We’re not hearing good things,” Helton said Tuesday. “But anything can be rebuilt. You count your blessings that near and dear loved ones came out safe.”
Helton, 45, acknowledged storms that have affected loved ones in Texas and Florida have been distractions as he attempts to coach the No. 4 Trojans (2-0) back into national championship contention. But he also relies on the priorities preached to him by his father. Faith. Family. Football. Kim Helton, 69, brought his family to Houston in 1987 and coached the Oilers’ offensive linemen, including future Hallof-Famers Mike Munchak and Bruce Matthews, for two seasons before head coach Jerry
Glanville was fired.
Clay was finishing high school at the time at Clements, where he played well enough as a quarterback to earn a scholarship to Auburn. When his father was hired as the UH coach in 1993, Clay transferred to play for the Cougars.
Kim lasted seven seasons with the Cougars. Even though he was 7-4 in his final year, it was only his second winning season. After his third season, the Southwest Conference disbanded. Houston, which wasn’t invited into the Big 12 with other state powers, never created much enthusiasm among its fan base in Conference USA. There also were whispers that Kim played his son too much at quarterback.
“I was an OK player,” Clay said. “But I’m a lot better coach than I was as a player. Thank goodness for that.”
After the 1999 season, UH’s new athletic director, Chet Gladchuk, decided to change head coaches. One of the assistants who wasn’t retained was Clay, who had returned to the university as running backs coach in 1997.
Follows the Cougars
Despite the unhappy ending, Clay remains loyal to the university.
“As a graduate, I always keep an eye out there,” he said. “It’s really neat to see what Coach (Tom) Herman and Coach (Art) Briles did there. Look at what they’ve done with the facilities. It’s changed so much since when my dad was the head coach. It’s good to see them trying to regain that history they had with football and basketball.
“They’re definitely worthy of being in a Power Five conference. I look at that win over the University of Oklahoma last year and what Coach Herman did while he was there. They could have played with anybody in the country. So do they deserve a strong look? I think so.”
He and his family, including three children, return at least once a year to Sugar Land.
“My mother-in-law, my sister and my nieces and nephews are still there,” he said. “I met my wife (Angela) in high school. We fell in love when we were 15. I’m not sure she knew it, though, until we were 17.”
One thing Clay shares with his father is a keen sense of humor. There are also differences.
Kim liked the spotlight. For several years while coaching the Cougars, he gave romantic advice on his own radio show, “The Love Coach.” Clay avoids attention. Yahoo Sports recently called him the “country’s lowest-profile-high-profile coach.” He spends Monday through Wednesday nights during the season in his office, then goes home Thursdays for a date night with Angela. They grill in the backyard because it’s private.
Kim also was more gruff, an equal-opportunity disciplinarian who, although recognizing they were headed for Canton, treated Munchak and Matthews the same as his other offensive linemen. The loudest voice at Clay’s USC practices comes from the band director on an adjacent field.
“He’s a teacher,” said Ronald Jones II, a running back from McKinney. “If you do something wrong, he and the other coaches let you know about it. But they treat us with respect. There’s not a lot of yelling.”
After O.J. Simpson was recently paroled, Helton was asked how he would greet the former Trojan running back if he visited the coach’s office.
“I’m cordial to every person I’ve ever met,” Helton said.
Although it was widely reported Helton said during the Pac-12 media days he would ban Simpson from practices, the official transcript reveals he said that would be the position of the university administration and athletic department. He wasn’t asked about his position.
Wise words from Dad
Helton told Yahoo Sports his father told him, “Be yourself. You don’t have to be Coach (Nick) Saban. You don’t have to be Coach (Bill) Belichick. You don’t have to be Vince Lombardi. You got the job because you were Clay Helton. Always remember 18- to 21-year-olds can smell falseness from a mile away.”
Trojans fans didn’t consider him Saban or Lombardi when he was promoted from interim head coach to head coach with two games remaining in 2015. They certainly didn’t after he lost four of his first five games. But the university’s administration stood by him because it believed the program needed stability after the turmoil of the Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian years. There is no second-guessing now that the Trojans have won 11 consecutive games, including the Rose Bowl in January.
Still, the fans want nothing more than No. 12 in a row, a victory over Texas.
“I’ve been here for eight years,” he said. “Hardly a day has gone by when someone hasn’t reminded me how badly that loss hurt.
“We’re just going to look at this as our next game. But if we’re fortunate enough to win, we know how important that would be for the Trojan family.”