USC fires Helton early in seventh season
LOS ANGELES — Southern California fired football coach Clay Helton on Monday, two games into his seventh season in charge.
Athletic director Mike Bohn made the move two days after an embarrassing 42-28 home loss to Stanford that dropped the Trojans (1-1, 0-1 Pac-12) out of the AP Top 25.
Donte Williams, the Trojans’ cornerbacks coach and associate head coach, is taking over as head coach. Williams, a Los Angeles-area native and the first Black head coach in USC football history, joined the program in 2020 and has played a major role in USC’S significant recruiting advancements over the past two cycles.
USC visits Washington State this weekend for its road opener.
Helton went 46-24 during his improbable tenure in charge of the longtime West Coast college football powerhouse. The career assistant coach twice took over as USC’S interim head coach before getting his first head coaching job on a permanent basis late in the 2015 season.
“Clay is one of the finest human beings I have met in this industry, and he has been a tremendous role model and mentor to our young men,” Bohn said in a statement. “We appreciate his many years of service to our university and wish him nothing but the very best.”
While Helton brought stability to a tumultuous football culture and ran a clean program that inspired loyalty and love from his players, he never won over a significant portion of the Trojans’ vast fan base, even during his early successes. His folksy demeanor didn’t inspire confidence in fans used to Pete Carroll’s
intensity, while Helton’s genteel Southern twang and mannerisms always seemed out of place in California.
The Trojans won the Rose Bowl after the 2016 season and the Pac-12 title in 2017 while Sam Darnold was their quarterback, but Helton’s teams otherwise struggled to live up to the skyhigh expectations around a program with 11 national championships. Helton was 19-14 since the 2017 season.
Arkansas fined for storming of field
The Southeastern Conference has fined Arkansas $100,000 after Razorbacks fans rushed the
field following last Saturday’s 40-21 win over Texas.
The fans violated the league’s access to competition area policy that was adopted in 2004.
Arkansas beat its former Southwest Conference before a crowd of 74.531. It was the Razorbacks’ first win over Texas in Fayetteville since 1981.
It’s a second offense for Arkansas, which also was fined following a win over LSU in 2014.
Navy shakes up coaching staff
Longtime assistant Ivin Jasper is staying with the Navy coaching staff after another a 23-3 loss to Air Force left his status in limbo.
The Midshipmen did part ways with another member of their staff — offensive assistant Billy Ray Stutzmann says he’s been dismissed after he was unable to follow the academy’s COVID-19 policy for religious reasons.
Jasper — the team’s offensive coordinator for over a decade — was relieved of those duties but will remain in his other role as quarterbacks coach. Coach Ken Niumatalolo will call plays.
Tulane to play at home Sept. 25
Tulane plans to play its first on-campus home game of this season against UAB on Sept. 25, nearly a month after the program was displaced by Hurricane Ida.
Since then, Tulane has been practicing in Birmingham and also had to relocate its first two games, which were originally scheduled at home. Instead, the Green Wave opened with a 40-35 loss at No. 3 Oklahoma on Sept. 4 and then routed Morgan State 69-20 at Birmingham.
Odds and ends
LSU running back John Emery Jr. is expected to miss the remainder of the season for academic reasons, coach Ed Orgeron said. … Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec underwent surgery for a hand injury that knocked him out of this weekend’s game against Massachusettes and “could potentially miss the remainder of the year,” the school said. …
North Carolina State’s defense has taken a major hit by losing all-atlantic Coast Conference linebacker Payton Wilson and safety Cyrus Fagan to seasonending injuries. Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren didn’t specify the exact nature of the injuries. … Virginia Tech coach Justin Fuente says tight end James Mitchell, a preseason ALL-ACC first-teamer, will have knee surgery and miss the rest of the season. …
No. 24 Miami has lost running back Don Chaney Jr. for the remainder of the season with a knee injury. Starting linebacker Keontra Smith will miss several weeks with a leg injury. … Kansas State sixth-year senior quarterback Skylar Thompson is out indefinitely with a knee injury. Thompson missed most of last season with a shoulder injury. Sophomore Will Howard takes over as the Wildcats’ starter. … Purdue running back Zander Horvath will miss four to eight weeks with a broken fibula.