Southern Cal players stand by interim,
Players think Helton is right man for job
The only two constants during the last half-decade of Southern California football are chaos and Clay Helton, with the whims of the former again responsible for thrusting the latter into duties far above his pay grade.
Helton was brought to USC by one excoach, Lane Kiffin, and retained by another, Steve Sarkisian; he has been the interim coach — this fall marking his second turn in the temporary position after leading the Trojans through a bowl win in 2013 — and himself served under another interim coach, Ed Orgeron.
Helton was there when the NCAA levied sanctions, when the Trojans opened atop The Associated Press poll but finished unranked, when Kiffin was fired in a parking lot, when Orgeron was carried off the field in victory, when Josh Shaw jumped two stories, when Sarkisian was placed on leave and when Sarkisian was fired. Amid turmoil and made-for-TV drama, Helton has been a source of relative stability.
And he has been there for the Trojans, who are returning the favor.
“We definitely want to keep him here,” senior running back Tre Madden said. “We’ve talked to the young guys, and they love him. We all love him. We want to keep him here. That’s what we’re playing for, the future.”
Said senior defensive tackle Antwaun Woods, “I’ve been with him for five years, and he really cares about us as a team. He’s a great man. We’re just motivated to play for him.”
It wasn’t too long ago that USC played for national championships. Now the Trojans play for interim coaches.
For the second time in three years, the Trojans will dedicate themselves — and dedicate the remainder of this season — to making a favored assistant coach the fulltime caretaker for one of college football’s elite programs. Such is recent existence at USC, where confidence remains in surplus despite a clear lack of results.
“We’re an excellent team,” junior safety Su’a Cravens said. “We can beat anybody in the country, hands down.”
USC spent the second half of the 2013 season pushing for Orgeron, winning six of eight games to end the regular season and publicly praising its interim coach. Yet even as the Trojans racked up wins under Orgeron, it was obvious they were tilting at windmills; athletics director Pat Haden had no interest in making Orgeron’s promotion permanent, though he did take time to call the longtime USC assistant “one of the greatest Trojans of them all” when announcing Sarkisian’s hiring.
“He’s proud to be our coach,” Cravens said of Helton. “You see the guy that’s been here throughout everything and he tells you he’s proud of you, that makes us want to play for him.
“So the way we felt for (Orgeron), we feel the same for Coach Helton. I feel bad in my stomach that we couldn’t get this win for him, because he deserved it.”
USC lost 41-31 Saturday night at then-No. 13 Notre Dame.
The odds of Helton succeeding Sarkisian beyond this season are similarly remote. He lacks ties to the program’s recent glory days, bonds that lifted young, largely unproven coaches in Kiffin and Sarkisian onto the throne left vacated by Pete Carroll. At least Kiffin and Sarkisian had experience in a similar position; USC hasn’t hired a first-time head coach since Ted Tollner in 1983.
Helton lacks flash and name recognition, two prerequisites of any contender for USC’s opening. He also carries the stigma of being present for the Trojans’ recent malaise.
Yet Helton can’t be solely blamed for the following: The Trojans are 3-3 for the first time since 2001, Carroll’s debut, and irrelevant in the national conversation. After the loss at Notre Dame, the spotlight will shine on USC by virtue of matchups against Utah and California, two conference rivals with College Football Playoff hopes intact — leaving the Trojans in an unexpected role as spoilers, not favorites.
Players spoke of battling for the Pac-12 South Division title, but that’s a statement in itself of the program’s diminishing standards. A middle-ground shade of gray isn’t supposed to exist in USC’s color palette; this has been an all-or-nothing, championship-or-bust program since Carroll led its renaissance more than a decade ago.
Well, USC has to play for something; it might as well be for its interim coach.
“We love Coach Helton,” Cravens said. “He’s going to be a great head coach, whether it’s at the University of Southern California next year or somewhere else.”