Trojans’ Embarrassing Loss To Notre Dame Could Bring Pressure To Troy
Oh, when things were good.
USC ended the 2016 season as one of college football’s hottest teams. Boosted by this perceived return to greatness and a poster boy quarterback that surely would win the Heisman Trophy – heck, why even play the games, just give it to Sam Darnold! – the Trojans began 2017 as a favorite to make the College Football Playoffs.
But one thing the over-zealous Trojan fans and the media overlooked was the fact that Clay Helton was new to being a head coach at a major program. There were cracks last year – for instance, the defense made zero second-half adjustments in the Rose Bowl as Penn State was shredding them in the narrow win – but that was ignored.
Well, it won’t be ignored anymore. The Trojans limped into Notre Dame Stadium 6-1. Yes, limped at 6-1; they could easily have been 1-6, and that includes the opening game against Western Michigan.
The 49-14 wipeout against Notre Dame squarely puts Helton on college football’s list of coaches on the hot seat. There’s rumors that Athletic Director Lynn Swann is frustrated with the Trojans’ lack of dominance this year and Helton has quite often appeared to be in over his head.
Under Helton this year, the Trojans have not just tailed to improve or even stay stagnant but are going backward, the confidence of Darnold is shot (he admitted as much back in September) and the players are not playing to their potential.
Frankly, with Helton at the helm, it’s difficult to determine just how much talent the Trojans really have on the roster. They are hurting on the offensive and defensive lines and their receivers don’t appear to be of standard USC quality but maybe just aren’t getting the coaching to play any better than they’ve shown so far this year.
If Swann does pull the trigger and send Helton traveling, he should do something that’s not happened at USC in a while. He should go after a proven head coach. USC is too big of a program to have some rookie or unproven winner ride the white horse (Helton, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian).
This may be a difficult task, especially with all the coaching changes likely to occur this year at major programs (Tennessee, Nebraska, Ole Miss, possibly Auburn, Florida and Arkansas and cross-town rival UCLA) so Swann would need to be decisive. But he needs to be assertive.
Because a program with USC’s pedigree deserves better than Clay Helton.
Good comments. And you’re right!
I agree with the article, the coaching staff dose not seem to know what to do with the team. The team seams have no identity, d backs do not play the ball, defense not intense, offense not set-up to move the chains, with that qb and those running backs and Te , you can move the chains. Look Cal has a new staff, they play more intense than USC on both sides of the ball, that comes from the coaches. USC has a bad staff, that’s an opinion, just look at the teams they play against, WSU, WM, Cal.. A change in coaching staff is needed.