USC fires Clay Helton

Submitted by Bambi on September 13th, 2021 at 5:21 PM

https://twitter.com/USC_mikebohn/status/1437524310348886018

First bit of news from the coaching carousel is a big one. Interim coach is DB coach Donte Williams, the lead recruiter for 5 star DB Domani Jackson and the main reason Jackson committed to USC. Williams' secondaries have underperformed since being at USC, so interesting decision to promote him.

How the rest of the season goes for Williams/USC will have a huge impact on Michigan's ability to flip Jackson.

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bronxblue

September 13th, 2021 at 5:38 PM ^

I think they've had this loaded in the chamber since last year and figured they might as well get started with a search. The funny thing will be if they wind up swinging and missing on some options because it's real difficult to interview active coaches during the season so they'll just be competing with everyone else in the end anyway.

 

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joeismyname

September 13th, 2021 at 9:56 PM ^

After reading this article about not being able to handle losing at all, even pre-season, it sounds like he might be Belien’d out of town. 
 

That being said….why did he take the Jags job? What did he expect? The NFL to be easy? He will Saban his way back somewhere or be in a broadcasting booth again next year. 
 

I feel he needs to feel like he’s walking into the perfect situation to win big and often, early. Not sure what BGSU or Utah were like when he came (although the conferences were easy), but Florida had a stable of outstanding Zook recruits with Chris Leak at QB, OSU had a similar stable of Tressel recruits with Taylor-made QB Braxton Miller for his offense…maybe he thought getting Trevor Lawrence would translate into quick NFL success? Is he that dumb? Did he just want to really challenge himself? Also, does USC have the players he wants from the get-go? If they don’t, who does? FSU? Texas?
 

For such a d-bag as Meyer is, he’s kind of a fascinating human psychological study. He probably has NPD (narcissistic personality disorder), and can’t stand when he is not in full control of everything and everyone around him.  

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JonathanE

September 13th, 2021 at 7:29 PM ^

There have been some articles about Meyer being a college coach whose style hasn't translated that well to the pro's with both the coaching staff and players. The gist is if Meyer was (or is) winning, the pro's might put up with it a little bit more but since things do not look good, it's only a matter of time before he may lose the team.

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NittanyFan

September 13th, 2021 at 9:33 PM ^

Isn't the answer Randy Edsall (full disclosure, Edsall was my personal prediction in that thread a few weeks ago)?

After their loss to Holy Cross the Saturday before Labor Day, Edsall decided he was going to step down at the end of the season, but then a couple days later "he and the school came to a mutual decision" that he would quit coaching immediately.

It's semantics, but that sounded like a firing to me.

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El Jeffe

September 13th, 2021 at 5:24 PM ^

I don't follow USC at all, but they're 1-1 with 3 relatively easy games coming up. Does this seem a bit precipitous? Or maybe some revelation is about to come to light? I mean, they kinda got got by Stanford, but still.

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Chipper1221

September 13th, 2021 at 5:46 PM ^

The issue now becomes who’s next at usc? Someone that can convince him to be apart of their rebuild? 
 

i actually see this firing as bad for us. I think he’ll wait it out and see who they hire before doing anything. It would be much easier to convince him to flip if Helton went 6-6 and stayed at usc. We just need to win 10+ games to make him realize we’re a much more stable program and last year was a fluke. 

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Bambi

September 13th, 2021 at 6:09 PM ^

I don't buy that. There's no way to know that he'll "wait it out", plenty of recruits decommit from a school after a coach is fired and then make a decision before waiting to see what the school does next. And even if he does want to wait it out, it's a lot more logical to wait it out as an uncommitted prospect that's looking at all his options, than as a USC commit who may hate the next hire and be out of a spot at the next choice school because he waited for USC to hire someone.

At the end of the day, on the field performance is going to play a factor in Domani's decision, both at USC and Michigan. Helton was never going to be kept after a 6-6 season (clearly since he got fired after the first loss). If USC struggled on the field, Helton was gone. If USC did well, then Helton was gonna stay. Helton getting fired shakes up the status quo and brings an air of uncertainty over USC now, and also puts the job prospects of his primary recruiter Donte Williams in the air. Anything that pushes Domani further towards "uncommitted prospect" territory helps Michigan.

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Bo Harbaugh

September 13th, 2021 at 5:29 PM ^

Is Domani Jackson looking at UCLA or Oregon?  
Seems those 2 could end up benefiting here as well given USC’s generally strong recruiting of west coast prospects. 
 

 

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Rabbit21

September 13th, 2021 at 5:50 PM ^

Oregon is a threat I think as Cristobal and his staff recruit their butts off, but I think Michigan has some advantages over them there.  

UCLA won't be a threat at all, that would require Kelly putting effort into recruiting someone who isn't a transfer and going from USC commit to UCLA player is seemingly a yearly occurrence, but it almost never happens with a recruit of Jackson's stature.

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