Clay Helton named USC HC

[CCF151]

I, for one, like keeping hires in house. There's something to be said for consistency and stability in a coaching staff. It has worked fairly well at Oregon so far, no reason it can't help USC get better. My question to the Trojan faithful is: how much turnover do you want/expect this off season? I know a number of you are not happy with the defensive staff in particular. I just wonder how much is coaching and how much is them just being young and forgetting lessons taught in the heat of the moment.

 

[The Crimson King]

Well to his credit he realized Auburn sucked and transferred to Houston.

So they might win the Pac12 south again next year based on that.

So he left a team that would go 11-0 to play third string for a team that went 1-9-1?
And missed being coached by Jimbo Fisher

 

[4down20]

So he left a team that would go 11-0 to play third string for a team that went 1-9-1?
And missed being coached by Jimbo Fisher

Well we knew when his first choice was Auburn that his decision making skills were off.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

I, for one, like keeping hires in house. There's something to be said for consistency and stability in a coaching staff. It has worked fairly well at Oregon so far, no reason it can't help USC get better. My question to the Trojan faithful is: how much turnover do you want/expect this off season? I know a number of you are not happy with the defensive staff in particular. I just wonder how much is coaching and how much is them just being young and forgetting lessons taught in the heat of the moment.

i think most of us want Wilcox gone

 

[LASports96]

Yeah, the biggest key for me in all of this is the assistants Helton brings in to work with him. We need a new DC and a new OC for play calling as I don't want Helton doing both jobs. Helton isn't a great X and O's guy, so his assistants are gonna be very important.

 

[TROJAN-MAN]

I think AD Pat Haden's job is on the line with this one.

The last 2 coaches you mention were Haden hires.

Haden didn't hire Kiffin

 

[CCF151]

i think most of us want Wilcox gone

What do you think Wilcox's issue is? He seems to be pretty good at pulling in good players. He got some top recruits when he was at Washington. Is he not good at motivating them or are the kids not buying into his system or something?

 

[Wild Turkey]

Well to his credit he realized Auburn sucked and transferred to Houston.

So they might win the Pac12 south again next year based on that.

Just for the record he transferred to Houston because his dad was named head coach.

 

[The Oldtimer]

He got the job because he was the only one to agree to blow into the breathalyzer in order to get into the athletic facilities.

Huh????

 

[trojanfan12]

My question to the Trojan faithful is: how much turnover do you want/expect this off season?

Speaking only for myself. I would like to see zero turnover this off-season with the possible exception of Helton hiring or promoting someone to OC. I think that at this point, the stability is important.

Some folks have been upset about the defense. I think the defensive issues under Wilcox are more the result of depleted numbers from the sanctions and injuries, as well as counting on lots of freshmen and sophomores. If we don't see improvement on the defense over the next season or 2, then I would be on board with looking elsewhere.

 

[trojanfan12]

If you take away the name and just look at resume as far as a 1st year HC.... They could do much worse, USC recruits itself so.. no REAL need for a flashy name for a HC.

won his division
crushed who many thought was the best fit (KW @ Utah)
destroyed their rival UCLA.

They surround him with good assistants now and USC will be fine imo.

^^^THIS^^^

People who are saying that USC needed to go after a "big name" or "splash hire" are ignoring the fact that USC has NEVER made a "big name" or "splash hire." The closest we have come to that was Paul Hackett or maybe John Robinson when he was hired the 2nd time. Both of those hirings ended badly.

In fact, you could even say that Kiffin (for the wrong reasons) and Sark were big name/splash hires, at least in the sense that everyone knew who they were. How did those work out?

John McKay and John Robinson had never been head coaches when USC hired them. Pete Carroll had never been a college head coach and was considered a failed NFL head coach when USC hired him.

I don't give a fuck what a guys name is. He can either coach football or he can't. From what I've seen so far, Clay Helton can.

 

[socaljim242]

was listening to Marcus Allen yesterday and he really likes the hire. he said he noticed more in game adjustments and when they started to run they kept running and wore down UCLA. One thing about the kiffens and Sarks and anyone whos at Baylor-Texas A&M type schools is they are about flashy plays and even if they could run all day on a team they want to throw in some cute passing plays and thats not USC.
Nothing is for sure but if Marcus likes Clay then that's good enough for me.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

What do you think Wilcox's issue is? He seems to be pretty good at pulling in good players. He got some top recruits when he was at Washington. Is he not good at motivating them or are the kids not buying into his system or something?

The defense has the talent they have the potential to have one of the best CB tandems in CFB. They also pulled 4 and 5 star recruits on th DL and in the Linbacker corps. Taking the last two games as an example. USC got little to no pressure on Adams and the secondary left receivers roaming free or wide open. Only rushing a few while playing zone coverage with no help from the safety's. Bad defensive play calling and poor positioning IMO. They finally went to man coverage which suits this defense as Trojanfan12 said this defense is built for turnovers and athletic. Which they did seem more comfortable, were blitzing and getting pressure and turnovers. But the tackling may have been the worst I've seen in USC history. The 19 yard td run on 4th down had 4 Trojans that had it stopped in the backfield fail to wrap. Followed by several other plays where they gave up first downs and a lot of extra yardage off of sloppy tackling. I feel that's either a product of poor conditioning, bad fundamentals or just plain laziness. Personally I don't think USC has a bad defense I think they have a very poorly coached defense. I can't speak for the other Trojan fans or give their perspective but that's what I see and why I think Wilcox needs to go

 

[GeekSportsFan]

I, for one, like keeping hires in house. There's something to be said for consistency and stability in a coaching staff. It has worked fairly well at Oregon so far, no reason it can't help USC get better. My question to the Trojan faithful is: how much turnover do you want/expect this off season? I know a number of you are not happy with the defensive staff in particular. I just wonder how much is coaching and how much is them just being young and forgetting lessons taught in the heat of the moment.

Part of it is coaching. For example, when we were playing the Ducks, it was obvious that the corners/safeties were missing their assignments. Part of it was most definitely because of crowd noise, so why didn't Wilcox switch to man coverage instead of sticking with zone? Our tackling has been an issue all year and that also plays into the coaching aspect, and I certainly hope that's the focus this week in prepping for Stanford.

 

[GeekSportsFan]

The defense has the talent they have the potential to have one of the best CB tandems in CFB. They also pulled 4 and 5 star recruits on th DL and in the Linbacker corps. Taking the last two games as an example. USC got little to no pressure on Adams and the secondary left receivers roaming free or wide open. Only rushing a few while playing zone coverage with no help from the safety's. Bad defensive play calling and poor positioning IMO. They finally went to man coverage which suits this defense as Trojanfan12 said this defense is built for turnovers and athletic. Which they did seem more comfortable, were blitzing and getting pressure and turnovers. But the tackling may have been the worst I've seen in USC history. The 19 yard td run on 4th down had 4 Trojans that had it stopped in the backfield fail to wrap. Followed by several other plays where they gave up first downs and a lot of extra yardage off of sloppy tackling. I feel that's either a product of poor conditioning, bad fundamentals or just plain laziness. Personally I don't think USC has a bad defense I think they have a very poorly coached defense. I can't speak for the other Trojan fans or give their perspective but that's what I see and why I think Wilcox needs to go

Defensively, I have not seen much improvement over last year's defense. We still get slashed with the run game far too often, we seem to be out of position in the secondary in key 3rd down situations, and finally I don't see us getting consistent pressure on the QB.

 

[TheRobotDevil]

Defensively, I have not seen much improvement over last year's defense. We still get slashed with the run game far too often, we seem to be out of position in the secondary in key 3rd down situations, and finally I don't see us getting consistent pressure on the QB.

I agree and i think that falls on the DC. Im just not seeing Wilcox improving the defense. This is a very talented group. Giving them the right DC is A huge step to returning to the SC teams that give other coaches nightmares

 

[GeekSportsFan]

We also have to get away from the 3-4 defense, it just doesn't work for us. I'd much rather see us go back to the 4-3 and have some blitz packages that help disguise the linebackers intentions, ala what the Bills did to the Pats a couple of weeks ago.

 

[trojanfight]

 

[CCF151]

Umm...welcome to the club???

 

[OregonDucks]

LOL!!!