What is USC doing?

[Codaxx]

Swann comes out and says he is retaining Helton this weekend. Now they have fired about half of Heltons staff. You are now going to have to bring assistants in, while the fans have just raised money to fly “fire Helton” banners. This is not the environment to attract top coaches

 

[jjc2009]

No ones going to want to work for a guy that could be gone within a year. Because his replacement will want to bring in “his” people.

 

[TheDayMan]

Well, they don’t need top coaches, just competent assistants. The state of their school’s admin has been brought up, but no one seems to pay attention to that aspect. Trying to show they’re making changes this way actually makes some sense.

 

[trojanfan12]

Well, they don’t need top coaches, just competent assistants. The state of their school’s admin has been brought up, but no one seems to pay attention to that aspect. Trying to show they’re making changes this way actually makes some sense.

Exactly. I don't think Helton was the problem other than he was too loyal to assistants who weren't getting the job done.

He may not be the guy to get us all the way back, but he can be if he, as you say, brings in competent assistants.

It always cracks me up when people who don't know what's going on, make these kinds of threads.

Next someone will start a thread talking about all the recruits we're going to lose. Even though we still got top recruiting classes during the sanctions, when Kiffin turned into a shit show and when Sark got drunk.

 

[Codaxx]

Exactly. I don't think Helton was the problem other than he was too loyal to assistants who weren't getting the job done.

He may not be the guy to get us all the way back, but he can be if he, as you say, brings in competent assistants.

It always cracks me up when people who don't know what's going on, make these kinds of threads.

Next someone will start a thread talking about all the recruits we're going to lose. Even though we still got top recruiting classes during the sanctions, when Kiffin turned into a shit show and when Sark got drunk.

No offense, but I think this is some pretty poor logic.

Exactly. I don't think Helton was the problem other than he was too loyal to assistants who weren't getting the job done.

If your head coach is a poor evaluator of coaching talent and can not make the hard decisions to move on, he is going to always have issues or at a minimum show a lot of volatility in results. Being a HC at this level is more about managing and coaching your coaches, than your players

On to this mess, my point is you can’t give a guy support, gut his staff, and tell him to go out and get new assistants (see prior point). You have made hiring assistants much harder and expensive (guaranteed contracts will likely be needed). Either you trust him or you don’t. This is somewhere in the middle

 

[nddulac]

Being an assistant coach at USC (or any top program) should be a professional development position for people who want to move on to be coordinators or head coaches down the road. Anyone who expects stability in the assistant coaching ranks at any major program is fooling him/herself.

So the answer to the question, "Who want to go work for someone who might be gone in a year?" is "Someone who wants to pad his resume with experience gained coaching for a major program."

 

[Wild Turkey]

Exactly. I don't think Helton was the problem other than he was too loyal to assistants who weren't getting the job done.

He may not be the guy to get us all the way back, but he can be if he, as you say, brings in competent assistants.

It always cracks me up when people who don't know what's going on, make these kinds of threads.

Next someone will start a thread talking about all the recruits we're going to lose. Even though we still got top recruiting classes during the sanctions, when Kiffin turned into a shit show and when Sark got drunk.

So how many recruits has USC lost being dumbasses?

 

[outofyourmind]

They need to hire Kingsbury as OC.
I mean WTF, its an easy decision.

 

[thunderc]

Maybe they should bring the drunk coach back.

 

[carson]

They need to hire Kingsbury as OC.
I mean WTF, its an easy decision.

Kliff was spotted on the USC campus today. I think he's considering it, but its no surprise he's getting a lot of phone calls. Great time to be an offensive play-calling coach right now.

 

[Codaxx]

Being an assistant coach at USC (or any top program) should be a professional development position for people who want to move on to be coordinators or head coaches down the road. Anyone who expects stability in the assistant coaching ranks at any major program is fooling him/herself.

So the answer to the question, "Who want to go work for someone who might be gone in a year?" is "Someone who wants to pad his resume with experience gained coaching for a major program."

Or a guaranteed 2/3 year deal

 

[Codaxx]

Kliff was spotted on the USC campus today. I think he's considering it, but its no surprise he's getting a lot of phone calls. Great time to be an offensive play-calling coach right now.

Lot of rumors that he has NFL interest

 

[socaljim242]

Why wouldn't you want to be johnny on the spot if Clay gets fired? If everything goes well you're at a big time program if it doesn't its Clay who's going to take the fall and you might get the gig.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

Washington needs to hire Kingsbury as OC.
I mean WTF, its an easy decision.

FIFY

 

[HuskerinBig10]

Nebraska did this in 2017, hello Bob "Can you feel the strain" Diaco. Turned out well for that head coach. The assistants received severances also, and in the coaching world, I think they are all back in it.

He was paid around $6.1 million in a lump sum payment just to get rid of him off of the payroll. Nebraska realized the game Riley was going to play by accepting low wages on his job, so it would not cut into his payments from Nebraska.

He took the lump sum, here is where he is now

San Antonio Commanders Team Page | AAF.com - Roster

Clay Helton, dead man walking.

 

[poewelch84]

Exactly. I don't think Helton was the problem other than he was too loyal to assistants who weren't getting the job done.

He may not be the guy to get us all the way back, but he can be if he, as you say, brings in competent assistants.

It always cracks me up when people who don't know what's going on, make these kinds of threads.

Next someone will start a thread talking about all the recruits we're going to lose. Even though we still got top recruiting classes during the sanctions, when Kiffin turned into a shit show and when Sark got drunk.

Notre Dame had the same issue with Van Border a few years ago.

 

[trojanfan12]

No offense, but I think this is some pretty poor logic.

Exactly. I don't think Helton was the problem other than he was too loyal to assistants who weren't getting the job done.

If your head coach is a poor evaluator of coaching talent and can not make the hard decisions to move on, he is going to always have issues or at a minimum show a lot of volatility in results. Being a HC at this level is more about managing and coaching your coaches, than your players

On to this mess, my point is you can’t give a guy support, gut his staff, and tell him to go out and get new assistants (see prior point). You have made hiring assistants much harder and expensive (guaranteed contracts will likely be needed). Either you trust him or you don’t. This is somewhere in the middle

I disagree to a point. I agree that at this level, a head coach is more about managing and coaching coaches. However, I disagree that it means it will always be a problem for him.

If I'm not mistaken, this was Helton's first head coaching job. At the least, it's his first coaching job at a major university like USC.

He made the mistake of hiring coaches that he was friends with/knew. A couple were his friends (one was his brother) and the rest were coaches he retained that had been hired by Kiffin and Sark (he himself was hired by Kiffin).

He gave those coaches 3 years (although for several of them, it should have only been 2). They weren't getting the job done, so now they are gone.

If he hires the right assistants and things get turned back around, everything will be fine and he can be the HC for a long time like he says he wants. If he doesn't, he won't be the HC past next season.

I guess what I'm getting at is, I don't mind a guy sticking with the coaches that went through the shit shows of Kiffin and Sark and/or giving a couple of friends a chance and I understand that there is going to be a bit of a learning curve.

Now he needs to show that he has learned from that.

 

[trojanfan12]

So how many recruits has USC lost being dumbasses?

None that I've heard of yet. So, less than Auburn probably has for being Auburn.

 

[nddulac]

Or a guaranteed 2/3 year deal

I don't know if you meant a two-thirds of a year contract or a "two to three" year contract, but either way ... who would want that? I mean - if you are Zach Smith and you have peter-principled your ass as high as you will ever go (and know it) you might be willing to lock yourself into a long-term deal. But otherwise, you are generally looking for as short a stint as you can find so you can trade in your experience for a better position elsewhere.

I mean - who knows? I'm really not one to say what other people should do with their careers. It just seems to me though that even Norm Chow got sick of being a coordinator.

 

[TheDayMan]

No offense, but I think this is some pretty poor logic.

Exactly. I don't think Helton was the problem other than he was too loyal to assistants who weren't getting the job done.

If your head coach is a poor evaluator of coaching talent and can not make the hard decisions to move on, he is going to always have issues or at a minimum show a lot of volatility in results. Being a HC at this level is more about managing and coaching your coaches, than your players

On to this mess, my point is you can’t give a guy support, gut his staff, and tell him to go out and get new assistants (see prior point). You have made hiring assistants much harder and expensive (guaranteed contracts will likely be needed). Either you trust him or you don’t. This is somewhere in the middle

Poor evaluator of talent? USC has double digit wins the last couple years, last year they won the pac 12 title, the year before they got a Rose bowl invite in place of Washington who was in the playoff. Did they have a lot of coach turnover this last off season and these guys are new and he should have known better? Because going by wins his first couple years, seems like things were going pretty well. Most coaches would give assistants at least a full season of suckage before shit canning them. It’s not like they’re in year 3 of a downward spiral where he’s been stubborn about keeping guys or something. This is year 1 of their downward spiral.