The USC Football program has been on a free fall since the NCAA sanctions. Way too many coaches in and out of the system. An administration in turmoil both on the field and off the field of battle. Battle is a key word as under the current Coach Clay Helton this rarely if ever happened. This team lead by Helton settles. They do not close out an opponent when they have them on the run. This team for three years has had false hope that was propped up by superior athletic capability that masked the the deteriorating infrastructure that top five programs have in their DNA. The recipe that is in the pot in Heritage Hall is flavorless. No imagination and no tenured leadership that can guide the program to a path to greatness. Not going to happen with Swann and not going to happen with Helton.
Clay Helton was still an intern Head Coach even as he entered his third year. Intern after 3 years? How does this happen. Perfect storm where all of the surrounding coaches and the athletic director were Interns as well. No one could see what the world of college football was pointing at and commenting on. Hell even the media had this team in the top 20 when they clearly had no sense of what they were going to do this year. Even their QB position was unresolved in January of 2018 and not announced until right before the first game against UNLV. No time for the newly announced QB who graduated High School two months prior a year early. J.T. Daniels never had a chance. He was saddled with an enormous hole in a program that lacked shovels to fill the hole. They were clueless after every game. They answered media post game questions with statements of uncertainty and the need to watch film. Had they watched even two games of the film they would have at least seen the problem at center with the snap issues. You can’t put a true freshmen in to a Power 5 schedule and then ask him to have confidence pre snap when in fact that a high percentage of every snap was on the ground, over his head, to the right or left. He isn’t the problem and neither was the center, Toa.
Coaches are paid a lot of money to do their job they love. It’s truly a privilege to coach at this level of the sport and also have the benefit of a highly paid salary. They earn it on the field of battle but also must pay for it when they fail over and over. Truly a modern day view of the definition of insanity when program administrators are also repeating the same mistakes over and over.
There is an old saying in business, “The right thing to do is always the right thing”. Well today as USC Fans, Friends and Family wake up they are questioning everything. No answers from Lynn Swann less his half hearted attempt to unite the Fans with the “Get behind his coach and team” rah rah rant that fell short of the problem and slapped the savvy fan in the face.
The Trojans players are solid and deep. This team should be competing for much higher post season awards. Yet here we sit. Non Bowl eligible. We will not beat Notre Dame and UCLA has a very good chance to beat the once mighty Trojans as they prepare for their Bowl game.
To Lynn Swann, it’s time. Put this once proud program on it’s knees and rework the staff. End this now. Pay the ultimate price for a restart and do this now before that locker room is packed up and you still have 2 games to go. Clay Helton is an honorable man. He means every word he preaches with “Faith, Family and Football”. Do him the favor of letting him and his family move on and pay him his due. He stabilized a program but never took it to the next level and never will. We all know this now and have for 2 years of his 3 year internship.
Fight On never give up.
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