A Jersey Guy: What's Going on at USC?
Looking at the wide world of college football and just wondering:
USC fires Clay Helton
This one almost looked scripted--read Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke's Monday column and read the statements from USC athletic director Mike Bohn later on Monday when he announced Helton had been fired.
This is not a surprise since Helton's job has not been secure since he stepped in as an interim coach to replace Steve Sarkasian in 2016.
There is a bigger picture here than fixing a football program which has underachieved for a variety of reasons for the past 15 seasons.
When Helton was fired after two games of the 2021 on Monday and replaced by assistant head coach Donte Williams it marked the third consecutive time that USC has fired a coach during a season--something that rarely happens in college athletics, even on
It happens.
Florida fired three of its last four coaches in mid-season before hiring Dan Mullen.
And most of the firings occurred in the last few weeks of the season, not the first month.
But three consecutive times?.
Who does that?
When did Donald Trump take over the USC athletic department.
It goes beyond that, however.
Since Pete Carroll left 12 years ago, with a pair of national championships as well as an assortment of other issues which led to NCAA sanctions, USC has had 5 head football coaches.
Again this is USC, one of the iconic programs in the history of college football.
Five coaches in 12 years?
Its just bad at the next level, where Bohn resides as the third athletic director the Trojans have had in the last 6 years.
Now Bohn, who replaced Lynn Swann in 2019 and immediately made the decision to retain Helton, must re-open a search for a new football coach while trying to compete for a conference title.
There is nothing in Bohn's resume which suggests he can handle the task any better than the coaches who have gone through the USC portal since Carroll left--Lane Kiffin, Ed Oregeron, Steve Sarkasian and Helton.
USC has been called the University of Spoiled Children by its detractors and the perception outside of the USC footprint is that the USC and its fans thinks it is better than it is or has performed.
Now USC is again in a spotlight dance.
Let's see how the Trojans handle it.
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Stony Brook at Oregon
Really?
Major FBS schools play not so major FCS schools all the time, often doing it to get another home game and a presumably easy win.
The FCS schools do it to get some exposure and a big paycheck. Stony Brook, whose football program was 900,000 in the red last year, will get a guaranteed check of $625.000 for its cross-country trip, so there is some logic to that.
Why is Oregon, fresh off its dramatic win at Ohio State playing Stony Brook, instead of its normal FCS opponent Portland State or some other Northwest school?
Could it be that the regional FCS schools are too tough?
After all, South Dakota State has already beaten Colorado State and Montana has beaten
Just wondering.