Grinding Gears: USC has coaching stability at last

Not too long ago, the USC football program was the Pac-12 poster child for a program in disarray, running through head coaches and scandals like it was nothing. Go through the names in the post-Pete Carroll era: Kiffin, Orgeron, Sarkisian. All of them took the job with high hopes and promise. All of them left USC on bad terms.

But now, you can make the argument that in Clay Helton, USC has its most stable head coach since Carroll. In Helton’s two full seasons at the helm, there have been no scandals, no major controversies, no spotlight shining on USC football for the wrong reasons.

Instead, it’s the other Pac-12 programs making wholesale changes. When Helton and the football team return for fall camp later this year, they will be preparing to take on a conference with vastly different leadership across the board, involving five coaching changes. In the Pac-12 South alone, three teams fired their head coaches this offseason. Out went UCLA’s Jim Mora, Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez and Arizona State’s Todd Graham. And in came Chip Kelly in Westwood, Kevin Sumlin in Tucson and Herm Edwards in Tempe.

The Edwards hiring shouldn’t bother anyone. Who knows what the Sun Devils are doing, bringing in a 63-year-old who hasn’t coached in a decade, nor been in the college ranks since he was an assistant at San Jose State in the ’80s, and is best known for yelling, “You play to win the game” as the head coach of the New York Jets after being fed up at a reporter. In his introductory press conference, he appeared unaware of the name of the school mascot, previewing how his — probably short — tenure in Tempe will play out.

However, what might bother USC are the additions of Kelly and Sumlin to the conference — specifically, to the Pac-12 South. USC will play these teams every single season — the Trojans get both UCLA and Arizona on the road next season — and the team will have to deal with vastly better coaches than Mora and Graham ever were, both as game-callers and recruiters.

Kelly is a home-run hire for UCLA. If anyone can close the gap between UCLA and USC on the gridiron, it’s him — a flashy, well-known coach who has been a hot commodity in college football since his failed attempt at working in the NFL. Kelly worked wonders at Oregon, revolutionizing the sport with his fast-paced spread offense and developing a future NFL starting quarterback in Marcus Mariota. Not to mention his potential to lure recruits away from USC — both teams are in the same market, and it will take far less convincing for a recruit to say “yes” to Kelly than Mora.

Sumlin, too, is a home-run hire for Arizona. He deserved a better fate than he received at Texas A&M, but he brings instant credibility to a Wildcats program that was reeling a few weeks ago following Rodriguez’s sudden dismissal. Now, Arizona has a quality coach with deep recruiting connections in Texas — and a potential Heisman candidate at quarterback in sophomore Khalil Tate.

It is obviously too early to tell if either hire will work out. Kelly caught lightning in a bottle in Oregon but couldn’t duplicate this in the NFL. Sumlin started his career at A&M with an 11-2 season, but couldn’t sustain that level of success over the next few years. 

Given all this, USC appears to be in a comfortable position. With Helton and both offensive coordinator Tee Martin and defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast returning, the Trojans know what they’re getting from their top brass.

But patience wears thin at USC. This will be Helton’s third full season at the helm. His first year was saved by a midseason quarterback switch and Sam Darnold’s hype train, which the Trojans rode to Rose Bowl glory. His second season was, well … eh. USC won many games it should have won, but by margins that were far too close for comfort, and was roasted in the Cotton Bowl by Ohio State. The loss was enough to warrant grumblings about Helton’s job security. Even following USC’s win in the Pac-12 Championship, Athletic Director Lynn Swann had to confirm minutes after the confetti flew, right there on the field at Levi’s Stadium to reporters, that he was retaining Helton next season. It seems absurd, but that’s USC in a nutshell.

With Darnold gone and a re-tooled roster, consensus is building that next season will be Helton’s first true test as head coach. Can he quiet the doubters by winning with someone like true freshman J.T. Daniels at quarterback rather than a future NFL lottery pick? We’ll have to wait and see, but if Kelly and Sumlin succeed right away while Helton stumbles, the coaching stability at USC might not last long.

Eric He  is a junior majoring in print and digital journalism. His column “Grinding Gears” runs Thursdays.