FOOTBALL

Clay Helton’s Hands Were Off Offense

I hear Clay Helton did not call any plays vs. BYU. That actually makes Graham Harrell look pretty bad because it’s all on him.

Did Harrell really ever adjust to the 8-men deep defense? Why did he insist on throwing over the middle so much when the interceptions and deflected passes were usually over the middle? And, boy, this seemed like the type of game where USC could have used Jack Sears’ scrambling ability.

But Helton and Harrell stubbornly said it was Kedon Slovis or bust as the backup.

13 thoughts on “Clay Helton’s Hands Were Off Offense”

  2. The play is not necessarily designed to go to the middle, it’s designed to go to the open receiver. Your QB is supposed to be able to go through his progressions and find the open guy. If it’s not there, he should be throwing it away or running for a few and getting down. I thought he had all that figured out last week, but that’s not what was happening yesterday. Slovis will be fine and he has a lot more potential than Sears. I think maybe Slovis got a little too much praise last week and was trying to do too much this week.

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    1. Exactly right. Some rookie mistakes by Slovis but he’ll figure it out.

      Still wonder why Stepp was benched. That sounds like Helton, not Harrell.

      Scottie, when do you call out Pendergast? If the Trojan D gives up 450 yards to Fresno and BYU, then guess how many yards they give up to a really good offense? About 600, which delivers somewhere between 45 and 63 points.

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  3. If what Wolf says is correct, then our savior Harrell is a false prophet. his version of the “air raid” is no different than what we experienced last year with Martin IMO. Here is the deal, we want to win National Championships. You ain’t going to do that with some bullshit air raid offense. You need balance with a strong OL that control the LOS. That being said, the defense is average. Good teams, like we are going to face in the next three weeks will have a field day. USC looking at 2-4 coming out of ND.

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  4. **If** as stated by Scooter, Helton didn’t call any of the plays as rumored, a process is in play to develop the narrative that hangs the offensive shortcomings on Harrell, basically throwing the young man under the bus.

    The OC declined to comment after the game, either because he was embarrassed by the performance…or he was so Pissed he was afraid he would strike out verbally at Helton for over ruling his choices, jeopardizing his future.

    It doesn’t matter though, as the loses increase the pressure, outward and within his own mind will do its job on Helton’s psyche, pressure from the Athletic Department, the fans, Alumni and media not mention what he hears from the coaching fraternity, this man is being assaulted from all directions, he lives in a virtual reality believing his excuses and double speak keep him safe, sad really, for when reality strikes it will deliver wounds that will never heal.

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    1. factor13 —I’m hesitant about counterpointing you after you cleaned my clock on the Stanford game — but I think you might not fully appreciate the psychology of the huckster. Helton is playing the short game —- everything he says or does is short range smart. He doesn’t believe in anything other than getting through the day, the week, the month. The “realization” you referred to has ALREADY taken place. He doesn’t believe beating Utah, Washington or Notre Dame is in the cards —but he knows that saying he believes it will maybe buy him another day or week. When he’s down to his last hour on the job (probably somewhere in the vicinity of 24 hours after the Utah game), he won’t feel wounded or damaged for life —he’ll smile to himself, wisely invest his buyout millions and go his merry way…
      #AndNoOneAtUSCWillEverSeeOrHearFromHimAgain….

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      1. Oh….it’s so very pleasant to have intelligent, thoughtful and mature dialog with other good men, it’s uplifting. Of course it’s of a trivial matters, which make it that, the more interesting.

        You describe what could be a soulless congenital huckster i.e. “The Rainmaker, Bill Starbuck” and you may be correct. Let’s look at this in a different vein, Helton, I’m sure when he was given the job…KNEW HE WAS UNQUALIFIED. I’ve always stated my observations of Helton’s frequently mentioned years of experience, in the beginning he would reference 20 years of coaching experience.
        In many Professions and Vocations there is an axiom, as follows “Does Clay have 20 years of experience or 1 year of experience 20 times”

        He’s now to the point where he has succeeded in this charade to be come comfortable believing everyone is under his spell…this makes him delusional and existing in a virtual reality. He no longer sees what many others do, the renewed pressure from all directions is starting to make him behave erratically in his latest interviews as noticed by L.A. TIMES reporter
        Dylan Hernandez. Helton views his virtual reality through a kaleidoscope of
        faultless promise. When reality strikes and he sees his fate, he could become more erratic or even volatile.

        Helton Was “Second String” his entire life, as this illusion starts to crumble…who knows how he will react. He strikes me as classical Passive Aggressive.

        The School, The Alums, the Students and the long suffering fans deserve
        better.

        Cheers

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      2. factor13 —I’ll admit you could be on to something. In fact, it’s possible that Dylan has misread Helton. It’s possible that Helton has been able to play the “good boy me” game for as long as he has because no one has bucked him —not one member of the local press has ever called b.s. on him. As a matter of fact, when he does get a question that he interprets as having the tiniest hint of criticism lurking somewhere under the surface, Helton’s eyes start flashing like broken signal lights (kinda like Mister Toad when he sees a “motor car”). This is more than enough to cause Dan Weber to forget any ideas he might of had about asking a follow up (“I don’t want to suffer an even meaner dirty look —that would be too much!”). What we might see as the end draws near is full blown “aggressive/aggressive” behavior. No stopping at “passive” before crossing go.

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  7. Being pathological no one really knows what the hellton monster conjures.
    An inevitable loser ,he uses others to cover his tracks,and is enabled by the press.
    They don’t want to be shut out of their 10 mins of access to be lied too…
    That’s the new SC…

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