FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Clay Helton’s Not Getting Help From Staff

With Clay Helton fighting for his USC coaching life, it might help if Clancy Pendergast would abandon his well-known stubborness during games.

Pendergast prefers to play man-to-man coverages but against BYU, USC actually had its most success during some short stints of zone coverage.

Unfortunately for USC and Helton, Pendergast didn’t use too much and BYU prevailed. Pendergast does not like to listen others and even with a young secondary, seems averse to mixing up coverages.

He likes to leave corners on an island, which can be a reckless strategy if USC plays a good passing team.

“If I was playing USC, I would throw deep two of the first 10 plays,” an NFL coach said. “That would make Clancy think twice about blitzing.”

Don’t feel sorry for Helton. He is the one who refused to fire Pendergast after the 2017 or 2018 seasons.

31 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Clay Helton’s Not Getting Help From Staff”

  1. Let’s play Jeopardy…
    Answer: One word to describe USC’s recent football failure
    Question: What is Cla(nc)y?
    Correct!
    For clarification the nc during this period does not stand for national champions…

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    1. James — I finally took your advice and listened to Petros’ show on the BYU fiasco —- Petros and his pal are getting better with age [and they were always damn good].

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      1. I don’t listen to them all the time, but that segment seemed so dead on (as did Darrell Rideaux’s after action of the BYU game on WeAreSC – he also goes into the defensive gameplanning issue being discussed in this thread)…

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  2. I would actually leave the corners on an island this week because I want to force Hundley to beat me with his arm. I would be committing as many people as possible to stopping the run because their RB is a beast and Hundley can run too. It’s time for these young DBs to show what they’re capable of. Utah is going to come in here and try to beat us up and we’re going to have to meet power with power. Gotta gang tackle Moss and hem Hundley up to have any success.

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    1. It’s a great idea to pressure Hundley and Moss…stack the box, keep your inexperienced corners on an island, we tried that last year, how did that go…it freed up Covey, Dixon and Nacua to make intermediate and long receptions, they played Dixon like Edelman, slot who get yards after the catch. Our Dline won’t get enough penetration to hurry Hundley off his spot, besides physical football, they know how to play the passing game.

      The first half, UU needs to play extreme physical football, second half, go more to the long game, up tempo passing and finesse, fourth quarter our defense should be spent.

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      1. **Correction**
        Covey is the slot, Dixon normally runs the short to intermediate routes.
        Covey in 2018 (60) receptions (637) yards (1,174) all purpose yards (13.7) yards after catch

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    2. Game Plan —
      -Stay with man to man. SERIOUSLY interfere with Utah receivers (I think you know what I mean).
      -Get to Huntley (I think you know what I mean).
      -Make Moss pay for his trash talk (I think you know what I mean).
      For those of you who are cringing while reading this, check out the way Utah played a team called ”us” last year…..
      #PayBackCanBeSuchABitch….

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      1. I just want to contain these guys. If we can keep Moss below 4 yards a carry, I’d be more than happy with that. I’d like to be able to keep the QB in the pocket and give our DTs at least a chance to make a play because we’re not going to be able to handle him in the open field.

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  6. Let me try and determine The provenance of Mr. Pendergast’ linage.

    BA from Arizona in Agriculture, never played the game, clung on to Kurt Warner’s Super Bowl Win and fired a month after, had one good year at CAL, was relieved from the ‘49 ers, was passed over by his former DL coach, Ed Orgeron for a DC spot at LSU, is stubborn, wont recruit and had three less than mediocre years at SC. His longest stay was at the AZ Cardinals (Bidwells) needn’t have to say anymore, is a butterfly in the League floating from one to the other…he exists in the same manner as Calloway, was good once upon a time, but now relying on acquaintances in the Football Fraternity for a paycheck, nuff said !

    ***Draw Your Own Conclusions***
    There will not be a Test.

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    1. factor13 — I love you but once you’ve compared anybody to Coach Callaway you’ve gone off the Richter Credibility scale……

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    1. Fred,
      Only if they run outside. Clancy has already told teams that we will stop them up the middle but we can’t stop them outside……..
      #Wow.HopeUtahCan’tFigureOutWhereToRun……
      #[ORThatRector&JacksonGetItTogetherThisFriday]….

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  8. Nothing matters……when our OL guards pinch in to protect our center from those monster (6’5″ 327 pound) interior DT’s that move like DE’s……our O tackles will be on islands with their outstanding DE’s. If that was not bad enough the DE’s will swing wide and open a huge gap for their LB’s to have a straight line to Slovis.
    They should tell Slovis to count to two (instead of the standard three) and let it rip. The Utah safeties will be playing tight because there ain’t gonna be no long passes. Unfortunately looking for lots of pic 6 due to their excellent corners playing tight.
    Trying to run with tight safeties is not gonna work.
    Of course maybe Helton will let him be mobile, use the backs in the flat or use a few trick plays to take advantage of their blitz……what am I saying…..this is Helton.

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    1. Do you know that their DB’s are mostly 3 star kids who were very good at track ? Funny, they seem to coach them into being very good football players, imagine that.

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  9. Gomer has his butt buddy Baxter ruining a punter, and averaging one killer penalty on a kick per game.

    He has his butt buddy Clancy totally screwing up the defense daily,

    His OC was wanted by no one and he’s a fake wrestling fan to boot, total hick goof

    His LB coach has been a RB coach, DL coach, DB coach, special teams coach and actually a LB coach at might Idaho

    His DB coach stinks and he stunk when he was here under PC

    His OL coach thinks recruiting 0-1-2 & 3 star kids is actually the way to go, screw the 4 & 5 stars

    His OLB coach is known more for his special teams work than his OLB coaching

    His RB coach is a failed head coach ( 7-24 record @ Bowling Green ), only coached RB’s 3 of his many coaching years and has been a high school coach/asst more years than he’s coached in college

    His DL coach is a DL coach, but aside from Weber St ( 3 years ) and Oregon St ( 2 years ) he only lasts a year at his other jobs ( Utah, Utah ST, Wisc, Boise St )

    His WR coach is an ex USC player who’s previous coaching experience was at Georgia St for a year. He did work at Bama as an offensive analyst

    The head coach was hired by the narcissist Kiffin because he wasn’t threatening in any way and got the HC job thanks to a lazy drunken inept AD hiring a drunk pill popping philanderer and just being just as lazy in “searching” for his replacement

    This is the staff from HELL, a bunch of retreads that no one else wanted or will want

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    1. Just like Steve Sarkisian, Clay Helton had problems attracting quality assistants, because everyone knows he’s clown 🤡. The best offensive line coach that Sarkisian could come up with was, Bob Connelly, who went right back to coaching high school after he was fired 😂.

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    2. karma–
      I read your coaching summary carefully —-and while it’s clever —-it seems to have a bit too much of a negative slant. I would limit criticism to the following select areas—- wide receiver, running back, defensive back, linebacker and special teams coaches… although I guess you could throw in o-line and defensive coordinator…..
      #ClayWouldGetBetterPeopleButHeIsRadioactive
      #WhenClayCallsPeopleTheyHangUp&WashOffPhone….

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  10. No time for a pity party….identify advantages in matchups, sound familiar? Hopefully the kid is better at home, I think he will be, it’s time to cash in on this move, despite the agony getting here….beat the Utes!

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  12. Oh I don’t think anyone is feeling sorry for Clay Helton, he needs to get axed asap so we can move on from the debacle that has been his stint at head coach. Our first clue should have been when it was reported that the players stumped for him to remain head coach and lose the interim title. Quite simply Clay Helton has no business head coaching a division 1 NCAA program, certainly not one of USC’s stature. Get Gone Clay!

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  13. This entire SC coaching crew except the Texas boy are working on a deal that expires in January if they make a bowl; otherwise they are gone come December. So it is understandable that the Trojans’ finest are a bit defensive these days. The mentality seems to be “I know I am about to be fired, but I’m going down doing it my way.” You know, that’s the ol’ Yankee know-how attitude.

    But what about the Utah game?– the beauty of college football is that every game is like a Super Bowl (well, many games anyway). The winner of the Utes-Trojans’ war will have the best chance to capture the South, which leaves it one game short of the Rose Bowl. I’m jacked for this game.

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