Here is the Clay Helton I was waiting for all week and it came during Thursday’s press conference.
“When you go to South Bend, Indiana and play a top-10 team and you take them to the brink, you must have played some pretty good ball,” he said.
So what does losing at BYU, who is 2-4, mean Clay?
Helton never says anything about that. And giving up more than 300 yards rushing to Notre Dame is not “pretty good ball.”
This is a true mark of a program in decline when you claim moral victories. Helton is 6-13 against Power 5 opponents without Sam Darnold and that is downright pathetic for a USC coach.
- There’s been a lot of attention on Arizona QB Khalil Tate returning home to face USC. But if I was USC, I might be more worried about about whether freshman QB Grant Gunnell plays.
Tate can be wildly inconsistent and is coming off a poor performance against Washington. Gunnell is a more accurate passer and USC might fare worse if he plays. Don’t be surprised if Arizona coach Kevin Sumlin makes a change Saturday night if Tate struggles.
- If you missed this week’s USC podcast, you can now listen on YouTube here.
- This weekend, USC basketball will host five-star guard Jalen Green of Napa, Calif., the No. 3-ranked player in the nation from the Class of 2020. His other school choices are Oregon, Auburn, Florida State and Memphis.
- USC is going to pay Nevada $1.6 million to play at the Coliseum in the 2023 season opener. The Wolfpack will get $1.5 million to play Arkansas in 2020; $1 million to play Kansas State in 2021 and $1.5 million to play Iowa in 2022.
- Back in August I wrote USC was giving up control of the historic Gamble House in Pasadena. Last week, the Pasadena City Council approved transfer of operations to the Gamble House Conservancy.
This comes after the owner of a historic landmark home (Arroyo del Rey) in Pasadena amended her will to no longer leave the house to the university.
Do you blame either one? Especially after the USC-owned Freeman House in Hollywood, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, has fallen into disrepair and had valuable items stolen.
- Arizona is bringing its entire band to Saturday’s game at the Coliseum. This is the first in nearly 30 years its full band will attend a game in Southern California.
- UCLA snapped its 11-game losing streak to Stanford on Thursday night. The all-time conference record for a losing streak is 26 (USC over Oregon State from Nov. 16, 1968-Sep. 30, 2000).
- Why did USC lose La Mirada pitcher Jared Jones, who decommitted and is now committed to Texas? One theory I’ve heard is that USC feels it cannot afford to take potential first-round draft picks anymore since they sign a pro contract and never show up.
- Ohio State plays a rare Friday night game tonight when the Buckeyes travel to Northwestern. One of the four was a trip to Los Angeles to play USC at the Coliseum in 1959.
- USC won the game, 17-0, but it was most remembered for Coach Woody Hayes getting into a post-game altercation with two sportswriters.
- After Hayes berated the Buckeyes, Al Bine, a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Examiner, accused Hayes of attacking him and Dick Shafer, of the Pasadena Independent Star News.
Hayes said he merely hastened the reporters from the locker room, but Dick Shafer said he was punched in the back.
“I’ve been writing boxing for 21 years and I know a punch when I see one,” Bine said.
But Hayes told UPI, “I didn’t hit anyone. I just told them to stay out. When one of them wouldn’t leave, I shoved him along, that’s all.”
Shafer recalled the incident differently.
“Hayes yelled at us (reporters) to get the hell out of the way, then swung and slammed me into the wall (outside the Buckeyes’ dressing room),” he said.
InsideUSC with Scott Wolf 
My brother and I were at that ’59 game…a win over the ‘3yards and a cloud of dust’ buckeyes led by their all American fullback,Bob Ferguson, who previous to this game was never tackled for a loss…but was in this one. Also seems to me I recall he actually shoved a photographers camera into photographers face…Woody hated losing, me too.
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It makes no difference who Arizona starts at quarterback, because it’s probably gonna be a blowout. Clay Helton will be the flavor of the month for the next two weeks, but only in the eyes of people who know nothing about college football.
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Notice that the Wolf hating rah rah trolls don’t come around after a loss ?
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Yep, but they’ll be running rampant come Sunday morning 😂😂
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So Pudly returns this Sunday?
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Lets hope not
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Yes, when you start counting loses as ” moral victories ” you’re headed for the shitter. And Gomer knows he’s done, but he’s doing everything he can to show the BOT & new AD ( if they ever hire one ) that they are playing some pretty good ball.
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karma –I want you to close your eyes and TRY to imagine Pete Carroll saying “When you go to the Rose Bowl and lose the National Championship to a great team like Texas, you must be playing some pretty good ball!”
#Yeah.ICouldn’tPictureItEither……
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Question: Is Carol Folt dumb enough to fall for this crap?
#BetchaSheIs….
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😂😂😂
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Hayes was so even tempered. I mean he only slugged an opposing player once. At least he didn’t throw a chair onto a basketball court. And McKay hated to beat him. Once in a Rose Bowl when the game was well in hand and the Trojans were on the goal line, McKay sent in his best back into the game, but warned Woody that the intended play would leap over the line. He gestured with his hand that they were going over but Woody misunderstood apparently and the Trojans scored.
I miss Woody Hayes he was such a good role model for cartoon characters like Donald Duck.
In other news High Five 🖐 to Owns whose Bruins showed up last night those of us hoping another loss to two teams in gold helmets will seal Helton’s fate, have little to worry about if that team shows up in the empty Coliseum.
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“Ohio State plays a rare Friday night game tonight when the Buckeyes travel to Northwestern.“
So much for the “Would Ohio State or Alabama ever play a weeknight road game?” rant.
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Clay Heltons ceiling is a Pac12 championship. Forget about being a National contender. Our recruiting classes are in the Top 5 over the last five years. Once USC aspired for bigger things . Not anymore. Pac12 championship is special in Heltons mind.
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“USC is going to pay Nevada $1.6 million to play at the Coliseum in the 2023 season opener. The Wolfpack will get $1.5 million to play Arkansas in 2020; $1 million to play Kansas State in 2021 and $1.5 million to play Iowa in 2022.”
For around $1.5 million, the wolfpack will go anywhere to play.
I guess that is one way to deal with a university’s budget problems. But these are the types of choices that will inevitably lead to players getting paid.
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67 –There used to be a heavyweight fighter named Chick Wepner who’d go anywhere & fight anybody for $100,000 —– he kept getting knocked out but he made some money.
#NevadaMightBeOnToSomething….
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It was Chuck Wepner (the “chick” was a Freudian mistake).
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Michael, Was there ever a fighter who had his nose broken more often than Wepner? As a kid, I would cringe when I saw the photos of him after
a fight in the sports page.
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If I’m not mistaken, Howard Cossel was so sickened by watching Ali beat up Wepner that he told ABC he wouldn’t cover boxing anymore…..
#IHopeHeltonDoesn’tHaveSimilarEffectOnBrockHuard…..
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MG
Cosell refusing to cover boxing was after Larry Holmes thrashed Tex Cobb (have never seen anything stand up to that kind of punishment and refuse to quit…even Rocky Balboa).
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Good call —you’re right, 67. [And, yes, that was brutal]…..
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You mean The Real Rocky? https://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/page/IamChuckWepner/chuck-wepner-recognized-rocky-fame
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Wepner, for all his beatings in the ring, was a pretty interesting guy, gt.
#AndHe’sStillGotAllHisMarbles
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You could say the blood on Wepner’s face was a “Bobby Chacon Red” in color.
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Dude –I ended up sitting next to Bobby at the closed circuit showing of the second Ali/Frazier fight (at Cal State Northridge). Whatever problems he may have had later in life, he was a total sweetheart that night, talking to fans for almost an hour after the fight…….
#…GladTheyAnnouncedHisPresenceToCrowd..
#…EvenMoreGladHeGotHugeApplause
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Nice to hear you sat next to him Michael. All I remember about Bobby is he was a bleeder.
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They have no choice, kinda like the FCS teams go get slaughtered to make money, that’s how Reno keeps their athletic department afloat since no one attends their games, except when Boise shows up and fills the place with their fans
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I can see why Nevada would take the deal to play us —-but what do we get out of it? They don’t help our tv revenue, they don’t help our national ranking, they don’t fill the stadium…. they’re just a team we know we can bea…… oh, never mind…..
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MG,
You can bet(no pun intended) that the line at South Shore\Reno & Vegas will be a lot more active than for the Davis game. Somebody will be making money.
#💰
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Contrast Helton with Nick Saban…
“And they ran through our ass like (crap) through a tin horn, man, and we could not stop them. …
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I wonder if General George S. Patton would be would be positive about moral victories. I figure not. Why does Helton then? Because Helton is no leader.
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