FOOTBALL

Sunday Night With Clay Helton

Clay Helton unloaded this gem in his Sunday night teleconference.

“I am always confident in John Baxter.”

I guess Helton is going to do down with the ship when it comes Baxter’s shoddy special teams.

Here is what Helton said about the rest of the season:

“There’s a lot of football that’s left to be played, and anything can happen. We have to worry about what we can control.

“When you’re playing a good football team like Oregon, it’s very important to play clean football. We did not do that.”

Helton said this team is different than last year because it bounces back better from adversity.

The call usually lasts 20 minutes but was less than 15 tonight because of a lack of questions.

38 thoughts on “Sunday Night With Clay Helton”

    2. Helton is pleading because he knows he is gone but doesnt want to get the ” tarmac” treatment and finish the season. He needs to go as soon as possible to save recruiting this year.

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  2. Helton: “This team bounces back better from adversity than last year’s team.”

    Sure they do. After 2 straight years of adversity, this year’s team is much more experienced in dealing with adversity.

    As far as Baxter goes, he is now at or below the level of Calloway. There is not a special teams coach anywhere in organized football who would have made the same decision as Baxter did last night before halftime.

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    1. “Organized football” is getting pretty loose with the language.

      If Gomer had any shred of integrity he preaches to possess, he would admit defeat, that he has been in over his head, thank the magic of Sam Darnold for any success he’s had and just step aside. He could walk away with an ounce of respect from the Trojan Family.

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      1. Doesn’t seem to be much interest in integrity and respect these days at SC.

        Haden, Swann, Helton, all threw away integrity and respect for $$$.

        Liked by 4 people

      2. “Organized Football” — chose that language purposefully, because I don’t think even the Pop Warner coaches in the country would have done what Baxter did.

        Liked by 3 people

    3. 67 —First 2 paragraphs are hilarious.
      Velus is absolutely the worst kick returner we’ve had since I started attending USC games. He has that one magnificent run and the rest has all been pure crap —fumbling, not letting the ball bounce into the endzone, rarely getting past the 20 when he takes the ball in the air. And Helton and Baxter just let him do his dumb thing every week —putting Slovis in the hole on countless drives.
      Although, Harrell and Baxter are frauds —at least Baxter had his day in the sun. We’re all still waiting for Harrell to do something imaginative on offense. It’s not an Air Raid —it’s a 3 receiver offense (with pretty much the same 3 receivers getting 80% of the plays —–and, recently, Drake getting the rest). It’s hard not to think that Harrell isn’t just mailing it in at this point. He looks bored and sullen in interviews —and we’ve got 3 tricky games to go.

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      3. 67 —I think you can safely delete the word “decent” from that sentence…..
        #WonderIfHeFullyAppreciatesTheBadSituationHe’sGottenHimselfInto?

        Liked by 3 people

  4. I am not sure we are much different than Florida State at this point. The question is can we recapture the magic? FSU thinks it can . Lets hope we do

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    1. According to Scientific American that has only happened once in recorded history —- a man spontaneously burst into flame and disappeared on a beach in France in 1903….
      #ButHoldThatThought…
      #….AtLeastWeKnowItCANHappen

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  6. Did anybody catch the Piglet’s amazing, to whom may concern INT to avoid a red zone Miami sack during the Jets 18-26 Miami defeat?

    Somethings don’t change.

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  7. Here is the thing about Helton (yet again): He wants to protect players to point where he plays scared. Special teams play is a microcosm of the team- Baxter does not, for the most part, play starters in punt coverage or kickoff coverage for fear of them getting hurt and this can be directly attributed to Helton. Special teams play can be especially violent, but you can’t play scared and you can’t play backups and freshmen only against good teams,who play their firsts, and not think that it won’t bite you at some point.

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  9. “I guess Helton is going to do down with the ship when it comes Baxter’s shoddy special teams.” I guess Wolf is going to go down with the ship when it comes to his shoddy proof-reading.

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  10. Ladies and gentlemen I am done with this blog. I don’t know if there is some moron that takes personal pleasure in removing posts with reference to manure, or this blog suffers from posting issues, but I have lost my last post due to the glitches herein.
    It has been fun but my time is worth more than they pay the sensor.

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    2. We’ll miss your wit and wisdom. The trick is not to use words that tick the “sensor” off.

      This Wolf blog version is very liberal compared to the old Wolf Blog where the censorship was very aggressive. Numerous posters (Me too) were regularly banned. The only thing I miss from the old SW Blog is the EDIT feature.

      Often, my brain and eyes are on different pages.

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      1. The edit feature is available on TDB but only for a short while after you post. It would have been the first place to go when my sensor gets censored. And really that’s why it takes me so long to post sometimes. The stupid tablet is like a joke that keeps giving. Spelling errors and disappearing words abound.

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      2. Owns, you are so right about the Daily News blog, it was getting impossible to post anything on that thing, I got banned over 10 times, HAHAHA

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  11. I’m going to paraphrase John Baxter, “Here’s the deal, the Special team play was actually very effective. This is the first USC game that our new AD actually watched with interest and we demonstrated that we have the best coaching staff in the country.” As far as Helton, he lost the fan base last year because USC fans are astute fans of football. Its been 3 years (even Darnold’s last year the wins and losses were ugly) that this team did not pass the eyeball test. I actually do not know what he was seeing when he kept saying, “I need to go back and view the tape.” If he had half a brain he would have seen all the problems that the rest of us fans and bloggers to this site see week in and week out. I will never understand why he never corrected the problems with players or his assistant coaches. It’s not in his nature to be a badass and his Director of Discipline Schtick was another false Helton lie. He probably lost the kids and his new boss Saturday night. Which is good in the sense that this Helton crap will come to an end, but bad in that it’s going to be tough to get one win in the remaining 3 games and be eligible to play in the Cheetos Krappa bowl in Shreveport on Dec 27. Helton was the last remaining adult in the room when the Sark fiasco occurred and that’s how he got the job. Although he demonstrated then that he was an adult, he has also demonstrated the he is Kim Helton’s son (24-57-1) when it comes to a coach.

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  12. Pretty much the same from WeAreSC.com:

    Injury updates: Greg Johnson and Dominic Davis are in concussion protocol. Liam Jimmons dislocated his elbow and will be out an extended period of time.

    Helton said after watching the tape, he feels “a lot like [he] felt last night.”

    “When you’re playing a good football team like Oregon, it’s very important to play clean football, and we did not do that,” Helton said.

    With their Pac-12 South destiny wrestled out of their hands, Helton said there is a lot of football left to be played, they’ll take it one week at a time and see what happens at the end of the season. Helton said he really liked the defensive play over the first three Oregon drives.

    “I thought the first three drives opportunities Oregon had are what our defense can be,” Helton said. “Ultra-aggressive, assignment-wise they were lights out, and playing with their hair on fire. That quality of play is what we need at all times.”

    Helton noted that the defense was hurt by the four offensive turnovers and the special teams return touchdown.

    “I think there were three minutes left in the first half and it’s a 10-7 ballgame, all of a sudden you go to the next clip on film and it’s 28-17,” Helton said.

    While the defense performed well early, Helton said the third quarter was a different story, as they couldn’t get off the field on third downs.

    As for Kedon Slovis’ turnovers, Helton said the fumble in the redzone was the backbreaker, and that the first-possession touchdown pass to Drake London might have helped cause it. After Slovis was able to buy so much time on that touchdown, it looked as though he was trying to do it again. Helton said he probably had Amon-Ra St. Brown, his fifth option, open along the sideline, but Slovis “kind of waited for something to create and got hit from behind.”

    On the interception that was returned for a touchdown, Helton said Slovis stared the receiver down a bit, but that he also was hit as he released the ball and that affected the pass. As for the interception on fourth down, Helton mentioned that Tyler Vaughns get “entangled” with the safety on a play that wasn’t called a penalty.

    Helton said he knows this team will continue to fight over the final three weeks of the season.

    “I know they’re going to go out and do their jobs, because that’s what professionals do,” Helton said.

    The Trojans continue to not get much in the way of a kickoff return game since the return touchdown in the opener, and the kickoff return touchdown allowed was a devastating play just before halftime. Still, Helton said he trusts special teams coach John Baxter.

    “I am always confident in John Baxter,” Helton said.

    “There’s a lot of football left to be played and anything can happen,” Helton said. “We’ll take this one week at a time for the next three weeks. The most important thing right now is to go compete against Arizona State.”

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    1. 22, Thanks for the detailed notes on the presser! Reading it sounds like the same Gomer drivel. BTW, if the kids are professionals like Gomer said, then we have an NCAA investigation coming. And maybe that’s the problem with the program…he treats the kids as professionals who WILL do the work required to excel on the field whereas Saban and Meyer treat the kids as amateurs and DEVELOP the habits required to excel.

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  14. I talked to Harvey Hyde, former head coach at UNLV, yesterday and he said just bring in Urban Myers. He has no ncaa sanctions against him.

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