FOOTBALL

How On Earth Did Clay Helton Retain John Baxter?

Clay Helton knew he was on the hot seat after last season.

He needed to make massive changes. For some reason, he kept special teams coach John Baxter and defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast.

For now, let’s focus on Baxter. USC’s special teams have become comically bad. The kickoff team looks like a high school team.

USC gave up a 97-yard return and Helton said he ordered Baxter to start doing squib kicks. They were mostly horrific. Baxter knew after last week the kickoff team was bad. Why didn’t he practice pooch kicks? Because he thinks he is smarter than everyone else.

Then there were the four false starts on special teams.

If Helton has any hope of impressing Mike Bohn, he won’t do it with shoddy special teams. But Helton refused to make the change last season when he had the chance. He protected Baxter.

USC’s kick returns are non-exisitent. It has trouble getting 11 men on the field for special teams.

And now all of it is helping to make him a laughingstock.

43 thoughts on “How On Earth Did Clay Helton Retain John Baxter?”

  1. This is what happens when an organization doesn’t hire qualified people.

    Haden wasn’t qualified to be AD, and he picked Helton over Orgeron.

    Swann wasn’t qualified to be AD, and he extended Helton.

    Helton wasn’t qualified to be HC, but hey, he wasn’t going to turn down $4 million per year.

    What is surprising is that Helton has gotten worse over time, as have his assistants.

    Bohn didn’t take this job to watch the 3 Stooges coach SC football into the crapper. Helton will be gone. It doesn’t matter if he wins out. There is no uncertainty about his lack of ability as a coach.

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    1. Up til today USC keeps extending Helton’s tenure cuz he continues saying he loves the job and is trying as hard as he can. He loves —but can’t handle —the job?! Now, in what high level position is that ever enough? They don’t even keep folks in the local church choir who love singing but can’t sing.
      #GrowSomeBallsUSC…..
      #LetHimFinishTheSeasonButAnnounceTheSearchIsOnASAP

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    3. “How On Earth Did Clay Helton Retain John Baxter?”

      Same way Clay Helton retained that other idiot Neil Callaway and kept him on staff 3 years…Clay is clueless and just doesn’t care.

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    4. I’ll admit that I at one time was a Helton supporter. I would read Wolf’s negative articles and dismiss them. I know now how blind I was to this train wreck. I apologize to Scott Wolf for doubting you ….

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  2. Bad special teams play that does not improve almost certainly means you have a bad special teams coach. Thank you, Captain Obvious.

    Bad coaches that are allowed to retain their jobs, and consistently not playing the best players based on their merits means you have a bad head coach.

    The answer is plain and simple: clean house. From the football program coaches all the way to the Athletic Department folks who allowed UC Davis onto our schedule. It’s pink slip season. Start handing them out like it’s going out of style…

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  4. It’s REALLY important that all Trojans listen to Dan Weber’s Post Game Analysis —-Weber said that USC players told him in post game interviews they EXPECT SPECIAL TEAMS to give them bad field position —and they’ve promised to do what they need to do no matter where they find themselves. That is extraordinary! The team itself has given up on Baxter —not just the players he coaches …but everybody on offense and defense. They’ve just vowed, apparently, to work around the shit coaching decisions of Helton and the shit coaching of Baxter.
    #WoW!HowManyTeamsHaveToDoItAllOnTheirOwn?

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      1. 2 problems, though, Arturo: (1) Clay’s loyalty is of the lazy, self protective variety —the people he keeps around him are the ones who “yes, sir” him to death and (2) he shows WAY more loyalty to his nitwit staff than to the team he’s paid to coach (the latter having to risk life and limb due to the ineptitude of the former).

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  5. I told you folks back when Inside USC had a decent commenting system that you should have kept Ed Orgeron as your coach. Even though your lost to UCLA that season, he had them playing with heart.

    Anyway, the longer Helton squeaks out wins, the later Urban Meyer comes to town.

    Keep up the good work.

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    1. Hopefully, word has already been transmitted to Meyer that Helton is history as soon as he finishes the season ….and that he [Meyer] is next in line.

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      1. gt –I love the people who come here for every word Scott has to say….and then complain about typos….

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  8. Clay Helton doesn’t have the ability to evaluate assistant coaches, and coordinators, that’s why he has to take what he can get. John Baxter, Clancy Pendergast , and Graham Harrell won’t be coordinations anywhere next season, because they’re not qualified

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  9. Flow, this is a good thing. This all points to getting rid of this mess regardless of wins at the end. This will all work itself out. Two words: Urban. And Meyer.

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  10. After watching Kenan Christon play, why is he not returning kickoffs? He and Velus Jones would be quite a tandem. But they aren’t getting the blocking and the positioning. Why did they want to redshirt Christon when he can win them games? Because Helton is not interested in playing the best performers and winning.

    On defending against runbacks, they are also bad.

    But, hey, if they can’t get a competent head coach the administration has already signaled that they would keep Helton.

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    2. Better solution: (1) Velus learns how to fair catch & USC takes the ball on the 25 instead of the 19 and (2) USC saves the only tailback we have left for 15-20 offensive plays a game .

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  11. Went to a small restaurant on Main Street, Alhambra with big screens side-by-side showing the LSU-Alabama and SC-ASU games. Asked the server why I was the only one there, and he replied that it was NFL football that drew a crowd, not college ball. I thought, “That’s their loss, my gain.”…

    Ordered a big hamburger and coke,and then watched an incredible passing-catching-running display of first quarter action, 28-7 Troy. I said, ‘game over,’ left the premises and went back to my work place…

    What a grand, short afternoon!

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  12. I will say one thing: These kids have not given up on Helton. It would be easy for them to do so, I think it has more to do with Pittman, Rector, and other SRs. But it’s impressive. What’s not impressive is the game plan,

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    1. All credit to the players. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the players had improvised the entire first quarter when things were rolling .Then the coaches got wind of it, Helton yelled at them, and the staff took over from there.

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      1. It’s probably fair to assume that Harrell had a lot to do with that 1st quarter success but I like where your head is at, Arturo. Helton definitely slowed things down after the first quarter. I’m only guessing but I think he probably started thinking, “something bad could happen if we keep playing wide open football —we need to just get through THREE more quarters and get outta here with a win.” I’ve seen so many fighters lose fights thinking like that —including The Golden Boy against Trinidad and Mosley.
        #Don’tStopAttackingJustBecauseYou’reAhead

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  13. Helton may win out beating up on some bad opponents. Go 9-4 and talke about the finish of the season . Meaning we are stuck with him. We get to keep John Baxter and with the returning group go 9-3 next year and play in the Alamo bowl. despite all the talent

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    1. All I can say is thank God we’re playing SUCLA at home. Frankly, I think they’d beat us in the Rose Bowl. Yes, that is how bad we are. AGAIN.

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  15. ” Need to practice special teams this week, JB? Solidify your title as the best in America?”
    ” Naw, we’re good”.
    “Keep up the bad work, Ernie”
    “Sure, Tony”
    ” You got yourself a job.”
    “Thanks, Tony”
    Takes a swig from the bottle of Jack Daniel’s

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  16. MG: I wouldn’t give two shits about Flow’s typos and “sources” if he stopped being such a negative asshole all the time. If he’s shitting on people all the time, then he leaves himself open to being called-out. Fair is fair. That’s how I see it.

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    1. I hear ya, 04. [For what little it’s worth, it’s always appeared to me as though Scott is just following the formula followed by all good script writers: make sure there is plenty of conflict on every page—I don’t think he personally has any animus toward USC]……
      #…Well,Okay–HeMayHaveSomeAgainstHelton,Clancy&Baxter…..

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  17. If Michael Bohn ever needed to see for himself why the fandom is upset, yesterday’s debacle was a microcosm of Helton’s tenure as coach at USC. (And maybe his home life too nod nod wink wink)
    He starts out strong and surging but then quits prematurely. He goes from “I’m the man,” to ” Why me? ” in less than 15 minutes.
    Ask Mr. Bohn if would keep a man who routinely committed coitus interruptus in front of a crowd of more fifty thousand people and TV on weekends in the fall. The sad truth, and you can ask Scott who knows Helton’s wife, is the man simply cannot finish strong.
    Helton keeps his associates as scapegoats and this year it’s Baxter.

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    1. The wife comment is a cheap shot but the “scapegoat” theory is fricking brilliant, Rialto.
      #HeCanSay”LetMeFireSo&SoAndICanTurnThingsAroundNextYear”
      #TheProblem?He’sTheOneWhoHIREDSo&SoInThe1stPlace…

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      1. Well there is no sugar coating it. Or edit button. I would say low hanging fruit, but someone would claim I am homophobic. And that simply isn’t true. I love sameness.

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