FOOTBALL

USC Morning Buzz: Clay Helton’s Fuzzy Logic Returns

When Clay Helton doesn’t care about the fans enough to do more than a cell-phone interview with the in-house USC radio show on Signing Day, it says something.

Worse, Helton didn’t even make sense during the interview.

Helton said he was thrilled he had the chance to hire defensive coordinator Todd Orlando after he was fired at Texas.

“I was like, `Wow, there’s one of the best defensive coordinators in the country and we’ve got an opportunity to garner him,’ ” Helton said.

Let’s examine that for a second: Clancy Pendergast was fired Dec. 28.

Orlando got fired at Texas on Dec. 1. Orlando was then hired by Texas Tech on Jan. 8.

That means Orlando was so special that Helton allowed Texas Tech to hire him first!

And then needed an additional 12 days before he hired Orlando. That was more than three weeks after Pendergast got fired.

Does it sound like Helton was dying to hire Orlando?

Can you trust anything Helton says about anything?

24 thoughts on “USC Morning Buzz: Clay Helton’s Fuzzy Logic Returns”

  1. PUT UP THE $20 MILLION TO BUYOUT HE’LL TON Because He’ll Ton never gave a Shit about this Recruiting Class all HE’LL Ton wanted was his Defensive coordinator EVERY One and the Media said they would FIRE HE’LL Ton which Never was going to happen because of $20 Million that Lynn Swan owes USC

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  3. Garner, eh? Lord knows I haven’t always been the smoothest bloke using words and such, but damn Clam… garner? I understand that people can garner wins (or in your case losses), ribbons, young warrior effort credits, etc, but didn’t know garnering coaches was a thing. I guess big pic it’s pretty petty pickin’ apart yer grammar graciously given in response while busy fleeing the scene of the crime… apologies. Speaking of fleeing, what’s with you packing up yer integrity and heading stage left when it’s time to face the music? You ran away after Iowa and now you’ve run away after NSD2. You’re supposed to be our fearless leader, a man just oozing integrity, etc, etc, blah blah blah. Just stop running bruh, no need to. Just accept, like most everyone else has, that big days like this, whether it’s signing day, a bowl game, a game against legitimately ranked opponents (home or away), or whathaveyou, you’re gonna get bent over and… well, you hear the banjos playing… I’m sure you got the point (no pun intended). Hey look, on the sunny side of the street you’ve done something few thought possible… no, I’m not talking ’bout pulling in a yellow bus full of walkons on nsd2. I’m talkin’ bout destroying the whole myth of first impressions being lasting impressions. You’ve come a long, long way from the “honor the uniform” Rose Bowl locker room spiel to the “can’t hear ya my battery is dying” drivel of last night.

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    1. Occidental — Okay, so Clay literally pulled a Pee Wee Herman routine and acted like he couldn’t hear his girlfriends over the phone. Big fricking deal. Can’t you see he’s just practicing for the aftermath of the Alabama game?!
      I have this bad feeling that Clay will enter the post game conference room and do a rooster squeal —like the professor in the Blue Angel— leaving everyone with an unmistakable image of his final disgrace….
      #…AndThenDisappear

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  4. Keep in mind, Helton knew Clancy would be gone well in advance of the December 28th announcement. But waited for the first month of the new year to hire Orlando?

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      1. You must be a relative of Helton!
        Or wanting a job from him! Or on Folt’s
        Staff!!
        What planet have you been living on
        These past couple of years?

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      2. At best, Helton has a plan to win 9 or 10 this year, but the overall decay in the program continues every year, as recruiting goes from bad to worse.

        If they cant win with 5 star athletes, then they wont win with a whole new batch of 3 star athletes.

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  5. This “one of the best defensive coordinator’s in the country” wouldn’t have even been selected had Helton not been turned down by his first choice – Joe Barry.

    And Barry was an NFL position coach who wanted to be a DC. He didn’t get the Rams DC spot and instead of taking the USC DC job decided to remain as a Rams position coach.

    After that clusterf***, that’s when Helton went to get “one of the best defensive coordinators in the country.”

    #RejectedAndStrungAlongBy1stGirlAndNowTellingEveryoneYourNewGirlfriendIsWhoYouReallyWantedAllAlong

    #EveryOneKnowsIt’sB.S.

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  6. Plan? Everyone has a plan. Question is, what do you do/say/act when the plan cleary isn’t going as… uhh, planned? Do you stand tall and take your lumps like a man, or do you start limiting access to practice, ignore tough questions, give bs answers when pressed, run off football fields like a child, or escape in your car and play the “my battery is dying” card? It’s fairly obvious to even the most casual observer that Clay Helton thought he could control the narrative long enough for him to somehow stumble into success. News flash: winners don’t stumble into success. Winners acknowledge shortcomings and work there tail off to ensure those same problematic areas don’t keep showing up when you can least afford them to. If Clay Helton had any of the qualities some are hoping magically appear this season, they would have shown themselves at some point along his “25 years as a ball coach”. He was the wrong choice to begin with, has done NOTHING since to prove that wrong, and every year that the apologists allow him to flounder along talking gobbledygook, he’s costing the very players he claims to love another of the 4 short years they have left playing a game they love. Where is the fucking integrity in that? Life sometimes presents us with situations/scenarios where we know were not the man/woman best suited for a given job. And in those cases where our inability to do a job well actually takes away from those counting on us to do that job well what should we do? Well, if you have any integrity the answer is easy.

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    1. SPOT ON! If only Coach Folt could read the above, she too would know the MEANING of integrity. Funny how a “game ball” turned her brain to mush.

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  7. Even if you set aside all of Heltons off field hijinks and just look at nothing but ball you have to ask why on earth is he in the captains seat? Head football coaches at prominent levels are usually employed because of some overarching philosophy that comes with some proven detailed and documented plan for bringing that philosophy to life in action on the field with concrete results. All that said, guess what? Ya, Clay doesn’t even have a philosophy for how to play the game. When you can go from gumbo to Tee Martin, to his brother, to Kingsbury (if only in theory) to Harrell and his own mods on what a Kingsbury would’ve done in less than 4yrs it is undeniable proof he doesn’t have any offensive philosophy. Strike 1. When you can roll from Wilcox to Clancy and the mishmash of spare parts coaches that a Helton run organization could scrape together in the same timeframe it is undeniable proof you don’t have any defensive philosophy. Strike 2. When you throw all of these coaches in a blender that have no cohesion, no history, no familiarity, and no commonly held architecture, plan, philosophy to work towards, it’s pretty damn hard to identify, recruit, attract, and land the right type of player. Strike 3.
    Imagine you wanted to build a home. You see Clay’s General Contractor ad somewhere that says “I build homes with integrity” and soley based on the integrity line you decide he’s the man for the job. First day on site you discover there’s no blueprint and all the subcontractors are doing whatever they want or know off their own concept of what the house should look like. How long would you wait to fire his ass as GC?

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    1. Occidental,
      I salute the roll up of Wilcox for Pendergasp.
      Wilcox is in a much better place. In three yrs, One position coach lost to the NFL. One OC lost(not renewed) to become a HC.
      Wilcox actually played in college & grew up around an NFL HOF father.
      And has the respect of his players because for a start he doesn’t bravo sierra his players.

      Have we forgotten that the real problem is not Helton or Wilcox? The real devil is Larry Scott. No accountability for Larry Scott(being pd like royalty)& the PAC is starving for revenue.

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  8. Pretty simple our once aspirations of national championships isnt going to happen under Helton. Sure we might win a Pac12 south or pac12 and he will gloat about it. But there it ends . If he comes within 20 pts of Alabama he will call it a victory. There lies the problem.

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    2. How about that great song about regret and anger by Frank Sinatra, “Send in the Clowns?”

      #RegretForHiringClayHeltonAsHC

      #AngerForStillHavingClayHeltonAsHC

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  10. The Golden Rules of Corporate Schmucks (and apparently Head Football Coaches as well)
    Rule #1: Never Admit you’re wrong
    Rule #2: If you get exposed for being wrong, have someone to blame, throw under the bus and/or fire.
    Rule 3: If you no longer have anyone to throw under the bus and before you get fired, resign for one of the following reasons a) Health b) Spend more time with the family, or c) Pursue a new and different opportunity.
    Rule 4: After you get a new gig, start over at Rule 1.
    Helton seems to be approaching Rule 3 rapidly.

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    1. Rule #3 goes into effect 5 minutes after time runs out in the Alabama game. Clay’s already been told. He’s mailing it in until then…..
      #ThanksBohn!
      #ThanksFolt!
      #GreatPlanForSpring&FallPractice

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  11. Pingback: If It's Friday, It's Time For A USC Notes Column – InsideUSC with Scott Wolf

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