Column: USC’s close win doesn’t help Clay Helton’s cause to keep job
USC interim Coach Clay Helton gives instructions to the Trojans in the third quarter Friday night against Colorado.
This is the way it’s going to be from here to eternity, or at least until December, so everybody needs to find a comfortable chair.
Any time USC trails in a game social media’s big board will light up with “This is why USC’s Clay Helton can never be hired as the permanent coach. It’s so plain to see.”
And if USC rallies to take the lead at some point in the game, it’s going to be: “Of course we need to wait and see.”
And if USC ends up winning it becomes: “Hey, why look for anyone else?”
It happened last week after USC spotted Arizona a 14-3 lead before rallying to win.
And it happened Friday night in Boulder, when Colorado raced to a 17-3 second-quarter lead.
The sky was falling, and then it wasn’t, and now it’s on to Oregon, where the sky might be raining.
USC rallied back to defeat Colorado, 27-24, to run its all-time record to 10-0 against the Buffaloes.
The Trojans should not have needed, to seal it, a 13-yard run by Justin Davis on third down in the final two minutes.
Yet, that’s what it took for the Trojans to line up in a “Victory” formation that should have used a small “v”.
Victory allowed “Clay Helton Watch” to continue unabated like an approaching tropical storm on the Weather Channel.
Helton’s position at USC is technically termed “interim,” but he also seems to be “play by play” and “minute by minute.”
This was Helton’s fourth straight win since losing to Notre Dame, the defeat he was forgiven after frantically taking over the program from Steve Sarkisian.
Friday’s win was the least impressive in his quest to earn the permanent gig.
The Trojans benefited from a huge break when Colorado’s talented junior quarterback, Sefo Liufau, left the game because of an injury early in the second quarter.
He watched the rest of the game from the perfect sideline vantage point for a Trojans fan: on crutches.
It seemed unlikely the Trojans could have rallied from a 17-6 halftime deficit had Liufau been running with the Buffaloes.
Backup Cade Apsay, a freshman from Canyon Country in Los Angeles, did a nice job under the circumstances. He’s a talented young player who in his spare time likes to play the ukulele.
With Liufau out, however, USC was able to crank up the pass rush and sack Apsay five times.
Colorado is much improved from the sad-sack program it has been, but there is no way in Trojan World that Friday’s game should have been so close.
It was a cold night, yet, dipping into the 30s, but not cold enough to bother the SoCal sunshine boys.
USC was bigger and stronger, yet didn’t immediately try to impose its advantage.
Colorado ranked last in the Pac-12 in rush defense, so naturally the Trojans started by passing on first down on each of their first three possessions.
It was like USC was trying to be counterintuitive when all it really needed to do was go smash-mouth.
It was this kind of thinking that cost USC in its 17-12 defeat to Washington. In what turned out to be Sarkisian’s last game, USC got cute with the pass on a final drive instead of grinding out, on the ground, the touchdown that seemed inevitable.
If you’re looking for progress markers under Helton, Friday’s performance was closer to a stick in the mud.
Two months ago USC played Stanford to a tough 10-point loss at the Coliseum.
Stanford hasn’t lost since and has improved almost every week. The Cardinal climbed four spots, to No. 7, this week in the College Football Playoff ranking.
The committee was really impressed with Stanford’s dominating, 42-10 win at Colorado.
USC performed on the same Folsom Field, six days later, but there was no comparison.
Stanford didn’t need a late fourth-down hold, or key third-down conversion to secure victory.
The Cardinal blew the fur off the Buffaloes.
Friday’s win bagged USC its seventh victory but got the program no closer to resolving its head-coaching situation.
Athletic Director Pat Haden, still under doctor’s orders, did not make the trip to Colorado.
It is unclear whether he is going to hire USC’s next coach, or whether that responsibility will fall to associate Steve Lopes.
Whoever is assigned the task needs to keep updating the short list of candidates that every responsible athletic director keeps tucked away in his wallet.
The list changes, and grows, and should always be made with a sharpened pencil attached to an eraser.
Helton’s name should be on there too, but not on top.
Not yet.
USC escaped with a win Friday, but nothing that happened advanced the ball very far, or forwarded anyone’s cause.
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