USC 'leaning toward' retaining Clay Helton as football coach for 2020 season, per report

Helton has been on a perpetual hot seat for the last year with the Trojans

By Ben Kercheval

Nov 27, 2019 at 11:54 am ET • 1 min read

USC coach Clay Helton was on the hot seat before the 2019 season even began. However, after leading the Trojans to an 8-4 record despite numerous injuries to key players, Helton could be back to lead the team in 2020. The new powers that be at USC are leaning towards retaining Helton, according to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic.

The Trojans just wrapped up their regular season with a 52-35 win over UCLA. They would need No. 6 Utah to lose to Colorado this weekend to sneak into the Pac-12 Championship Game for a rematch against Oregon.

Feldman notes that Helton is particularly well-regarded by the university's new administration, including athletic director Mike Bohn and president Carol Folt.

"New USC AD Mike Bohn has been impressed with Clay Helton with the Trojans head coach in his time around him," Feldman wrote. "And USC president Carol Folt, nearly as new on the job as Bohn, also is a believer in Helton, is very comfortable with him and likes the tone of his leadership, people with knowledge of the situation tell The Athletic."

How you view Helton's 2019 season is akin to how you might view an image in a Rorschach test. On one hand, Helton has a head-to-head win over Utah, and USC has played its best football down the stretch in spite of numerous injuries on both sides of the ball. There is legitimate praise to be handed out for the way Helton has developed these players. This is particularly true with backup quarterback Kedon Slovis, who is probably the frontrunner to start next season. Slovis, a freshman, has 3,242 yards passing and 28 touchdowns to nine interceptions.

However, the three-win improvement over a season ago still does not put USC among the ranks of Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, LSU, Georgia and other college football blue-bloods who are ruling the sport. That's where Trojans boosters and fans want to be, and after five full seasons, it's fair to wonder if Helton can get USC to that point.

For now, however, it appears he has the allies to return in 2020 -- something he didn't have a year ago when Lynn Swann was the athletic director and there was a change in leadership at the top of the university.