USC needs a football coach who is both Hollywood and hard-working
By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer
USC athletic director Mike Bohn announced Monday that Trojans football coach Clay Helton has become former Trojans football coach Clay Helton, though he was a bit kinder in the release.
Bohn called it a "change in leadership" in the headline. I call it being fired.
"Clay is one of the finest human beings I have met in this industry, and he has been a tremendous role model and mentor to our young men," Bohn said.
None of those traits let Helton keep his job, though. In case you forgot, winning — and winning often — matters most. At USC, that's the bare minimum.
It has been a tumultuous five years for Helton.
There have been tremendous ups, such as winning the Pac-12 Championship, winning the Rose Bowl, finishing No. 3 in the 2017 Associated Press poll and flipping the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit from Clemson to USC in 2021.
There have also been tremendous downs, such as finishing dead-last in the Pac-12 and No. 64 in the 2020 composite team recruiting rankings, losing the commitment of Heisman front-runner Bryce Young to Alabama and, of course, the event that sent Helton packing, a humiliating 42-28 loss to unranked Stanford at the Coliseum.
It has been quite the high-wire act by Helton to keep his job through a change in university president and athletic director, and he seemed to have done enough last year by getting his program to the conference title game in a shortened season.
After filling the cupboard with three transfers from Texas, including the 2018 Gatorade National Player of the Year (receiver Jake Smith), I thought Helton had USC in a spot to not only win the Pac- 12 but also become the first Pac-12 program to play in the College Football Playoff in five years.
Apparently, so did Bohn.
But rather than wait after the Stanford loss, Bohn decided to get a jump on the top candidates in the market — and perhaps some who aren’t currently on the market.
Among head coaches, both in the NFL and college, I believe there are five people Bohn has to call: Oregon coach Mario Cristobal, Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck, Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell, Penn State coach James Franklin and Jacksonville Jaguars coach Urban Meyer.
Everyone but Fickell has his own cult of personality and a proven track record of success.
Fleck turned Western Michigan into a New Year’s Six team and Minnesota into an 11-win program. Franklin left with a winning record at Vanderbilt, which lost to East Tennessee State two weeks ago.
Cristobal coaches the defending Pac-12 champions, might end the season with the best win in the sport — on the road against No. 3 Ohio State — and has the bravado and hustle to recruit Southern California. We know this because he’s recruiting and developing players from SoCal right now — you know, like presumptive 2022 No. 1 overall pick Kayvon Thibodeaux.
And Fickell? He coached his Bearcats to a narrow loss in the Peach Bowl in a de facto road game against Georgia in January, and his team currently sits No. 8 in the AP Top 25. He might have the inside track, as Bohn used to be Cincinnati's athletic director.
Among assistants, both in the NFL and college, Bohn needs to call Notre Dame defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman before he calls anybody else.
Along with Freeman, Alabama wide receivers coach Holmon Wiggins, Oklahoma passing game coordinator Dennis Simmons, Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables and Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Joe Brady need to be gauged for their interest and interviewed.
Freeman has been one of the rising stars in the sport the past three years, and his boss believes he’ll be a head coach soon. Why not at USC?
Perhaps Venables will say no, as he has to every other head-coaching gig, but you have to call.
Wiggins developed only the second wide receiver to win the Heisman Memorial Trophy in three decades, and Simmons has steadily turned Oklahoma into the kind of receiver factory that put Marquise Brown and CeeDee Lamb into the league.
Brady perhaps is the person you go to if you want to air out your attack again, as Helton was forced to do with the hires of Kliff Kingsbury and then Graham Harrell. He, like Wiggins, Meyer and Venables, also holds something USC hasn’t since Pete Carroll was head coach: a national title ring.
If USC manages to swoop any one of the coaches who’ve had the big job in the Big Ten — Fleck, Franklin or Meyer — we know the Alliance is working out just fine for the Pac-12.
Then there’s a bit more outside-the-box thinking.
"Trent Dilfer should be the next head coach at USC," one industry source told FOX Sports. "Excellent recruiter, works with Elite 11, and he’s obviously connected. Who has the direct relationships with elite athletes? Nobody comes close to Dilfer. USC needs to recruit talent. Dilfer can do that and more."
As head coach at Lipscomb Academy, Dilfer's high school program made a state championship appearance in 2020. He also has the background as a former sports media professional and a Super Bowl ring as a starting quarterback.
But there’s a reason Meyer’s name has been bandied about for this job since he announced his retirement at Ohio State in 2018. He’s a fit, and college football coaching jobs are as much about fit as the shoes worn to run a marathon. Pick the wrong shoes, and it’s gonna be a brutal 26.2 miles that you might not even finish.
The USC job is unlike any other in America. For starters, the Trojans once had a head coach who could make a death penalty joke and get the laugh — along with four national titles.
Pete Carroll was as likable and brimming with personality as any coach ever in the sport. He's also the second-most successful college football coach of the 21st century, and he hasn't coached in college in more than a decade.
That bright, winning smile over the top of national titles is not just what’s wanted at USC. It's what’s expected.
The number of people throwing Ed Orgeron's name at this USC vacancy demonstrates how little y'all talk to USC fans, read USC football stories or lurk on their boards.
All you have to do is listen to know Ed O ain't their guy, and neither is Iowa State coach Matt Campbell. It’s not enough to be hard-working (Campbell) or one of the best recruiters on Earth (Orgeron).
You’ve got to be both Hollywood and hard-working. In a word, you’ve got to be talented because if want-to was all it took to get what you want, I’d be 6-foot-6, 260 pounds and walk around with a cape.
You’ve got to be comfortable in a living room, a weight room and an entertainment executive boardroom. The job is as open and selective as becoming U.S. president.
USC might be the only program in the country at which they want their head coach to be more Hollywood than head coach.
They want Ryan Coogler, and you're trying to fit them with Tyler Perry. They need Barry Jenkins, and you're trying to fit them with Michael Bay. They want Steve McQueen, and you’re trying to fit them with a Russo brother.
They want more, and the list of more is a short one.
But it’s attainable because, not too long ago, we talked about the USC Trojans like we talk about the Alabama Crimson Tide.
They don’t just want to win at the box office. They want Oscars and prestige to go with it. They don't need a filmmaker. They need an auteur.
Bohn’s job now? Find that person and back the Brinks truck up to get him.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.