USC Football: Clay Helton rises in college football coach rankings

USC Football’s Clay Helton took a step forward in CBS Sports’ Power Five head coach rankings this year, but is he getting the credit he deserves?

Clay Helton is a coach on the rise. At least, that’s what the voters over at CBS Sports think after ranking the USC Football head coach six spots higher in this year’s iteration of their college football Power Five head coach rankings.

The second-year head man jumped up from 51st in last year’s poll to 45th this time around, as determined by five CBS Sports writers including Tom Fornelli, Dennis Dodd, Ben Kercheval, Chip Patterson and Barton Simmons.

However, that’s still a low ranking relative to other Pac-12 coaches.

Though the Top 25 has yet to be released, there’s plenty of company from the conference for Helton in the 65 to 26 range. New Cal head coach Justin Wilcox ranks second-from-last overall at No. 64. Ranking second-to-last among Pac-12 head coaches, Jim Mora stands at No. 49, a twenty spot drop from last year.

That leaves Helton as the 10th-ranked Pac-12 coach, behind the likes of No. 44 Rich Rodriquez of Arizona, No. 42 Todd Graham of ASU, and No. 41 Gary Andersen of Oregon State, none of whom made a bowl game last season.

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New Oregon head coach Willie Taggert has some strong expectations ranking No. 31 while Colorado’s Mike MacIntyre certainly earned his place at No. 30 by winning the Pac-12 South in 2016.

With the Top 25 due to be revealed at a later date, Stanford’s David Shaw, Washington’s Chris Petersen, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham and Washington State’s Mike Leach absence from the current list marks them as Top 25 coaches from the Pac-12.

Is that fair to Helton, who took USC to the Pac-12 championship game as an interim and notched 10 wins and a Rose Bowl victory as a first-year official head coach? Probably not.

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For Helton, skepticism about his hiring has now bled into skepticism about just how much of a role he played in USC’s 2016 rise.

Here’s how Fornelli put it in the ranking rundown: “I don’t know if Helton is a great coach at this point. I don’t think anybody does. What I do know is that he’s got a quarterback that could help make sure he continues to climb these rankings.”

As it stands, Helton’s success is tied to Sam Darnold’s success. Until he wins without Darnold, it’s doubtful he’ll get much credit for his coaching accomplishments.

Either way, you shouldn’t have to be considered a “great coach” to rank above Rodriguez, Graham and Andersen.

Helton will have several opportunities to prove his coaching chops in conference, as well as out of it. Texas’ Tom Herman ranks No. 28 and Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly is apparently still clinging to a Top 25 place.

With a successful 2017 campaign, perhaps Helton will start to get his due.

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