Is Clay Helton underrated as USC Football’s head coach?

Is Clay Helton underrated? The USC Football head coach doesn’t get a lot of credit, but his resume is better than you think.

As USC Football enters the 2017 season with Top 5 rankings and national championship aspirations, reasons for optimism are many.

The Trojans boast one of the top quarterbacks in the country. They have All-American caliber players are running back and linebacker in Ronald Jones II and Cameron Smith. In fact, USC has one of the most talented rosters in the nation.

The one thing the Trojans don’t have, is an elite head coach. At least, that’s the perception around the nation with regard to Clay Helton.

In Athlon’s ranking of Pac-12 coaches for the 2017 season, Helton appears at No. 10. Only Justin Wilcox and Jim Mora trail him. He’s outranked by Arizona’s Rich Rodriguez, ASU’s Todd Graham, Oregon’s Willie Taggart and Oregon State’s Gary Anderson.

Over at CBS, the feeling is mutual. Their panel of five sports writers rated Helton at No. 45 in the Power Five, 10th among Pac-12 head coaches as well.

Helton has never lost at the Coliseum. He has never lost to a team with a losing record. In fact, he has never lost to an unranked team.

From a national perspective, Helton sits in the bottom half of head coaches. At the Pac-12 level, he’s practically in the basement.

Could it be that Helton is actually underrated, still dogged by the initial impression of his promotion in 2015?

Looking at Helton’s record as a head coach, business-like comes to mind.

Helton has never lost at the Coliseum. He has never lost to a team with a losing record. In fact, he has never lost to an unranked team.

Having gone 16-7 as a head coach, each of Helton’s seven career losses came at the hands of teams who finished in the AP Top 25. Those teams ranked 2nd, 3rd, 11th, 12th, 19th, 21st and 23rd.

Those numbers could be used against Helton –his record against ranked squads is less than stellar at 4-7. Still, his teams have consistently taken care of business against less-capable sides while also proving the ability to best quality opponents. After achieving just one victory over a ranked team in 2015 against No. 17 Utah –then ranked No. 3– Helton has since topped No. 17 Colorado, No. 4 Washington and No. 7 Penn State.

Sam Darnold may have a lot to do with that success, but his exceptional ability shouldn’t be a barrier to fairly evaluating Helton’s performance as a head coach. When Darnold leaves, the questions around separating Helton’s success from his quarterback will be answered.

For now, it’s worth pointing out that this was not a situation where Helton inherited Darnold. He recruited him as USC’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2015. While it’s easy to discount Helton’s accomplishments because of Darnold, he deserves the credit for bringing the quarterback to USC in the first place.

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He’s also kept the Trojans ticking in recruiting, bringing in two classes ranked in the Top 10 nationally. Both were first in the conference and will be key towards keeping USC relevant post-Darnold.

Moreover, linking the Trojans’ success in 2016 solely to Darnold means ignoring the strides USC made as a team from September to January, particularly on defense. When Helton’s Trojans upset Chris Petersen’s Huskies in Seattle, it didn’t take a spectacular display from Darnold. The defense held high-scoring Washington to just 13 points. Meanwhile, wins over Cal, Oregon and Notre Dame were characterized by outstanding rushing performances.

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Unit-by-unit the Trojans improved in 2016 as the season went on, which is a credit to the staff Helton compiled, including re-hiring defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast, promoting offensive coordinator Tee Martin and defensive line coach Kenechi Udeze and trusting familiar Western Kentucky assistants Tyson Helton and Neil Callaway.

Discounting Helton’s role in the 2016 turnaround also means discounting the affect a head coach has over the mental makeup of his team, keeping them together and focused despite the difficulties which can arise during a season.

The fact that Darnold is 9-1 as a starter doesn’t erase the fact that Helton’s team won 10 games in his first year as the permanent head coach.

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Helton still has much to prove. At USC, anything less than national title contention simply isn’t good enough. But at this stage in his Trojan head coaching career, Helton has put the program in a position succeed. And he probably deserves more credit than he’s given.