USC Football Roundup: Is Clay Helton a “proven winner”? (5/3)

Clay Helton gets categorized as a “proven winner” and the JT Daniels’ media blitz begins. Here’s the USC football roundup for May 3rd.

On Thursday, Ben Kercehval of CBS Sports endeavored to organize college football coaches into tiers and rank them from there.

That’s how Clay Helton found himself in the “Barry Alvarez Tier” of the “Proven winners” category, ranked 14th out of 15 coaches who have maintained Power 5 success.

For reference, Gary Patterson topped the category with six conference titles and a career record of 160-57. The likes of Washington’s Chris Petersen, Stanford’s David Shaw, Michigan State’s Mark Dantonio and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn made up the Top 5.

Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly, Washington State’s Mike Leach, Helton and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham brought up the rear in a group which doesn’t really have any losers.

Helton is by far the least experienced name included in that tier, which makes his inclusion particularly interesting. No other coach in the group has less than 50 wins on the resume. Still, his 72 percent win percentage with 27 wins and 10 losses is exceptional compared to most coaches in the college ranks. He also has a Power 5 conference title under his belt.

So why is it jarring to see the Trojan head coach in the “Proven winners” category? Why does it feel like nothing about Helton is proven at all?

For the third year of his USC tenure, Helton remains very much in the “Wait and see” category for much of the Trojan fanbase. And he may very well stay there until he climbs into the “Steve Spurrier Tier” of blue-blood champions with Jimbo Fischer, James Frankin, Chip Kelly, Kirby Smart and Lincoln Riley.

More from Reign of Troy

• Markese Stepp enters transfer portal intending to leave USC football
• USC football’s Alijah Vera-Tucker declares for NFL Draft
• USC football adds Xavion Alford as transfer from Texas
• USC Podcast: RoT Radio Ep. 396 on the Football Season’s Fallout
• Talanoa Hufanga named Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, USC football with five first-teamers

JT Daniels’ media blitz

And so it begins. The hype around JT Daniels has only one place to go before Fall Camp kicks off and that’s very much up.

Matt Hayes profiled Daniels for Bleacher Report on Thursday, one of many who will attempt to make sense of the five-star quarterback with lofty goals of winning USC’s starting QB job this fall.

“To understand Daniels, you need to know he doesn’t swim in the safe and shallow end,” Hayes writes. “…Daniels is both the quarterback who threw for 12,014 yards in three seasons at Mater Dei and had an absurdly impressive touchdown-to-interception ratio of 152-to-14 in the highly competitive Trinity League, and a deep-thinking teenager who is not afraid to ask the tough questions—about football and life.”

The article includes insight on Daniels’ embrace of Buddhist tenants, his work load to graduate early from Mater Dei and the main reasons those around him believe he has what it takes to take over at USC.

Asking the tough questions of the NCAA

The best, and pretty much the only, coverage of the Todd McNair lawsuit against the NCAA from when it first began came from Dan Weber of USCFootball.com. He’s still the go-to for asking the tough questions of the NCAA and their officials.

One of the latest updates from court focuses Josephine Potuto’s bias in favor of Lloyd Lake even before she joined the Committee on infractions.

Trojan Trivia

Sam Darnold owns the record for most touchdown passes by a freshman quarterback in USC history with 31. Mike Williams owns the record for most receiving touchdowns by a freshman with 14. LenDale White owns the record for most rushing touchdowns by a freshman with 13.