Clay Helton matches USC's margin of victory in first game with new gig

Both USC football and Clay Helton won their Week 1 matchup by 52 points this year. In the six seasons prior to this one, that would mean that the USC Trojans won their Week 1 matchup by 52. For this season, however, it means that both the USC Trojans and Georgia Southern Eagles won their Week 1 matchups by 52. Of course, that's because Helton is now the head coach over at Georgia Southern.

USC beat Rice by a score of 66-14 on Saturday. Georgia Southern beat Morgan State by a score of 59-7 on Saturday. They each won by a point differential of 52 points. It's interesting, as many were perplexed by Helton taking the Georgia Southern job. A coach who at least has a Power 5 Championship and Rose Bowl on his resume can likely get a better job than that.

Many questioned why he wouldn't have just waited for better jobs to open up, instead of taking a job quickly after he was fired from USC following the Trojans' Week 2 loss to Stanford last year. Perhaps he saw something in this program, however, that caught his attention and led to him not being able to turn down the offer. It certainly looked like that could be the case on Saturday.

To be fair, former USC Football Head Coach Clay Helton was playing against an FCS School in the Morgan State Bears.

Still, however, the former Rose Bowl-winning USC Football Head Coach Clay Helton did exactly what FBS teams are supposed to do against FCS teams. That would be to pummel the opponent, and that's what Helton did. One can't fault Helton for beating up on a team he was supposed to beat up on.

It's not too surprising, though, that Helton started his Georgia Southern career on a big note. He does objectively have some nice lines on his resume with the Rose Bowl and top three finish in college football during the 2016 season, as well as the Pac-12 Championship and 11-win season in 2017.

Sure, he was a disappointment after that, but not all of it was entirely his fault. Lynn Swann did such a bad job supporting him that it at times seemed like he was trying to sabotage him. He was overall not a good coach for USC, of course. That being said, he wasn't particularly bad when looking at what he accomplished in 2016 and 2017, and analyzing all that was working against him during his tenure.

While the latter four years (2018 to 2021) of the Helton era were defined by underachievement, Helton was a class act and deserves success in the next stage of his journey. The new coach for USC is almost a guarantee for big success in his new job, and hopefully a long-time former Trojan in Helton also succeeds in his new spot as well.