Georgia Southern formally introduced Clay Helton as its next head coach Thursday. When the news broke Tuesday afternoon, I have to say I was floored, as was much of the college football world. Statesboro was trending nationwide on Twitter after the news leaked. As someone that has been desperately looking for clues, signs, and rumors about who the next coach would be, this move completely blindsided me. In a good way.
Over the past month, I only saw Clay Helton’s name pop up a couple times on message boards or social media. Yeah, sure he was available and had success at USC. But no one took those suggestions seriously, why would the former coach at USC want to come to Statesboro? All signs pointed either in the flexbone direction (Johnson, Bohannon, Davis) or towards guys with SEC ties (Muschamp, Bobo, Briles, Lebby). Turned out Jared Benko had an ace up his sleeve.
I have to be honest, I didn’t know much about Helton 72 hours ago. The extent of my knowledge about him before this announcement was that he took over the USC job when Steve Sarkisian resigned and that he coached Sam Darnold. That was pretty much it. So who is Clay Helton?
Who is Clay Helton?
The part of Clay Helton’s resume that immediately jumps out to you is his time at Southern Cal. Helton went 46-24 as head coach of the Trojans since he took over for Sarkisian early in the 2015 season. He led USC to a Rose Bowl win in 2016, a Pac-12 championship in 2017, and won the Pac-12 South three times. Helton had 12 wins over AP Top 25 teams and helped get guys like Sam Darnold, Ronald Jones, and JuJu Smith-Schuster into the NFL. Prior to being promoted to the head job, Helton was the offensive coordinator and QB coach at Southern Cal since 2010.
Benko really swung for the fences with this move. But why does a guy from LA of all places, want to coach in Statesboro, Georgia? Well, as we all heard from Helton’s southern twang at the press conference, the man is from this part of the country.
Born in Gainesville, Florida, his father is Kim Helton former head coach of the Houston Cougars from 1993-1999, with several assistant coaching stops at the college and NFL levels. His dad was a legendary offensive line coach. Clay’s brother Tyson, is the current head coach at Western Kentucky. The man knows coaching and he’s very familiar with the southeast.
Before joining the USC coaching staff in 2010, Helton spent nearly a decade at Memphis in various roles including offensive coordinator and QB/RB/WR coach at different stages. At Memphis he recruited/coached/developed DeAngelo Williams, the record breaking running back that went onto have a tremendous career with the Carolina Panthers.
Prior to Memphis, he cut his teeth early in his career at Duke and Houston as a running backs coach. Clay Helton has play calling experience that stretches back to 2007. He has coached QBs, RBs, and WRs at different times in his career. As Jared Benko put it, “he is an elite offensive mind.” His track record show it.
The Upside
This move comes with considerable upside. After losing the homecoming game to the hated Georgia State Panthers on Saturday, Georgia Southern was in desperate need of a narrative changer. Eagles fans needed some good news. This season has been as dreadful as anyone I can remember including 2017 and 2006. Ever since Bus-gate broke after the loss to Louisiana, the fan base has been in a bad place.
After this news broke Tuesday, the feeling I’ve gotten from most of Georgia Southern Twitter and elsewhere, has been overwhelmingly positive. Coworkers and my father told me they were impressed by the move. Amy Zimmer at WJCL News ran a Twitter poll where 88% of fans reacted positively to the move, out of 356 votes. The support for the move is considerable.
Capitalizing on the euphoria, the athletic department announced that they were purchasing billboard across the region. Some strategically placed in Sun Belt cities like Atlanta, Myrtle Beach, Jonesboro, Lafayette, and Monroe.
Georgia Southern just hired a coach that won a Rose Bowl and a Pac-12 championship in the last five years. Say that out loud and tell me that doesn’t sound crazy to you.
Jared Benko said he wanted to hire a CEO for the program and he found a man that ran one of the most prestigious programs in the country. Helton is a big name in the college football world. He’s someone that can turn the tide on the recruiting trail for the Eagles and he can evolve the offense to adapt with the times. Helton has ties in the coaching community that stretches back to the early ‘90s, that will help him build a great staff.
Clay Helton’s multimillion dollar buyout from USC means that Georgia Southern can save a bit on his salary up front and build an excellent staff around him. If Helton is still here by year 5, his compensation will eclipse $1 million per year once you factor in incentives.
This hire exceeded most of the college football world’s expectations. The option offense, whether triple or gun, is gone. When everyone expected Georgia Southern to zig, Jared Benko zagged. What’s the downside to such a hire?
The Downside
Just to be fair, let me entertain the possible downsides to this move. As stated above, the option is gone. Outside of the 2006-2009 BVG/Hatcher years, Georgia Southern has either run the triple-option flexbone or the gun-option that Willie Fritz brought with him in 2014. For better or for worse, option football has been a part of Georgia Southern’s identity.
Like I went over in my Drew Cronic piece last week, there are two factions within the fan base: the older, pro-option crowd and the younger anti-option crowd. Guess which faction is having more trouble embracing the move?
With that said, Helton is no dummy. It’s safe to say, he “won” the press conference today. Some old-timers that were on the fence before are inching over into the Helton camp. For fans that saw USC run the air raid under Graham Harrell the past couple of years and were having Chris Hatcher flashbacks, Helton soothed their fears by saying there would be a 60/40 run/pass split on offense next year. He stated that he would tailor the offense to fit our strengths, which is running the football, while also trying to pass it down the field.
The pro-option crowd’s fears are not unfounded. The last time Georgia Southern abandoned the option it was a disaster. The option, particularly the triple, is a security blanket. It’s the great equalizer in college football which is why service academies love it. It may lower your ceiling as a program, but it dramatically raises your floor. Jeff Monken can probably win +7 games a year in perpetuity even with West Point’s strict academic requirements.
Running a more modern, more pro-style offense is going to require an infusion of talent. The following offensive players are seniors: Logan Wright, J.D. King, Amare Jones, Caleb Kelly, Brian Miller, Logan Langemeier, and Aaron Dowdell. Some of them can choose to come back and play an extra year due to Covid, but I doubt it with the coaching change. That’s 4/5ths of the offensive line and 3 top running backs. There could have a situation where Gerald Green and Jalen White are the only RBs under scholarship in 2022.
On the bright side, the Eagles do have Cam Ransom and Justin Tomlin returning. Cam Ransom in particular has the physical tools to be the guy that can run Helton’s system. Even Tomlin looked better through the air against Georgia State. While neither is guaranteed to be the starter next year, it does give Helton something to build with.
Besides the offensive question marks, what USC fans had to say about Helton upon his departure gives me some pause. ESPN detailed it here. Reports of being a “player’s coach” and that his Trojan teams “lacked discipline” are concerning coming after the excesses of the Lunsford era. But I don’t take the parallels 100% seriously.
USC is a behemoth of a program. Running a college football program in Los Angeles, with all of its distractions, has to be difficult. How do you keep 18-22-year-olds focused in an environment like that? On top of that, add in the dozens of rich influential boosters that are pulling the program in different directions. Lest we forget the cheating scandals that ended the Pete Carroll era. USC is a zoo that is hard to control, a zoo that Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian couldn’t control either. The failures of the Helton era there can’t all be laid at his footsteps.
Coming to Georgia Southern honestly has to be a bit of a relief to Clay Helton. While Southern fans known for our brand of craziness, it pales in comparison to a program like USC. He’s back in his element in the southeast. He can start recruiting and building his staff right now. That’s the beauty of this move, we don’t have to wait to see results. Early signing day is December 15th.
For Eagles fans, Christmas comes early this year.
Very interesting. I love the lines: the option, particularly the triple, is a security blanket. It’s the great equalizer in college football which is why service academies love it. It may lower your ceiling as a program, but it dramatically raises your floor.
We've seen the impact of the offensive system change at Ga Tech. Schools with high academic requirements and/or little access to elite recruiting really should consider "zagging" and running something different. Spread option offense is one such example.
Trying to do the same thing as everyone else when you're outgunned is a recipe for frustration.
Wonder if Helton will hire cousin Ricky... 👀 🦅