The USC Trojans have announced that they have fired their football Head Coach Clay Helton. Associate Head Coach Donte Williams will serve as the interim Head Coach. USC cited a desired “change in leadership” when they announced that they were firing Clay Helton. The decision came just days after an embarrassing 42-28 loss to Stanford at home. Helton has been on the coaching hot seat for some time and this move felt somewhat inevitable after a lackluster start to the college football season.
Thank you Trojan Family. Fight On! pic.twitter.com/ejZe6Pr5rV
— Clay Helton (@USCCoachHelton) September 14, 2021
USC Director of Athletics Mike Bohn announced Clay Helton will no longer serve as head coach for the Trojans.
Donte Williams has been named interim head coach for the remainder of the season. pic.twitter.com/8G4xfPnau6
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 13, 2021
Athletic Director Mike Bohn released the following statement following the announcement: “As I committed to upon my arrival at USC, during the past two off-seasons we provided every resource necessary for our football program to compete for championships. The added resources carried significantly increased expectations for our team’s performance, and it is already evident that, despite the enhancements, those expectations would not be met without a change in leadership.”
The USC Trojans are entering a new and much-needed era of football. A former elite program in the sport has been down for some time now and needs a kick start to their football program. The PAC-12 hopes to become better as a conference and an improved USC could go a long way in accomplishing just that. This is the first step in a long process to do that, but it needed to be done. The Trojans just decided not to wait and fired Clay Helton before the end of the season.
