Clay Helton: 'I felt no pressure' from AD Lynn Swann to make changes
Less than a day after saying he'd wait until the end of the season to evaluate any potential changes, USC head coach Clay Helton announced a couple big ones Monday, taking over play-calling from offensive coordinator Tee Martin and relieving offensive line coach Neil Callaway of his duties.
On Tuesday morning, Helton explained the moves and the timing.
While speaking on the Pac-12 coaches teleconference, Helton acknowledged that he met with USC athletic director Lynn Swann on Monday before the changes, but he maintained he was not pressured into those decisions.
"I meet with Lynn every Monday. I sat down with Lynn and told him what I wanted to do. I wanted to have Sunday night to be able to think about it, to make sure that I was headed in the right direction because obviously you're dealing with livelihoods. I wanted to make sure I felt confident and woke up Monday and that was the direction I wanted to head," Helton said.
"Me and Lynn visit every Monday after each and every game. [We] visited together and I expressed the direction I wanted to go in. He supported that direction, as he has supported me all through the season. I'm very appreciative of that, but no, I felt no pressure at any point in time to make any change. It was something that had been on my heart, something that I had wanted to be able to get back to and something that I've been itching to get back to. I thought that this was the appropriate time to do it."
RELATED: Why USC made staff changes now and what it means for Clay Helton
The offensive line has been a target of ire for fans for some time, especially this fall as inconsistent play in every facet (pass protection, run blocking, even snapping) has been seen a key factor in USC's offensive struggles.
The Trojans rank 102nd nationally in total offense at 364.1 yards per game, 115th in rushing offense (120.9 YPG) and tied for 81st in scoring (27.1 point per game).
Callaway, who was in his third season coaching the USC offensive line, is a longtime family friend of Helton. Callaway was the offensive coordinator at Houston from 1993-96 under Helton's father Kim Helton, who in turn served as Callaway's OC during his own head coaching tenure at UAB from 2007-11.
Adam Maya reported earlier that Callaway was planning to retire at the end of the season, though Helton did not mention that in his comments.
"Probably the hardest thing I've ever had to do," he said. "When I come to grips with something, that I know I'm going to do something and I've made that decision, I don't think out of respect to the gentleman -- how much I respect him -- that once I knew I was going to make a change at the end of the season that I don't think it's respectful to allow him to work for the next four weeks with me knowing what I'm going to do.
"I told him that I love him, that I wish it was different, I wish the protection level was better on the offensive line, but I'll always love him, always respect him. He handled it like a pro, like he always does."
Tim Drevno, who had been coaching USC's running backs this fall, is taking over the offensive line while continuing to work with the RBs, with help from the staff's graduate assistants.
Drevno coached the USC offensive line in 2014 in a previous stint with the program before spending 2015-17 as Michigan's offensive coordinator and OL coach. He also coached the offensive line under Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh at San Diego, Stanford and with the San Francisco 49ers.
Helton said he doesn't expect the unit to pull off a total turnaround "overnight," but he wants to see better execution from the linemen in their assignments and improvement in fundamentals and technique.
"And I'd hope to see a line that is a dominating line," Helton said Tuesday. "The thing that I know about this offense is when I look at its skill that it does have a mixture of youth and experience, but I believe there's talent on this offense. And over the next four weeks I'm going to do my best, along with our offensive staff to try to groom that talent, improve that talent and win ballgames and move forward towards the future. And I felt right now to be able to move towards the future that I needed to make this change right now."
As for taking over the play-calling, Helton, who was USC's offensive coordinator from 2013-15 before taking over as head coach, said Martin understood and was "very supportive" of his decision.
Interestingly, though, Martin removed all mentions to USC on his Twitter page.
"He was great. He totally understood that it was something that I wanted to do," Helton said. "He told me, he said, 'Coach, I'm here to help you, I love SC, I want to be at SC. It will give me the opportunity to be a better receivers coach and recruiter.' He's still helping me immensely in game planning and practice organization, being my eyes during the game from the box, still being coordinator. And I'm going to be calling the plays."
There has been speculation this fall that Helton was already taking more of a role in play-calling at times. When asked about that Tuesday, he said he's made a few calls a game, but that he has been doing that for the last few years and it was nothing new.
"Like I've said before, I've had probably three or four times a game Tee was nice enough to allow me to call a play or call a shot that I just felt was there. But Tee handled the play calling," Helton said. "But we've always been in that situation if it's a trick play or there's a shot or I feel something that I want run, he's always been great about, 'Coach, dial it up.' So that has happened, it's happened over the last three years. It's not a significant amount. There are 3-4 times a ballgame that I do do that."
USC is off to a 4-4 (3-3 Pac-12) start and coming off back-to-back conference losses to Utah and Arizona State.
It's been a rough fall for the program as the Trojans haven't even been close in their biggest games, losing 17-3 at Stanford in Week 2, 37-14 at Texas the following week and 41-28 at Utah two weeks ago in a game that was more one-sided than that final score would indicate.
Helton, who took over as USC's interim head coach during the 2015 season before later being given the position full-time, has been under fire from the fan base despite winning 21 games over his first two full seasons with a Rose Bowl victory after the 2016 campaign.
The program's stumbles in big games, like the aforementioned lopsided losses this fall, a 49-14 loss at Notre Dame last year and a 24-7 loss to Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl at the end of last season, have fueled fan frustrations about the direction of the program relative to its perennial national championship goals.
The staff moves this week are the first public acknowledgment from Helton that something needed to change.
"I just thought it was the appropriate time," he said. "I had an itch to get back more integrated with the offense. Being in year three of being a head coach, I just feel so much more comfortable in the role and the job of being the head coach and the duties that come with it that I know the lay of the land now. I really wanted to get more involved and help the offense continue to grow and perform and felt like it was the right time.
"I wanted to be able to make sure I was making the right decision for our team because obviously there's some really good men in Neil Callaway, that I love as a family member, and at this point in time I just felt that it was the right time for our team to make that change."