Clay Helton on USC's new offense: 'I don't think it is the Air Raid'

USC coach Clay Helton tried to set the record straight Wednesday at Pac-12 Media Day.

"I don't think it is the Air Raid, to be honest with you," he said of the moniker commonly attached to the Trojans' new offense since the hiring of coordinator Graham Harrell.

"I've watched college football and how it's changing, and you look at the teams like Oklahoma, you look at the teams like Alabama that have had specific MO's that now have spread the field more, it's not necessarily taking the run away, it's not throwing the ball 80 times in a game. It's more taking what the defense gives you."

Helton didn't offer an alternate catchy name for USC's new offensive scheme, but more importantly than what it's called is how it performs -- especially if the Trojans validate on the field the excitement and optimism their head coach expressed this week.

"Graham, man, what a stud," Helton said. "He's one of those guys that is a shining star in this profession. I thought we hit a home run when we hired Kliff [Kingsbury]. A few times you win the lottery twice and I really felt like we won the lottery again getting Graham and his energy, his enthusiasm with the kids, his just always being around them and wanting to be around them. He's having as much fun as they're having on the field. It's cool to see."

It's almost easy to forget that this is Harrell's first Power Five coordinator job, that he's only been a full-fledged assistant coach for four seasons prior to this one and that his resume to this point has been built on three years as the coordinator at North Texas.

It's easy to forget all of that when the reviews from Helton and his players have been so consistent and effusive -- and when the foundation for all of that optimism at least seems to be grounded in a logical philosophical shift.

A USC offense loaded with talent that never resembled the sum of its parts last season, that probably asked too much of a true freshman quarterback and that too often gave up on the intermediate passing game for lower-percentage shots downfield is now moving to a simpler scheme built on exploiting athletic advantages and positioning all of those 5-star and 4-star talents to make plays in space and after the catch.

A QB who was among the most acclaimed high school prospects in years and who demonstrated exceptional touch and accuracy while earning that stature is now being asked to think less, quickly find the open man on each snap and simply play to his strengths.

And while Harrell no doubt still has to prove himself at this level, he's certainly earned that opportunity after helping to transform North Texas -- along with offensive-minded head coach Seth Littrell -- from the 117th-ranked offense (320.1 yards per game) prior to their arrival to a pair of top-25 offenses the last two seasons (460.5 YPG in 2018).

Yes, this is what legendary Florida and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier famously referred to as "talking season," but among all the palaver and overflowing optimism delivered at Pac-12 Media Day, the notion of Harrell having a significant impact on USC's offense -- and its turnaround hopes in general -- continues to be compellingly conceivable.

"To see them get better with each [week in the spring], where we were at at the end of week five, I truly felt like, wow, we could go play a game right now if we needed to," Helton said. "In years past, in systems that were great systems but were very intricate, very detailed, a lot of verbiage, you would leave that spring camp saying, gosh, we've still got more work to do to get to where we need to go. I didn't feel that at the end of this spring."

Michael Pittman, USC's Preseason All-Pac-12 First Team wide receiver, echoed Helton's assessment of what this offense should -- or rather shouldn't -- be called.

"Everybody's just calling it Air Raid because that's what first comes to mind when you think of Graham Harrell's passing scheme," Pittman said Wednesday. "But we're actually going to run it too, so we're not quite Air Raid like Mike Leach style, run it twice a game. We're like actually going to run the ball too and I feel like that sets up the pass."

(For his part, Harrell said in February: "I don't mind people calling it the Air Raid if they want to call it the Air Raid. … None of us are the same. … The Air Raid offense is more of a philosophy than an actual Xs and Os.")

Meanwhile, Leach, the Washington State and former Texas Tech coach recognized among the most prominent originators of the Air Raid, also addressed the application of the moniker during Media Day, though not in specific reference to his former star QB Harrell or USC.

His overall point -- similar to Harrell's -- is what does it matter what it's called?

"I think there's several branches. It's funny, you get these offenses. It always seems like the Run-and-Shoot was the most aggressive with it. It was like a religion. Some of these people act like these offenses are religions. 'It's not the true Run-and-Shoot, you didn't do it like the true Run-and-Shoot.' Did they get a first down? Did they score? Who cares," Leach said.

"They did the same thing with the West Coast Offense. Well, that's not the West Coast Offense. … Some things called the West Coast Offense nowadays has Bill Walsh rolling over in his grave, I promise you. Sometimes people like to throw out terms to impress their friends."

Leach's Texas Tech teams, especially those with Harrell at QB, impressed college football fans with their nearly unmatched passing production. Harrell passed for 15,793 yards (fourth all-time in college football history), 134 touchdowns and 34 interceptions with the Red Raiders from 2005-08.

Leach gave Harrell his first full-fledged assistant coaching job at Washington State, where he served as the outside WRs coach in 2015 (after a year as an offensive analyst). He is not surprised by his former pupil's rapid rise in the profession.

"His dad is great student of the game. He threw it well in his high school there, and his dad was his coach. He started out throwing it. I also think it's one of those things that as they're sitting at the dinner table passing the potatoes and the vegetables, whatnot, there's probably some football being passed back and forth, too," Leach said. "He came to us as a pretty good student of the game and a sharp guy. Then he was a guy that could watch film fairly quickly and pull quite a lot off of it. But he really did a good job. He was a great player for us, great guy to work with."

Their offenses, at least to this point, have indeed differed, though.

Leach's Washington State team threw the ball an average of 52.1 times a game last season and ran it just 21.6 times on average, while Harrell's North Texas offense averaged 38.8 passing attempts and 35.5 rushing attempts per game.

While North Texas QB Mason Fine ranked among the top passers in the NCAA with 3,793 passing yards, Helton also likes to point out that Harrell's Mean Green offense tallied 1,999 rushing yards last fall as well (while Washington State ranked last in the Pac-12 with 1,010).

There are certainly principles of Leach's system, the one Harrell starred in as a college QB, in the version he now coaches. But there are differences too.

"As far as the Air Raid, I've always visualized the Air Raid, and I gave it the name when Bob Lamb came walking through with that siren," Leach said, referring to the origin of the name he came up with during his time at Iowa Wesleyan College. "But, I mean, just spread it out, attack the whole field, get it in everybody's hands. There's a lot of ways to do that. You can even effectively do it on the ground. Chip Kelly's style is some of that. You need to have some core beliefs on what you're going to do and how you're going to do it, otherwise you're just a mishmash of concepts. You don't have an offense, you just have a pile of plays. An offense is something that one aspect of it complements another, so you have an arsenal of solutions to a variety of problems that can be caused for you, rather than just guessing and calling plays.

"So I'm not real dogmatic about this is the Air Raid and this isn't. It's funny, though, I have overheard people at clinics or something walk up or just overhear, somebody says, 'Well, that's not the true Air Raid.' What are you talking about? There's no true Air Raid. At least not the way I see it, not the way I've been involved with it. You're just trying to move the ball."

Critics of USC's old MO on offense might latch on to Leach's "mismash of concepts" and "piles of plays" descriptions. The term "Gumbo offense" became a derisive moniker for the Trojans' old system, especially as the bottom fell out last fall when USC ranked 83rd in total offense (382.6 YPG).

Helton had stripped former offensive coordinator Tee Martin of play-calling duties down the stretch of the season and the Trojans went with a simpler scheme against rival Notre Dame in the finale that produced one of their better offensive performances of the fall.

Quarterback JT Daniels finished 37 of 51 for 349, 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions while looking especially sharp in the first half.

As he has mentioned before, Helton reiterated on Wednesday that the relative success of the offensive gameplan against then-unbeaten Notre Dame led him to pursue a coordinator who could further take the Trojans in that direction.

"It really made me feel like, wow, to be able to spread the field and use all our weapons, to try to keep it as simple as possible, I think -- I know this is the direction that we need to go," he said.

Of course, USC first hired fellow Leach disciple Kingsbury, who lasted a month before becoming the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. But the Kingsbury saga has seemingly been rendered a mere footnote from USC's wild offseason as Harrell has been viewed by most as a stabilizing replacement with his own brand of upside. He doesn't have Kingsbury's extensive track record of coaching dynamic offenses yet, but he would also seem more likely to last longer with the Trojans if this staff is indeed able to execute a dramatic turnaround.

And if simple is what Helton wanted out of his offense, well, he found the right guy.

"It's just gone from having everything down to splits to just line up and play. That helps us play fast and it helps us make plays because we're playing carefree," Pittman said.

"Our playbook was like that thick, right?" he continued, holding his fingers a few inches apart. "And now it's like two pages. So [Daniels] really can dial in on coverages and defensive schemes without having to worry about 10,000 moving parts on the field. So that's going to help him out."

Helton acknowledged candidly Wednesday that Harrell's approach was even more simplistic and straightforward than perhaps he even imagined.

"He and I went through it, but to actually see it take three days to install and our kids were ready to go play, that was refreshing. It was neat to see," he said.

As Harrell explained in the spring, he ran the offensive players through the same three-day install over and over, repeating it for each of the five weeks of spring practice. He's stated his goal is not to out-scheme an opponent but to out-execute them.

Helton said going through this spring with Harrell taught him "how simple college football can be."

"That we all have grand ideas and grand schemes, but it's not what we know as coaches, it's what our players know," he said. "... It's more about the kids mastering their craft than you trying to out-think your opponent. It's about them having great fundamentals and technique. So I think the greatest thing that he's shown me is how simple the game can be for the student-athlete and focus on him getting better fundamentally and technique-wise rather than trying to out-trick somebody."

Helton referenced sophomore wide receiver Devon Williams a couple times in that regard, noting how well the highly-touted wideout took to the offense this spring after seeing limited opportunities as a true freshman last fall. Williams had 3 catches for 77 yards and a touchdown at Oregon State when Pittman was sidelined, but that was just a glimmer of his potential -- an upside that came into even clearer focus this spring.

Helton added that he thinks making the transition easier for talented freshmen who are often physically ready to contribute nowadays -- but maybe not mentally prepared to grasp a complex scheme -- is a smart evolution for his program. As a prime example, he highlighted the impressive play of freshman early enrollee QB Kedon Slovis during spring practice.

Helton further noted the advantage of players like Pittman and 2018 leading receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown being able to seamlessly rotate between the outside and inside, having a thorough comfort level with the route assignments wherever they line up.

"You know what's really neat about it is you're not looking [at] creating a new play. You're just doing the same play from maybe a different look, a different formation, a different motion. The concept for the kids stays the same and stays extremely simple," Helton said. "... You can maneuver them around because they understand the concepts so well. They could play any position. They could go to running back and know what they do."

Again, it's still talking season. That's what Pac-12 Media Day is about for all programs every year -- selling hope and the belief that a big year is ahead.

At least, though, the addition of Harrell and everything that has been said about his impact to this point gives the more optimistic USC fans a compelling reason to believe that may actually be the case.

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