COLUMN: New USC AD Mike Bohn's gamble on Clay Helton
The question was posed to new USC athletic director Mike Bohn twice since his hiring last month. In taking the job, how much had he weighed the reality that his first decision could be the one to shape and define his entire tenure?
On the second occasion, in a relaxed moment sitting outside Heritage Hall with a reporter last week, Bohn acknowledged it wasn't an ideal way to ease into a job.
"However," he said, "I believe that it is a wonderful opportunity to utilize that scenario as an opportunity to really gauge where we are with all our different constituents that enter into those type of decisions."
Now that Bohn has rendered his verdict, announcing Wednesday that embattled head coach Clay Helton will return for at least another year, the question is how much did the new AD truly gauge where the Trojans stand with the most vocal of those constituents -- the ones who fill (or don't fill) the seats in the Coliseum, the ones who give (or don't give) money to support USC athletics?
"I am keenly aware of some dissatisfaction with our base and I respect that," Bohn said Wednesday. "But it is really going to be imperative and important for us to support our student-athletes and help us and pull that together. That may obviously take some time to do that, but that’s what we’re going to work hard on."
The thing is, USC hasn't bought itself any time in the court of public opinion with this move and the opposing fan sentiment is only going to continue to make everything tougher.
RELATED: USC announces Clay Helton will remain head coach | USC AD Mike Bohn on going against fan sentiment in his first big decision | Full interview with Bohn on his decision | Recruit reaction to Helton remaining as head coach
Bohn hasn't been at USC long -- he officially took over on Nov. 11 -- and Helton's Trojans finished the regular-season with a three-game winning streak since his arrival, including blowouts of Cal and UCLA. They are No. 22 in the College Football Playoff rankings, got to 8-4 overall (pending the bowl game) and 7-2 in the conference, have a star freshman QB in Kedon Slovis and return most of their starters on both sides of the ball next year.
This should be a very good team next fall.
But this decision for most fans wasn't about those last three games or the potential of the talent that has already been stockpiled -- it's about where this program is heading.
Bohn has emphasized recruiting repeatedly since his introductory news conference.
"It would trouble me greatly to lose recruits to other institutions based on any types of environments that would even give the inkling [to] a student-athlete that USC isn't the right choice, the right place for them and the right place to come and become the best," he told TrojanSports.com last week.
Well, USC is ranked 70th -- 11th out of 12 Pac-12 teams -- in the Rivals recruiting rankings while so far drawing commitments from only two 4-star prospects out of its talent-rich backyard. That has largely been due to all the questions about Helton's status since he was retained last season after a 5-7 finish, and those questions might persist further now that it took eleven days after the UCLA game to announce that he's back again.
Bohn has stated repeatedly that he wants a "high intensity of interest" around the program, and yet attendance has been waning the last two years -- again due in large part to that 5-7 nadir and the blame fans have attached to the head coach.
Those reasons -- not 8-4 and No. 22 in the CFP rankings -- are why the Trojans faithful have filled message boards with their frustrations, have clamored for change and a new direction.
USC won five of its final six games and demolished the rival Bruins -- but it also got run off its home field, a 56-24 loss to Oregon, in the most important game of the back half of the schedule. The offense improved greatly under new coordinator Graham Harrell, but the defense remained mediocre, the special teams far worse and the promised discipline again lacking for one of the most penalized teams in the country.
Thus, fans understandably question whether Helton can win enough of those big games, not whether he can beat Arizona State, Cal and UCLA.
Bohn is now gambling that he can. Bohn is gambling that Helton can not just win but win consistently and convincingly enough to recapture stability on the recruiting trail in a way he couldn't this year. And he is gambling that if Helton wins, and if the recruits come back, the fans will respond in turn.
He's gambling a lot.
"This is very talented team coming back. We lose four starters. Clay Helton was the coach that built [that] and he's deserving of the opportunity to keep that group together," Bohn said. "And stability is important for USC right now, and it's important for these young men and it's important for our university."
What we don't know -- and may never know -- are the extenuating factors in his decision. What sway did other USC power brokers -- including university president Carol Folt -- have regarding Helton, or his substantial buyout on a contract that runs through 2023? Bohn said Wednesday the contract had no bearing and that he made the recommendation to Folt, but there's not much else he could be expected to say on such matters. He also said he didn't pursue any other coaching candidates in the meantime, but the time it took to reach the decision to keep the coach he already had remains an unexplained curiosity.
"In fairness to all the fans, donors, former players, rich history we have here, our community, the media, I really believed it was important to have a thorough process," he said. "We did that and I did that as much as I could in this short period of time."
As to those matters, Bohn, who is undeniably passionate and surely wants to see the Trojans compete at the highest level, likely won't get any benefit of the doubt from USC fans.
Nor will Helton, who is a nice man who seems to have the respect of his players -- and clearly of his new bosses -- but who lost the fan base a while ago.
Again, with the talent USC has returning next season, it's easy to see how this team with this coach can win plenty of games next fall. But will it win enough to satisfy all the aforementioned factors aside from what happens on the field, and help the trajectory beyond 2020?
The Trojans can weather one down recruiting cycle -- this is going to be a smaller class than most anyway based on available scholarships -- but can they weather two if the status quo leads to … the status quo?
Those are the questions USC fans are asking, among many others Wednesday.
Which goes back to that question for Bohn. It would be surprising if he evaluated this job and took it without knowing he could deliver the fans what they wanted and put his stamp on the football program, or that he'd want to be the guy doubling down on bets made by his maligned predecessors -- Pat Haden, who promoted Helton to interim head coach and then gave him a contract, and Lynn Swann, who extended that contract after the 2017 season.
Even though Bohn says otherwise.
“My support of Clay and this team really never wavered," he said Wednesday.
However this process and decision played out, and wherever USC football goes from here, Bohn too has hitched part of his legacy to Helton now.