BOULDER, Colo. -- The obit was nearly written Friday night, on USC's season and on the Clay Helton era.
USC was on the way to an ugly loss at Colorado -- a team that had lost three straight games coming into the night, the last two by a combined margin of 86-13, a team that ranked near the bottom of the national defensive metrics and a Buffaloes program that had never beaten the Trojans ... ever.
That's who held a 10-point lead on USC entering the fourth quarter and who looked like the more physical, more organized team for most of the night.
Imagine the discussion we'd be having today ...
But it didn't go that way. Helton's Trojans scored 14 unanswered fourth quarter points to earn their first road win since last Nov. 3, to move to 14-0 all-time vs. the Buffaloes and to cause many a biting column to be erased or re-written.
For at least another week.
That's the thing. Standing by the end zone as the players and coaches bounded off the field Friday night following that 35-31 win, the emotions were real and earned. For that moment in time, the aforementioned circumstances and caveats didn't matter -- not to the USC fans who celebrated with the fight song and high-fives for the players, and certainly not to Helton who pumped the Fight On sign to the beat, emphatically clutched hands with a fan on the way to the locker room and stood there hugging assistant coaches Graham Harrell and John Baxter until the song ended as if this win meant so much more than anyone else could understand.
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For Helton, it no doubt did. He's fond of saying that he's approached his coaching career as at all times fighting for his next 24 hours. It sure felt that way Friday night.
It's a matter of debate and conjecture whether there is still a way for him to compel a new -- not yet hired -- athletic director to keep the status quo, but surviving this one was essential for him to have any such hopes.
