Despite an offseason begging for any positivity — any at all — USC chose not to seize the news cycle and play up the encouraging hiring of Graham Harrell, an up-and-coming offensive coordinator now positioned as the fulcrum of optimism for fans heading into 2019.

Harrell has not been made available for interviews, with a simple press release on Jan. 30 serving as the Trojans’ initial acknowledgement of his arrival.

Head coach Clay Helton would talk Wednesday about Harrell being a “special personality” who has the “ability to capture everybody in the room.”

But as Harrell has not been given that public forum yet, it was left to Helton to speak on his behalf as questions about the Trojans’ second OC hiring of the offseason and the new direction of the offense took over his National Signing Day news conference.

“For me, it was to garner a guy that is elite in the passing game and has knowledge of it, both playing as well as coaching,” Helton said. “In doing my research, I wasn’t going to rush. I knew that we had the majority of our players signed in that first signing period. It was more important to me to be patient and get the right person rather than just trying to rush.”

Helton noted that he conducted “several interviews” in looking to fill the position, which was abruptly vacated when the first big-splash offseason hire, Kliff Kingsbury, left to become head coach of the Arizona Cardinals last month.

In his place, Helton found another former Texas Tech quarterback and another disciple of Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense in Harrell, who spent the last three years as the offensive coordinator at North Texas.

The 33-year old had just two seasons of experience as a full-time assistant on Leach’s Washington State staff before his first OC job with the Mean Green, but he arrives at this career breakthrough with palpable upside.

“[I] had the opportunity to sit down with Graham, and it was just a fit,” Helton said Wednesday.

He highlighted Harrell’s work developing North Texas QB Mason Fine over the last three seasons, as Fine ranked 10th nationally in 2018 with 3,793 passing yards (to go with 27 TDs and 5 INTs). He highlighted the turnaround Harrell and North Texas head coach Seth Littrell, another Air Raid disciple, orchestrated as the Mean Green went from 117th nationally in total offense (320.1 yards per game) the year before they arrived to top-25 the last two seasons at 455.1 YPG in 2017 and 460.5 YPG this past fall.

“And then bringing him on campus, I wanted to make sure it was a fit for him and being able to be here,” Helton continued. “So we spent some time together, looked at our personnel, looked at the system, looked at the terminology and then felt for both of us that it was a perfect situation. And at that time we went ahead and pulled the trigger and both of us are extremely happy right now.”

Just a month and a half earlier, Helton had used similar phraseology to describe the hiring of Kingsbury, which became a national story on both the front and back ends of his brief tenure.

It wasn’t Helton’s fault, though, that NFL teams suddenly viewed Kingsbury as a hot commodity — despite his losing record as a college head coach — and offered him an opportunity he couldn’t refuse.

But it was interesting — and most would agree encouraging — that the Trojans sought out another Air Raid disciple to replace him.

Or was that the intent?

“In hiring Kliff, we showed our hand in what we were going to,” Helton said in one breath Wednesday.

In another, he was quick to clarify that this wasn’t about being fixated on the Air Raid, despite Harrell’s similar pedigree to Kingsbury.

“Not necessarily Air Raid — I want that to be said,” Helton commented. “One of the things that really struck me both with Kliff and with Graham is they’re different than Coach Leach, who is true Air Raid. You look at Graham’s offense, when you truly study, not only did they have the 10th-leading quarterback in the country, the 10th-ranked passing game in the nation, but they also rushed for 2,000 yards and that’s one of the things that always has to be in your offense is the ability and the threat to garner rushing yards.”

So what does that mean for USC’s offense moving forward? Since Harrell hasn’t been made available to discuss this himself, one can only parse Helton’s comments.

Helton noted that Harrell’s offense made use of two-tight-end sets, that 11 personnel (1 tight end, 1 running back) was his lead personnel group, but that he also incorporated four-wide looks.

“That’s what truly intrigued me,” Helton continued. “It wasn’t the true Air Raid. It was the ability to have an elite passing game that still can emphasize a running back.”

USC coaches made sure to tell prospective recruits over the last couple months, at least the offensive line targets, that the program wasn’t abandoning it’s Tailback U reputation.

North Texas did indeed maintain a productive rushing attack, totaling 1,999 yards on the ground in 2018 (led by DeAndre Torrey's 977). But it’s fair to wonder what influence Littrell — a former running back under Leach and Bob Stoops at Oklahoma and later Leach’s RBs coach at Texas Tech for four seasons — had on that aspect of the offense. Harrell’s own background previously was as a QB and later an outside wide receivers coach in Leach’s system.

Again, that’s a matter Harrell can offer insight on once he gets the chance to talk about his offense.

Helton, meanwhile, was asked about the challenge of Harrell taking over a unit and installing that offense without having any say in the rest of the staff, which was set before his hiring.

Helton noted that having running backs coach Mike Jinks, who was a former Kingsbury assistant hired soon after the former OC came on board, will help with the concepts of Harrell’s similar scheme.

As for offensive line coach Tim Drevno, who does not have the Air Raid — or any version of Air Raid — in his offensive background, Helton said “the protections are very much married up to what we have done in the past, as far as the five, six, seven-man protections are very similar. I think that’s a comfort level for Tim.”

Helton also added that “we just have a special situation here with Tim being here and his knowledge of the run game,” calling it a “perfect marriage.”

So what does this all mean for 2019 and how will the offense actually look, if the OL responsibilities are “very similar” and Drevno is involved in some “perfect marriage” with Harrell, etc.?

Well, a true answer on that might just have to wait until Harrell gets to speak for himself, or until it manifests in spring practice.

But for fans who saw promise in the change of offensive direction and the potential for Harrell to set his own course, the one aspect of the operation Helton did double-down on Wednesday is that he will be more hands-off with the offense.

“Really allowing the OC/DC/special teams coordinators to do their jobs,” he said. “I’m going to focus on what I felt really cost us late in the season from going to Santa Clara — losing four ballgames by seven points or less was directly attributed to penalties and turnovers.. … That’s going to be my emphasis in the spring.”

Again, plenty of questions remain, but the reality of USC’s offensive future will start to show itself soon enough as the Trojans open spring practice in a few weeks.

In the meantime, perhaps the most pertinent takeaway from Helton’s offerings Wednesday was that reiteration that he will allow his new OC the freedom to run the offense. This is a claim he first made as part of a series of statements on various topics the program released just prior to the announcement of Harrell’s hiring.

It was just a few months ago that Helton talked about how he’d been wanting for a while to get more involved with the offensive play-calling again, and that late in the 2018 season it was time as he stripped those duties from then-OC Tee Martin.

And now — whether by his own choice or some decree from athletic director Lynn Swann, who publicly spelled out the deficiencies of the program, including scheme — he’s done a 180 and is pledging to be more hands-off than ever.

So, as a final query on the offense, Helton was asked how he arrived at that point.

“I think as a leader you always put your wants and needs aside for what’s best for the team in the moment,” Helton said. “In the moment, at the end of the season, I wanted to make a late-season run. I felt like a change was needed to possibly get that done. As I sat back after the season, I addressed what we needed to do was to have an OC, a DC and a special teams coordinator to focus on scheme while I focused on the fundamentals of the game. ….

“For me, it’s about putting the best product on the field. And for us to be the best product, I need to step away from the Xs and Os and focus on what’s truly important for this team, which is the accountability, the discipline of the game, not turning the ball over and understanding situational mastery. That will be my emphasis as the head coach.”

What will be the true emphasis of the offense, meanwhile?

Eventually, Harrell will get to speak for himself and have the opportunity to remind everybody why his hiring was largely viewed as an encouraging recovery for the Trojans after all that had preceded it.