USC Football Notes: More hard questions for Helton, update on Korey Foreman

Since USC's deflating 42-28 loss to Stanford on Saturday night, since his nationally-ranked team came in as 17-point favorites only to fall down by 29 points in the fourth quarter at home, sparking renewed questions about his future with the program, Trojans coach Clay Helton has doubled-down.

After the game, he emphasized that it was only Game 2 and to "see where we're at" by the end of the season.

On Sunday evening, Helton joined his weekly Zoom call with reporters and was asked a very fair counter to those comments.

Yes, a reporter said, it may be just Week 2 of a long season, but considering many of the themes from that defeat -- coming out flat, the undisciplined penalties -- have been issues throughout his tenure, some may not believe it's all still fixable at this point. Helton was asked what he'd tell someone with that perspective.

"Well, I will say this, in our history we know how to get ready for the next game and be able to be successful. I look at last year, we faced some adversity and we won all but one game. I hope to do the same this year. After losing this game, I hope we win all but one and we lost this last one -- it's one game," Helton said. "I know this from this team, when I walked in that locker room last night and you could see the hurt on their face and you can see how much it means to them, one, I know we have a good team. Two, like I said earlier, I know they care and they care about each other and they care about our success and I know they're going to walk right back out there this week and give everything they have to go 1-0 on the week against a Washington State team.

"Like I said last night, it's earlier in the season. I hope that people will see us all the way through the season and see our total product and our total resume at the end of the year. ... We'll see where we are at the end of the year. And I believe we're going to be happy at that time. I'm disappointed right now, but I believe we'll be happy at the end of the year."

That kind of belief seemed in short supply in the aftermath of what transpired in the Coliseum on Saturday night.

The Los Angeles Times ran not one but two columns stating in no uncertain terms that it was time for USC to part ways with its head coach. Meanwhile, notable former Trojans took to social media to share their sentiments.

"Obviously, a disappointing night for our football team. And to be honest with you, one I really didn't expect or anticipate after the week of practice and preparation the kids had," Helton said Sunday night. "I thought it was by far the best week of practice since starting training camp."

That comment stood out as the night before junior cornerback Chris Steele had said candidly that he felt the opposite.

"Everybody has to be on top of their stuff and really give it all at practice. Last week wasn't our best week of practice and it showed in the game and was real evident, so we've got to make sure we stay consistent with the way we practice and the way we play because at the end of the day it's all going to translate with each other," Steele had said.

Maybe it was just raw emotions after the fact. Hard to say as reporters only see the Tuesday practice in full and the first part of Wednesday before the important stuff happens.

Helton was asked about Steele's comments and stuck with his perspective.

"I know during the week I thought it was one of our better weeks of practices. If you talk to any of the coaches, I thought the preparation was very well done," he said. "I think we got a little bit shell-shocked in the game. I thought the early touchdown, long touchdown took a little bit of a spark out of us. ... . I do credit, I said this last night to our team, you look at the fourth quarter and you look at the kids and how they continued to fight and continued to compete and I'm proud of them. We all would be a lot more proud if we're winning the game, we understand that. But I will say I think some of the bigger plays in the game kind of took a little bit of emotion away from us, or spark away from us."

Clearly, the week ahead will be very telling as to where USC's season goes from here.

Helton's job status will be under the radar and part of the narrative surrounding the program like never before, but the Trojans (1-1) do have a prime bounce-back opportunity going on the road to Washington State (1-1) to face a Cougars team that was picked to finish at the bottom of the Pac-12 North. Washington State lost its season opener to Utah State, 26-23, and then beat FCS-level Portland State, 44-24.

But then again, Stanford came into that game Saturday night looking plenty vulnerable too after a season-opening 24-7 loss to Kansas State before taking it to the Trojans ...

"I thought we had an effective game plan. It's our job as coaches to make sure that we try to put our kids in positions to make plays and we have to take responsibility on helping them make those plays, whether it's fundamentals and techniques, whether it's being disciplined in the penalty game. Those are our responsibilities," Helton said. "... We can do a lot of things better walking away from this game."

While redshirt senior starting defensive end Nick Figueroa tried to give it a go Saturday night despite needing an injection in his shoulder earlier in the week for an AC sprain injury, he only lasted 9 snaps before having to call it a night.

"We'll have to play it day by day. I know he gave it his best try. It may be something that we have to allow time to calm down a little bit," Helton said. "He's a warrior. We'll see where it is at the end of the week, but those AC sprains are hard and sometimes you've just got to let it die down. He wanted to go, tried as hard as he could to go, but at the end of the day it was something that we decided to pull him from."

What was more surprising Saturday was that with Figueroa sidelined, freshman defensive end Korey Foreman logged only 2 snaps in the game -- down from 13 the week before.

Helton said that Foreman was limited by a bruised foot that also affected him in practice during the week. Foreman talked to reporters after Tuesday's practice and there was no mention of the injury, but it's something to monitor this week.

With Figueroa seeming unlikely to play, it could be a prime opportunity for Foreman to assert himself if he's able.

"He was limited a little bit at practice, dealing with a foot. He went about half the practice one day. We limited him to our rush package, which he did a nice job in. Hopefully with Nick being out I would expect his role to increase and I'm hoping that bruised foot gets better in a hurry, to be honest with you," Helton said. "Credit to the kid, he's been a warrior fighting through it, doing as much as he can in practice. But we limited his role just based on the amount of practice he got last week. I'm really hoping he'll be a little more healthy this week. He's an effective player for us, but we limited him just to the rush package this week and he was effective with it, gave us everything he had."