Clay Helton will have his interim tag removed and become USC’s next football coach, the school announced Monday on Twitter.
OFFICIAL: Clay Helton named permanent USC head coach by athletic director Pat Haden. #FightOn
— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) November 30, 2015
The Trojans are 5-1 since Helton, 43, took over for Steve Sarkisian in October and will play Stanford in the Pac-12 championship Saturday.
USC has had a surprising lack of continuity on the sideline since Pete Carroll left for the Seattle Seahawks in January 2010. Lane Kiffin lasted three and a half seasons, going 28-15 before being canned in an airport terminal five games into the 2012 season. Ed Orgeron coached the remaining eight regular-season games that year then resigned, with Helton taking over for the bowl game. Athletic director Pat Haden next hired Steve Sarkisian, who made it through the 2014 season and the first six games of this one, after which he was fired amid revelations of his drunkenness at football functions.
The Trojans, of course, hope Helton can overcome this Curse of Carroll and stay around for a while. Helton became USC’s quarterbacks coach in 2010 and was promoted to offensive coordinator in 2013. Interim tenures aside, he has never been a head coach at any level.
