USC Football: Can Clay Helton get over the hump in 2018?

Clay Helton enters his third full season at the helm of the Trojans. Can USC football survive the departure of Sam Darnold to repeat as Pac-12 champions in 2018?

At some level, it feels strange to realize that Clay Helton has served as the head coach of USC for just two full seasons. Helton first joined the Trojans in 2010 as the quarterbacks coach for Lane Kiffin. When Kiffin was fired and Orgeron left before the bowl game in 2013, Helton took on the interim tag for the Las Vegas Bowl victory over Fresno State. Two years later, when Steve Sarkisian was canned, Helton once again wore the interim label for nine games.

The 2015 season ended with two straight losses, as USC fell to Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game and Wisconsin in the Holiday Bowl. But the fact that the Trojans even made it to the conference title game and earned a solid bowl berth was enough to earn Helton the full-time gig.

Those first two years of full-time leadership have coincided with a bit of a resurgence in Los Angeles. Helton’s Trojans went 10-3 in 2016. Though they finished second in the Pac-12 South, USC still earned a Rose Bowl bid on the strength of eight straight wins and Washington’s inclusion in the College Football Playoff. There they played an instant classic in a comeback victory over Penn State.

Last year the Trojans did one better and won the Pac-12 title for the first time since the league expanded to a dozen teams. Now Helton will try to take the next step and get USC into the College Football Playoff for the first time ever. Can the Trojans contend for a national title in 2018 despite losing a talented core group of players? Let’s evaluate the offense and defense before looking at Southern California’s schedule and assessing their chances for 2018.