USC Football: Top 3 candidates to replace the fired Clay Helton

It never seemed like it would actually happen, but the USC football program has finally let go of head coach Clay Helton. It has been speculated about almost since the day that Helton was hired because it did not seem like USC went out and got the best coach that they could and settled yet again for another assistant.

Helton had his good moments for sure and that should not be forgotten in all of this. He stabilized the program and this might be cliche to say at this point, but he’s really great guy that is easy to root for. He won the Rose Bowl in 2016 and a Pac-12 title in 2017 and won a good bit of games, as evidenced by his record.

Where Helton went wrong is the other stuff. USC was consistently one of the most undisciplined teams in the country and that was shown by being one of the most penalized teams in the country and making untimely mistakes in every game. USC was consistently outclassed every time it played a big-time opponent and it never felt like this program was ever going to make it back to the top of college football as long as Helton was the head coach.

To make things worse, recruiting under Helton was slipping and that is not acceptable at USC.

This is a huge hire for USC athletic director Mike Bohn who has not been at Southern Cal for very long and this could wind up being the most consequential hire that he makes. If USC wants to get back to the top of college football, then it needs to nail this hire.

Here are the top three candidates to replace Helton at USC.