Who Will Be the Next USC Football Coach?

I knew Clay Helton was not going to last past this year unless USC won the title. Well, he only lasted two weeks. USC got absolutely crushed, at home, by Stanford. The Cardinal football team just crushed them early and rode that momentum to an easy two touchdown win. It was a solid win for David Shaw and Stanford. It cost Helton his job. He was not long for USC's head coaching job pretty much from the moment he was hired.

Truth is that Helton was not the first choice, and USC's much praised alumni made that well known. And Helton never did "enough" in the eyes of the school to keep him around. He had a solid record since taking over in 2015 at 46-24. But his best season was in 2017 when they finished 11-3, but got beat in the Cotton Bowl. Every other season was 8-5 or 5-7. He had one ten win season, but he was much more inline with the seven or eight win seasons. Unfortunately that does not cut it at a school like USC. They have national title aspirations. They are a blue blood team. They were once dominant. They used to get the best of the best recruits. Then Pete Carroll left, the school got disciplined and they have not recovered. Lane Kiffin didn't work. Steve Sarkisian didn't work. And now Clay Helton has not worked.

I have seen the names being mentioned, and it looks like USC is going to shoot for the stars. The first name I saw was Luke Fickell. I do not like that guy at all. He is a total asshole. But he has turned Cincinnati into a real playoff contender. They are a very legit top 10 team. They can play. He has squashed the rumors, but every coach mentioned for this job will say they have no interest.

I saw James Franklin was mentioned. He has built Penn State back into a perennial top 20 team. Again, I do not care for Franklin as a person, but he has won everywhere he has coached. He did it at Vanderbilt, but left them a total mess from which they have not recovered. And now he has Penn State back in the national conversation after a very odd season last year. Franklin to USC actually makes a ton of sense to me, but I do not know if he will leave Penn State just yet.

Whenever a major head coaching job opens, or is even talked about possibly being opened, Matt Campbell's name comes up. Campbell has turned Iowa State into a good team, but they seem to fall flat in big time games. Iowa State was supposed to beat Iowa this year. It was their time. Iowa beat them pretty handily. They also lost some odd games last year. Campbell will get his shot eventually, but USC would be trading Helton for a slightly better version of Helton if they hire Campbell.

PJ Fleck is another name I see and this one makes zero sense to me. Fleck did turn Western Michigan into a very good team, but he has only had one good season with Minnesota. He can coach the kids up, but Minnesota is not as dominant as I think they hoped when they hired him a few years back.

Mario Cristobol was mentioned, but I do not see him leaving Oregon any time soon. He is building something good in Eugene. And as it does any time a big job is opened you get the former star coaches or former/current pro coaches.

Bill O'Brien has come up on lists. I'd say no thank you.

Bob Stoops has been out of the game way too long. He is no Mack Brown. I also do not think he wants to come out of retirement.

Tony Elliot, Clemson's offensive coordinator, is on a few lists, but he seems rather comfortable where his is right now.

Of course, Urban Meyer is being mentioned, especially since the Jags got bombarded by the Texans in his first game as a NFL head coach. If Meyer were to leave the Jags for this job, he is no better than Bobby Petrino. In fact that would be worse. Not only would is prove that he couldn't cut it at the highest level, but that he was not prepared to do it at the highest level.

Looking at this list I think the job comes down to three guys, Fickell, Franklin or Campbell. If I were a betting man I bet Franklin leaves PSU for this job. That makes the most sense to me. He is a proven winner, can recruit and would fit it very well in Southern California.

That is how I see this whole USC coaching search ending, but it will take some time, all season long in fact, before they eventually try and lure Franklin away from his current job. And I bet he takes it. It is too good a job not to.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Minnesota Football Keeps Making Bad Choices with the Hiring of PJ Fleck

The Golden Gophers Football Plan

Yesterday I chastised Minnesota for letting Tracy Claeys go for, basically, standing up for his law abiding players. I thought when it happened it was wrong, and I still think it is wrong. Today, I am going to double down on crapping all over the University of Minnesota because I do not think that the hiring of PJ Fleck is all that big a deal, for many reasons.

First off, he is a coach from the MAC, that has an overall record of 30-22 in 4 years. That isn't awful, but it is not that great either. Thirteen of those wins came this season, so before that, his overall record in 3 years was 17-21, 4 games below .500. That doesn't scream national power to me.

Sure, Western Michigan had a great, wonderful season, but it was not that impressive if you really break it down. Their schedule was not that hard. The MAC is not a very good conference. There seems to be one team from the MAC every year that explodes like this, but, the very next season, they come crashing back to Earth. I remember a few years ago, Ball State was the talk of college football. They were riding an 11-0 record, but they blew a late conference game, then got crushed by a power 5 team in their bowl game. Same with Northern Illinois. A few years back they made a BCS bowl, then proceeded to get their heads smashed in by a pissed off Florida State team. The MAC does not have a team like Boise State. Boise State takes on all comers, crushes every opponent in their conference, and deserves to be in big time bowl games. That is why Chris Petersen got a big time job at Washington, and has that team in very good shape for years to come. PJ Fleck did not have the resume that Petersen had when he got his first big time job. And Washington football is a much bigger deal than Minnesota football.

Also, Western Michigan's 2 best wins during the regular season came against 6-6 Northwestern and 3-9 Illinois. They pounded Illinois, as did every other decent college football team. But they needed a miracle to beat Northwestern, who I need to remind you, Northwestern lost to a FCS school the week before on a last minute field goal. Had that player from Northwestern just went down, instead of stretching for the goal line, then fumbling, Western Michigan and PJ Fleck would not have been talked about as much as they were all season. But, he did, and WMU won.

Other than those 2 "power" 5 teams, WMU feasted on much lesser opponents all season long. Is it any wonder as to why this team never reached any higher than 15 in the playoff polls? I know these polls are totally arbitrary, and I usually disagree with them, but I feel like they got WMU just right. And, being the one non power 5 team to be undefeated, they did deserve the invite to the Cotton Bowl, but they got a reeling Wisconsin team, that played 2 QB's that whole game. Wisconsin has a great defense, but their offense leaves A LOT to be desired. But, for the most part, they completely controlled WMU all game. I know the final score made it seem closer than it was, but remember, WMU scored a very late TD to pull within 7, and that TD was incredibly lucky. When WMU had to play a real team, you saw how good they really were. They were fine, Corey Davis is a great receiver, but if they were in the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC or Pac 12, they are, at the very best, an eight win team.

My final reason as to why I do not think Fleck is a great hire, no other big time school, that had a head coaching vacancy, brought him in so much so for an interview. Texas did not call. Oregon blatantly made it known that they had no intentions of bringing him in. Houston chose to just promote an assistant, instead of bringing Fleck in. LSU all but laughed off the assumption that he was a candidate. No major college football program ever really gave Fleck a second thought.

In fact, this hiring made me think of Michigan, 5 years ago, when they hired Brady Hoke. When I heard that Hoke was getting the job, I tried to convince myself that they were doing the right thing. They were giving a guy that paid his dues the chance to coach a major team, to bring them back to prominence. And, he looked like the right hire in his first season, but things went to shit after that. When he had to recruit his guys, which he did a good job of getting good players, and coach them up, which he was atrocious at doing, he failed tremendously. Michigan got worse every year under Hoke.

I think the same thing is going to happen with Minnesota and Fleck. His name is hot right now, but what has he really accomplished, against good opponents? Like I said earlier, props to you for going 13-0 in the regular season, but when you had to play a real team, you were immobilized and outcoached by a million miles. You have great enthusiasm, but that will only take you so far. You have to recruit against the likes of the University of Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa, Penn State, Nebraska and Michigan, just to name a few. You also have to play these teams every year. You do not have the luxury of being the underdog from the underdog conference anymore. You have to face 9 Big Ten teams a year, and they all aren't Northwestern and Illinois. This job is going to be very, very tough.

Sure, the hiring seems great now, but so did the hiring of Hoke, or when Helfrich took over at Oregon, or when Lane Kiffin took the job at USC. How did all those end up? Not so great. Claeys getting canned was bad, but I feel like this hiring of Fleck is just another misstep in a program that I once respected, but makes me lose respect everyday with each decision they make. Good luck Minnesota, but honestly, I hope this all ends very bad for you.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His father is a Minnesota alum, and has refused to share any Golden Gopher gear until Ty gets off his soapbox on the football program. Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

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