USC fires Clay Helton

After losing a 42-28 game to unranked rival Stanford on Saturday, USC officially fired head football coach Clay Helton on Monday. Helton had been a member of the Trojans' coaching staff since 2010 and is now gone just two games into the 2021 season.

Helton was first brought in as quarterbacks coach under then-head coach Lane Kiffen. He was quickly promoted to offensive coordinator in 2013 and was twice named interim head coach before taking over on a permanent basis in November 2015.

Helton's team stumbled out of the gates with a 1-3 record through its first four games of his first full season at the helm in 2016. However, the Trojans would rally to win eight in a row and finish the season with a 10-3 record and a Rose Bowl win.

Helton was 46-24 in just over six seasons at USC but had been struggling to build a consistent winner. The Trojans haven't won more than eight games in a season in four years, which doesn't cut it in the PAC-12. A program like USC is expected to compete for conference titles at a minimum, not consistently sit in the middle of the pack.

Cornerbacks coach Donte Williams has been named interim head coach.