Trojans in a breathtaking loss to Bruins, what now for Clay?

Here's the problem when the best thing you can say about yourself when you go for a "rivalry game" is that "my jaw is taken".

Beautiful target, Chip Kelly said Clay Helton as he had the habit of running Joshua KellThe USC season with 295 pounds is raging, the hopes of the bowl of the Trojans and most likely Clay's coaching career at USC with a 34-27 win at UCLA at the Rose Bowl.

In his third season, the year in which John McKay and Pete Carroll winning their first national championships, Clay coached a team of Trojans selected 15th in the country for the opening of the year and the favorite to win the South Pac-12 in embarrassing oblivion.

And here in the Rose Bowl, Kelly had the 2-8 Bruins – now the 3-8 – playing more as if they were 8-3. They were disciplined and confident. They knew who they were and how they would win this football match. They were tough in spirit and body. They did not panic when they fell behind. And they ended up strong.

USC did not do any of this, with inconvenient penalties and errors that killed readers or took USC out of reach. Just like they have the whole season.

The losses of Pac-12 against Arizona State and Cal in the Coliseum during the last three weeks correspond to the same pattern. USC should have lost neither one nor the other. And now, they lost to UCLA in Kelly's inaugural season, where nothing was expected of a Bruins team with such little talent.

So, UCLA filled the talent gap tenaciously. No fear on the faces of the Bruins. No despair. They improved week after week and they knew it.

The trajectory of the USC was reversed in the second half of the season, while the Trojans should have made sure that things happen in a much more manageable part of the program. But they allowed him to bite his buttocks, sending USC – at 5-6 and an incomprehensible 4-5 in the Pac-12 – in a hairpin turn that Clay certainly will not be able to undo.

And if he saves himself for a year, what about the USC program with Kelly's team on the rise who has this face-to-face recruiting call card against USC? This USC program, as it currently stands under Clay, has no chance to recover and reverse course. No.

Last week, it seemed clear that AD Lynn Swann did not want to let Helton go if possible. "Lynn does not want to fire Clay," was the word. Now, after consecutive defeats against Cal and UCLA and a first season with defeats against the three California schools, it seems like "Lynn do not have want to turn Clay. "

Claiming that Clay would lose his job following the loss, Clay responded directly. "It does not bother me, my main sorrow is for our elders because I wanted it for them, I know the work, the job is to win, people will congratulate you, if you lose, they are going to get you. you do not like it, do not be in this business, I know it hurts my back, so it does not worry me. "

Is it going to cost Clay his job, Toa Lobendahn has been requested. "I hope not," said Toa, who Clay has kept at the center of his concerns despite his obvious problems, which could contribute to the loss of his job, which is reminiscent of the difficult situation in which Swann is. Will he let Clay continue on this downward trajectory, which will soon take away a USC recruiting advantage that has not been enough to compensate for the lack of player development in recent years, and if he does, so what?

A sign of the future: with 57,116 spectators, the lowest number of USC-UCLA spectators since the 1950 match attracted 51,906 spectators. This is the smallest number of spectators of nearly 15,000 people to have attended this game at the Rose Bowl The USC's fault in the Bruins' eight defeats has made the 13 defeats of both teams the match the most lost of the USC and UCLA.

But here's the problem: UCLA has a proven head coach who does something to find out where they are and for his guys to be better prepared every week. He did not panic. And at college, even without the schematic advantage he had at Oregon, Kelly knows what he's doing and his players are playing as they knew he knew it.

USC does not have such a leader, and this team is clearly not doing so. How do you improve when you do not practice under enough pressure to prepare for the game?

Admittedly, USC's offensive, with the exception of typical mistakes, short turnarounds and failures, was not bad – it reflected a week of practice that, by USC standards, was rather decent. Trojans hoarded 449 offensive yards, as they should have, with a freshman JT Daniels, the focus of so many misguided critics with an interrogator asking him why he had "struggled" even after throwing for 337 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions, the second on a ball he was trying to throw and had lost the handle.

"I think we did a lot of good games," said JT, what USC did. Not enough to win this match, as it was the case in the last three defeats.

But the USC game's defense failed after a week when, to a man, USC players said they should "stop the race" against UCLA. They knew it. And they could not do it. Not by a little. By many

Kelly's 289 yards in 40 races was Bruin's third-most-scored in history, the most played in a USC-UCLA match, and the second-best defeat by a USC defense after 321 yards. # 39; Oregon. Kenyon Barner accumulated in 2012.

And it was against a USC team that thought they were ready to stop the race. And maybe they could have taken care of the redshirt-junior transfer from UC-Davis. But the tug of war that catches was not enough for a USC team that even works only occasionally on the form fight. Unfortunately, Saturday, that showed.

"We have to play to our strength," Kelly and Clay said. "It's a coach before the race," Clay told Kelly. But he's not the kind of race coach, after describing his fault in the spring, and then getting away from the situation when USC had no idea how to get there. this season. It was enough for them to watch UCLA – and both Kelly's – show them how to do it.

"We had to throw the ball, control it," Kelly said. "They are (USC) so explosive on the offensive side, we tried to keep them a little out of the way." That's what they did: they played 74 games against 61 on USC, while the team, composed of fewer staff in terms of talent and number, reinforced the tempo deal to the more talented team that was trying to slow down the pace.

"Crazy", Toa explained how the Trojans needed a win over their undefeated against Notre Dame, unbeaten, while the Irish of 11-0 needed even more to qualify for the play-offs university football.

"It's zero," said JT, about where the USC team is located while he was preparing to make the long drive into the tunnel. Included in this assessment for a USC team that has twice achieved great special teams plays with Jake Russell block a deep and freshman assault at UCLA Devon Williams pick up at the 5 yard line for a score. And a fake fake pussy that had Erik Krommenhoek run behind a well-designed block of eight meters and a first try.

Michael PittmanThe seven career catches of 106 yards for 106 yards led the longbow catcher with Amon-Ra St. Brown which makes his catch of 44 yards TD easy.

All for nothing. Vavae Malepeai had another solid match with 77 yards in 15 races, but again, that's not enough "You have to finish what you start," Vae said about the failure in the second half to score a touchdown with a solid lead in the first half. "We did not do that."

This becomes a theme for teams coached by Clay & Co. – but he's not worried, even though the Trojans have fallen to fourth place in the South Pac-12, the worst division of college football and the seventh in total in the Pac-12, the worst Power Five Conference.

"No, like I told you," Clay said. "I break every 24 hours to try to buy 24 more, you know, if you work as hard as you can and do the best job possible for your kids and for the university that you like, you do not regret anything – and I do not. "

But USC fans do it, maybe not all, but this year has been a recovery season of monumental proportions for their feelings about Clay.

"I will continue to work as hard as humanly possible," said Clay. "USC, Lynn Swann and these kids have been very supportive, and I will continue to work as hard as I can for them."

Although working "hard" is not the issue to be debated at the moment. Work smart, work efficiently, work, and improve.

Clay does not expect to be back in 2019, so this was the last white-dot issue. "That's a great question for Mr. Swann, and out of respect for him, I'll let him ask, as I said earlier this week, I'm extremely supported by Mr. Swann and what we're doing here. and I thank him for being with me every step of the way. "

But what is USC "doing here" exactly? And if USC "does it here" is what we saw, especially last month, why would Lynn Swann exactly like to support it?

Why really?

*** To contact Dan Weber, emial [email protected].