{"id":9267,"date":"2022-02-03T08:15:56","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=9267"},"modified":"2022-02-03T08:15:56","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:15:56","slug":"clay-helton-is-georgia-southerns-new-head-football-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2022\/02\/03\/clay-helton-is-georgia-southerns-new-head-football-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Clay Helton is Georgia Southern\u2019s New Head Football Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Georgia Southern University named Clay Helton the 11th full-time head coach in the Georgia Southern modern football era. Helton previously led the University of Southern California to a Rose Bowl title following the 2016 season and won a Pac-12 championship in 2017. In announcing his hiring, Georgia Southern Director of Athletics Jared Benko said, \u201cClay is renowned for not only his coaching abilities but for the person that he is. He’s an elite offensive mind who has produced record-setting offenses and high NFL Draft picks everywhere he’s coached. \u2026 He also takes great pride in producing men of character and future leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 49-year-old Helton went 46-24 (.657) as the head coach of the USC Trojans while leading them to three conference championship games and 12 victories over AP Top 25 teams, including three in the Top 5 and four in the Top 10. He went 5-1 in a pandemic-shortened 2020 season and was 8-5 in 2019 with wins over No. 23 Stanford and No. 10 Utah. Helton went 11-3 in 2017 with wins over No. 14 Stanford twice (including in the Pac-12 Championship Game) and No. 23 Arizona and went 10-3 in 2016 with wins over No. 4 Washington, No. 5 Penn State in a legendary Rose Bowl thriller and No. 21 Colorado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I am very humbled to be named the head football coach at Georgia Southern University,” Helton said. “Thank you to President Marrero, Athletic Director Jared Benko, the search committee and the entire Georgia Southern family for this amazing opportunity. This football program represents a tradition of excellence spread over the past 40 years but has won six national championships and three bowl games in that short amount of time. The passion and love its alumni and fans have for the University are second to none. Georgia Southern has always prided itself on the highest levels of success, and I welcome those expectations. We will have a staff and a team representing the toughness, discipline and GATA mentality on which this program was founded. I cannot wait to get started to build a football program that is consistently winning championships and is the platinum standard of college football on a national scale.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helton joined the USC staff in February of 2010 as the quarterbacks coach after spending 10 seasons as an assistant at Memphis. He added the passing game coordinator role in 2012 and became the offensive coordinator in 2013. In 2013, he served as USC’s interim head coach in its victory over Fresno State in the Las Vegas Bowl. He had a 10-year (2000-09) career with Memphis, starting as the running backs coach for three seasons, then coached the Tigers’ receivers for the next four seasons before becoming the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the final three years. During Helton’s time, Memphis played in five bowls: the 2003 and 2007 New Orleans Bowls, 2004 GMAC Bowl, 2005 Motor City Bowl, and 2008 St. Petersburg Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Memphis, he was the running backs coach at Houston, his alma mater, for three seasons (1997-99), working under his father, head coach Kim Helton. He began his coaching career at Duke, serving as a graduate assistant in 1995 and then the running backs coach in 1996. Helton and his wife, Angela, have three children: sons Reid and Turner and daughter Aubrey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Georgia Southern University named Clay Helton the 11th full-time head coach in the Georgia Southern modern football era. Helton previously led the University of Southern California to a Rose Bowl title following the 2016 season and won a Pac-12 championship in 2017. In announcing his hiring, Georgia Southern Director of Athletics Jared Benko said, \u201cClay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":9269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-9267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-winter-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t