Clay Helton was asked a roundabout question about how he compartmentalizes the noise around the program and speculation (about his job status) during the season. His response was as expected.
"For myself personally I just focus on the 110 men out there. I have three children by birth and 110 I've had the honor to adopt, and when you think about them as your children and your sons you concentrate your full attention on them on and not anything outside this wall," Helton said. "Because the fact of the matter of is they have something truly, truly special to play for down the stretch here. What an awesome story it would be to go win the Pac-12 South and go be Pac-12 champions, to go play in a Rose Bowl.
"That opportunity is there and we've got to work our butts off to be able to get there so you have to have great focus on that and worry about your kids and allowing them to be successful. You don't have time for the outside noise and neither do they. So you provide the example of what it's supposed to look like, then they'll [respond] and they've done a nice job with it."
He was also asked if he had to address that speculation and buzz with his team after the Washington loss.
"Even after the Washington loss, I said, 'Hey guys, understand this, everybody in the world is going to try to separate you. Everybody in the world is going to try to separate … especially on a bye week. You know what gets rid of all the noise is being successful, winning the next game, focusing on the next game. That eliminates a lot of noise,'" Helton said. "That's the way we've always approached it, just one week at a time, do our job, try to win the next game."
It starts around the 6:40 mark on this video if you want to watch:
"For myself personally I just focus on the 110 men out there. I have three children by birth and 110 I've had the honor to adopt, and when you think about them as your children and your sons you concentrate your full attention on them on and not anything outside this wall," Helton said. "Because the fact of the matter of is they have something truly, truly special to play for down the stretch here. What an awesome story it would be to go win the Pac-12 South and go be Pac-12 champions, to go play in a Rose Bowl.
"That opportunity is there and we've got to work our butts off to be able to get there so you have to have great focus on that and worry about your kids and allowing them to be successful. You don't have time for the outside noise and neither do they. So you provide the example of what it's supposed to look like, then they'll [respond] and they've done a nice job with it."
He was also asked if he had to address that speculation and buzz with his team after the Washington loss.
"Even after the Washington loss, I said, 'Hey guys, understand this, everybody in the world is going to try to separate you. Everybody in the world is going to try to separate … especially on a bye week. You know what gets rid of all the noise is being successful, winning the next game, focusing on the next game. That eliminates a lot of noise,'" Helton said. "That's the way we've always approached it, just one week at a time, do our job, try to win the next game."
It starts around the 6:40 mark on this video if you want to watch:
