Here were Clay's notable comments from his appearance on Trojans Live yesterday. And if you missed it, we have separate stories up on the discussions with Graham Harrell and JT Daniels.
Helton on stepping back from the offense:
"It's been a discipline for me because I have as much fun game-planning and Xs and Os as anybody and love doing it. But I know what our team needs. It's a team that can win a lot of football games if it just doesn't beat itself. I felt that at the last half of the season looking up and losing four games by seven points or less, walking off the field every time going, 'Gosh, we just beat ourself.' And that's my job. That's the discipline you've got to have as a head coach to understand what your team needs. It needed a head coach that focused on turnovers, focused on the penalties, focused on them playing for each other and understanding that it's a one-fail, all-fail mentality. That's what it needed. You install a great brilliant offensive mind with Graham Harrell, a brilliant mind with Clancy Pendergast, a tremendous strength coach, John Baxter does what he does and we're right back to a point where I think we can do some really, really special things here and I think our players feel that."
On the gantlet that is the first six games:
"That's a hell of a start and if you do your job and look up and you've done your job, hold on because it's going to be a heck of a ride down the stretch."
Continuing to pump up the OL:
"The thing that I really love and the change that I feel is the offensive line has taken over the offense. We have a group of men that all came in together, that grew up and now they're in their third year -- some are juniors, some are redshirt sophomores -- but now you look up and they're grown men and they're running our football team. … You've got real some older kids now that are just kind of taking everybody and saying, 'Come here. This is how we do things.' And that's what you want. Big men lead the way."
On JT's preseason:
"I really appreciate his consistency on a day to day basis. He has tremendous talent, but he walked in the park for 30 practices, protected the football, made the plays that needed to be made, let his receivers make plays for him and didn't try to do too much -- was just a consistent for us on a daily basis."
On Fresno State:
"They're balanced on offense. Jeff [Tedford] has always been a great offensive coach and you see what they did last year offensively in 11 and 12 personnel, being able to run, being able to throw. They've got a new quarterback, we'll see how that adjustment is. Defensively, extremely solid, a group that won them their title in their league, go to the blue turf and win the championship. You're talking about a good football team and they'll be as fired up as anybody to come out of the central valley and come down to Los Angeles and compete in this game. They'll be looking for a victory. It will be a very challenging opening game. … It's been a long seven months and we look forward to getting out there and competing."
Helton on stepping back from the offense:
"It's been a discipline for me because I have as much fun game-planning and Xs and Os as anybody and love doing it. But I know what our team needs. It's a team that can win a lot of football games if it just doesn't beat itself. I felt that at the last half of the season looking up and losing four games by seven points or less, walking off the field every time going, 'Gosh, we just beat ourself.' And that's my job. That's the discipline you've got to have as a head coach to understand what your team needs. It needed a head coach that focused on turnovers, focused on the penalties, focused on them playing for each other and understanding that it's a one-fail, all-fail mentality. That's what it needed. You install a great brilliant offensive mind with Graham Harrell, a brilliant mind with Clancy Pendergast, a tremendous strength coach, John Baxter does what he does and we're right back to a point where I think we can do some really, really special things here and I think our players feel that."
On the gantlet that is the first six games:
"That's a hell of a start and if you do your job and look up and you've done your job, hold on because it's going to be a heck of a ride down the stretch."
Continuing to pump up the OL:
"The thing that I really love and the change that I feel is the offensive line has taken over the offense. We have a group of men that all came in together, that grew up and now they're in their third year -- some are juniors, some are redshirt sophomores -- but now you look up and they're grown men and they're running our football team. … You've got real some older kids now that are just kind of taking everybody and saying, 'Come here. This is how we do things.' And that's what you want. Big men lead the way."
On JT's preseason:
"I really appreciate his consistency on a day to day basis. He has tremendous talent, but he walked in the park for 30 practices, protected the football, made the plays that needed to be made, let his receivers make plays for him and didn't try to do too much -- was just a consistent for us on a daily basis."
On Fresno State:
"They're balanced on offense. Jeff [Tedford] has always been a great offensive coach and you see what they did last year offensively in 11 and 12 personnel, being able to run, being able to throw. They've got a new quarterback, we'll see how that adjustment is. Defensively, extremely solid, a group that won them their title in their league, go to the blue turf and win the championship. You're talking about a good football team and they'll be as fired up as anybody to come out of the central valley and come down to Los Angeles and compete in this game. They'll be looking for a victory. It will be a very challenging opening game. … It's been a long seven months and we look forward to getting out there and competing."
