Here is the full transcript from Coach Clay Helton's final teleconference of 2015:
Opening statement:
CH: "I thought two good football teams took the field. I really felt going into that game that it was going to be a very close, hard-fought game and the team that made the fewest mistakes would win the game. Obviously, Wisconsin made the fewer mistakes and won a very, very close football game. Offensively I really felt that we could play a better assignment-sound football. Obviously, that’s my job, and I told the kids that afterward. Their job is effort and my job is we’re assignment sound. Defensively I loved to watch our kids play against a good Wisconsin offense and play some great bend-but-don’t-break defense. We held their offense to three field goals in the red zone and really kept us in that football game, to have a chance to take the lead in the second half. As always I thought our kids played with amazing effort, especially our seniors. That created for me a mix of emotions after the game, to be in that locker room and see a bunch of seniors that you’ve known for six years, a group of seniors that’s led us to a Pac-12 championship game and what they’ve accomplished. It was sad to tell them goodbye. But then you look around to the young talent that was also in that room, from a JuJu to Adoree’, a Rojo, Justin Davis, Cam Smith, Biggie Marshall, Steven Mitchell and so many more. You get the sense of how bright the future is for Trojan football. Upcoming for us, I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to get our midterm signees to come in this January and also to getting back out on the road Jan. 14 to finish up our 2016 recruiting class.
"I’m also looking forward to our offseason workouts as well as our spring practices. It’s going to be our No. 1 priority this spring to establish a physicality in the trenches. The last two games I think have shown myself as well as our football team to win championships you have to be extremely physical and you have to win the battle in the trenches. So this will be our No. 1 priority going into spring. Finally, from coaching staff hires, I’ve had a lot of questions about the staff over the last 24 hours and I know there’s a lot of speculation out there. As of today none of the empty positions on our staff has been finalized. It’s my hope and goal to have a staff assembled by mid-January, and I promise you as soon as a position is finalized I’ll let you know. I’ve talked to several people about our openings but at this time will not go into any certain individual. I will say I’ve been blown away by the interest and the number of calls I’ve received about these positions and once again it just shows me the power of USC."
What should people look forward to from you now that you’re the permanent head coach and have a full offseason to prepare?
CH: "What I’m really looking forward to is being a true head football coach. This has been a very unusual situation, one that I’ve had so much fun with, especially with this group. But having to be an offensive coordinator and play-caller and the head coach and trying to hire coaches and things like that, I’m really looking forward to assembling a staff of people that I know are going to do a great job of coaching our kids, and really being able to focus on the fundamentals of football as a head coach. I’ve always said that I’d rather be a master of being a head coach then being a jack of all trades and having my hands everywhere. I really look forward to having the opportunity to delegate authority to some men that I trust and truly concentrate on being a head football coach. I think that’s the biggest thing."
There were some games this year where the offense really wasn’t able to do what it wanted in the two-minute drill. Is there something you could put a finger on that prevented those comebacks?
CH: "I thought we had two situations last night, we had two two-minute drills last night at the end of the game. One, where we get the ball around the 40-yard line and then all of a sudden we have a little bit of a physical beat and Cody gets hit from behind and then ball gets tipped and you get an interception. We came back the second time, I thought we executed well coming from our minus-10 and getting the ball past midfield and had an opportunity, had a deep ball shot and just didn’t hook up. If you make that it could be a different ballgame. We had two opportunities there to win the game and just didn’t get done. One by a physical beat in protection and the other just ran out of time, too far to go with too little time. I think there was like 39 to 35 seconds in that last drive, coming from the minus-10, that’s always hard and to give yourself an opportunity at a Hail Mary or a field goal, that’s really what you’re looking for. I thought we had an opportunity at both. We just didn’t hook up on one."
You had nine tackles for loss in the game and are averaging about seven a game for the season. What do you attribute that to?
CH: "Well, one of the things that you see, anytime you have a missed assignment, and that happened last night, you’re going to have tackles for losses, especially with movement and pressure. That showed up last night, from all of a sudden you get a certain blitz and a lineman doesn’t pick it up or a back doesn’t see it and you get a sack and those sacks count for tackles for loss. It hurt us last night. You looked up and you had second-and-longs and you had third-and-longs. When you’re playing the No. 1 scoring defense in the country you can’t have those things. It’s something we have to address in spring. We came into the game averaging 35 points a game and felt like that’s what was needed to win. Part of being a great offense is not only putting points on the board but making sure that you stay on base and you create third and manageable situations. Tackles for loss will hurt you. It’s something that we have to address this spring."
Have you had any second guess about the practice schedule for the bowl game?
CH: "I don’t know what more you could do then have 15 opportunities during the month of December, to prepare and become better as a football team. Not only do you have to think about preparing for games but also the health of your football team and trying to get kids back healthy. It’s a fine line. You have to judge that as a coach, coming out of the Pac-12 I said this before, coming out of the Pac-12 championship game I thought we were a beat-up football team and I thought that they needed a little bit of a rest. Then to come back and see them, how they performed with eight practices going into that football game, the effort and execution they did in practice, I would have anticipated a very, good football game. I thought defensively we played well, I expected us to play better offensively."
Do you say maybe we needed more or to do it differently?
CH: "I think 15 practices are good enough to e babel to play a quality football game, and eight practices going into that game especially, I thought was more than enough to prepare for a game. Usually you’re only getting three to four a week. Three true practices and a fourth practice is usually a walk-through mentality. To have eight I think that’s more than enough, it’s usually what everybody is doing. You’re hoping to get everybody is doing, you’re hoping to get 15 total in the month of December, trying to get a true spring practice to progress one of your young kids. That’s what we were able to do. We had 15 opportunities to get better as a football team."
Opening statement:
CH: "I thought two good football teams took the field. I really felt going into that game that it was going to be a very close, hard-fought game and the team that made the fewest mistakes would win the game. Obviously, Wisconsin made the fewer mistakes and won a very, very close football game. Offensively I really felt that we could play a better assignment-sound football. Obviously, that’s my job, and I told the kids that afterward. Their job is effort and my job is we’re assignment sound. Defensively I loved to watch our kids play against a good Wisconsin offense and play some great bend-but-don’t-break defense. We held their offense to three field goals in the red zone and really kept us in that football game, to have a chance to take the lead in the second half. As always I thought our kids played with amazing effort, especially our seniors. That created for me a mix of emotions after the game, to be in that locker room and see a bunch of seniors that you’ve known for six years, a group of seniors that’s led us to a Pac-12 championship game and what they’ve accomplished. It was sad to tell them goodbye. But then you look around to the young talent that was also in that room, from a JuJu to Adoree’, a Rojo, Justin Davis, Cam Smith, Biggie Marshall, Steven Mitchell and so many more. You get the sense of how bright the future is for Trojan football. Upcoming for us, I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to get our midterm signees to come in this January and also to getting back out on the road Jan. 14 to finish up our 2016 recruiting class.
"I’m also looking forward to our offseason workouts as well as our spring practices. It’s going to be our No. 1 priority this spring to establish a physicality in the trenches. The last two games I think have shown myself as well as our football team to win championships you have to be extremely physical and you have to win the battle in the trenches. So this will be our No. 1 priority going into spring. Finally, from coaching staff hires, I’ve had a lot of questions about the staff over the last 24 hours and I know there’s a lot of speculation out there. As of today none of the empty positions on our staff has been finalized. It’s my hope and goal to have a staff assembled by mid-January, and I promise you as soon as a position is finalized I’ll let you know. I’ve talked to several people about our openings but at this time will not go into any certain individual. I will say I’ve been blown away by the interest and the number of calls I’ve received about these positions and once again it just shows me the power of USC."
What should people look forward to from you now that you’re the permanent head coach and have a full offseason to prepare?
CH: "What I’m really looking forward to is being a true head football coach. This has been a very unusual situation, one that I’ve had so much fun with, especially with this group. But having to be an offensive coordinator and play-caller and the head coach and trying to hire coaches and things like that, I’m really looking forward to assembling a staff of people that I know are going to do a great job of coaching our kids, and really being able to focus on the fundamentals of football as a head coach. I’ve always said that I’d rather be a master of being a head coach then being a jack of all trades and having my hands everywhere. I really look forward to having the opportunity to delegate authority to some men that I trust and truly concentrate on being a head football coach. I think that’s the biggest thing."
There were some games this year where the offense really wasn’t able to do what it wanted in the two-minute drill. Is there something you could put a finger on that prevented those comebacks?
CH: "I thought we had two situations last night, we had two two-minute drills last night at the end of the game. One, where we get the ball around the 40-yard line and then all of a sudden we have a little bit of a physical beat and Cody gets hit from behind and then ball gets tipped and you get an interception. We came back the second time, I thought we executed well coming from our minus-10 and getting the ball past midfield and had an opportunity, had a deep ball shot and just didn’t hook up. If you make that it could be a different ballgame. We had two opportunities there to win the game and just didn’t get done. One by a physical beat in protection and the other just ran out of time, too far to go with too little time. I think there was like 39 to 35 seconds in that last drive, coming from the minus-10, that’s always hard and to give yourself an opportunity at a Hail Mary or a field goal, that’s really what you’re looking for. I thought we had an opportunity at both. We just didn’t hook up on one."
You had nine tackles for loss in the game and are averaging about seven a game for the season. What do you attribute that to?
CH: "Well, one of the things that you see, anytime you have a missed assignment, and that happened last night, you’re going to have tackles for losses, especially with movement and pressure. That showed up last night, from all of a sudden you get a certain blitz and a lineman doesn’t pick it up or a back doesn’t see it and you get a sack and those sacks count for tackles for loss. It hurt us last night. You looked up and you had second-and-longs and you had third-and-longs. When you’re playing the No. 1 scoring defense in the country you can’t have those things. It’s something we have to address in spring. We came into the game averaging 35 points a game and felt like that’s what was needed to win. Part of being a great offense is not only putting points on the board but making sure that you stay on base and you create third and manageable situations. Tackles for loss will hurt you. It’s something that we have to address this spring."
Have you had any second guess about the practice schedule for the bowl game?
CH: "I don’t know what more you could do then have 15 opportunities during the month of December, to prepare and become better as a football team. Not only do you have to think about preparing for games but also the health of your football team and trying to get kids back healthy. It’s a fine line. You have to judge that as a coach, coming out of the Pac-12 I said this before, coming out of the Pac-12 championship game I thought we were a beat-up football team and I thought that they needed a little bit of a rest. Then to come back and see them, how they performed with eight practices going into that football game, the effort and execution they did in practice, I would have anticipated a very, good football game. I thought defensively we played well, I expected us to play better offensively."
Do you say maybe we needed more or to do it differently?
CH: "I think 15 practices are good enough to e babel to play a quality football game, and eight practices going into that game especially, I thought was more than enough to prepare for a game. Usually you’re only getting three to four a week. Three true practices and a fourth practice is usually a walk-through mentality. To have eight I think that’s more than enough, it’s usually what everybody is doing. You’re hoping to get everybody is doing, you’re hoping to get 15 total in the month of December, trying to get a true spring practice to progress one of your young kids. That’s what we were able to do. We had 15 opportunities to get better as a football team."
