Here’s the $20 million question hanging over Southern Cal’s new athletic director
Pete Thamel
Yahoo Sports Nov 20, 2019, 7:59 PM
Athletic director Mike Bohn has been on the job at USC for less than two weeks, and he’ll watch the Trojans’ final regular season football game against rival UCLA on Saturday.
Helton has underachieved at USC for the second consecutive season. The Trojans are 7-4, with a home blowout loss to Oregon, a dispiriting loss to a bad BYU team and an authoritative loss to mediocre Washington. The decision to move on from Helton is an easy one in the eyes of a dissatisfied fan base, ambivalent recruits and throughout the college football industry. But Bohn is walking onto a campus beset by scandal and attempting to fill a decade-long leadership void in the athletic department. What makes sense on paper could be tricky in reality, as it’s inherently difficult to walk into a relatively successful program and fire everyone before you learn their name. And it’s even more complex when it means the administrative equivalent of driving to the Santa Monica Pier and dumping more than $20 million into the Pacific Ocean. Especially if landing Urban Meyer or James Franklin to replace Helton isn’t realistic.
Bohn is a veteran and experienced enough – both with good and bad hires – that he knows both he and USC can’t let him flail around on a search. If he does decide to move on Helton – and his recent comments to the Los Angeles Times show he’s in no hurry – expect him to have a quality coach targeted that’s a proven upgrade. Instead of running a search, he’d be making a switch. If you need to learn the difference, Google “Tennessee football search” and it will become apparent.
Having a distinct upgrade lined up is foggy in this marketplace. Landing the next tier of candidates – Baylor’s Matt Rhule, Utah’s Kyle Whittingham or Iowa State’s Matt Campbell – would also require an onerous buyout and deft maneuvering. Plus, a lot more cash for their bigger salaries and inevitably bigger staffs.
The more than $20 million cost represents both what it would take to buy out Helton’s contract and the rest of the Trojan staff. The Helton contract was one of the worst administrative decisions in modern college athletics, as former athletic director Lynn Swann bid against himself to keep Helton and guarantee a large swath of that contract through 2023. None of the USC athletic department lifers were savvy enough to stop him, as they’ve been around for USC hiring three straight lemons – Helton, Steve Sarkisian and Lane Kiffin – and have watched a Cadillac job turn into a Corolla.
As if having to ponder sending $20 million to the scene of “Cast Away” isn’t vexing enough for Bohn, here’s the backdrop surrounding his decision. There’s a president, Carol Folt, who loves Helton for his stability, calm and professionalism in a program that desperately needed it. That’s refreshing for Folt on a campus department besieged by waves of scandal. Losing games in football is far from USC’s biggest institutional issue.
It was interesting to hear another high-profile athletic director volunteer on Tuesday night that they’d keep Helton through next season if thrust into the same situation. Without time to properly diagnose issues in the program and come up with solutions, firing him would bring the risk of diminishing returns.
There’s conflict everywhere Bohn turns. There’s a loyal fan base that’s largely checked out while waiting to see who’ll replace Helton. There’s also a talented program, especially freshman quarterback Kedon Slovis, that could be framed as having a strong base of talent for the future.
