When things are going well for a college football program, its news value is contained to what happens on Saturdays. Even after a loss, the three or four plays that cost the team a game are dissected to a fine level until the attention naturally turns to the next weekend’s chance at swift redemption.
In the days that passed after N’Keal Harry’s 92-yard punt return sent USC to its fourth loss of the season, though, the Trojans fell into uncomfortable territory. Something had to change. Clay Helton could not deny it to himself anymore. That meant that his program spent a week being talked about for all the wrong reasons.