Less than two months after he was fired from USC, Clay Helton is expected to be hired as the next Georgia Southern coach this week, according to Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel and The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman. Helton, 49, would replace Chad Lunsford, who was fired on Sept. 26 after a 1-3 start to the 2021 season.
Helton was fired from USC on Sept. 13, two days after the Trojans lost at home to Stanford after beginning the season favored to win the Pac-12 South. He was two games into his seventh season as USC’s head coach. He went 46-24 (36-13 Pac-12) during his tenure after taking over for Steve Sarkisian midway through the 2015 season. Helton had been on staff at USC since 2010.
Though he’s never coached in the Sun Belt, Helton does have ties to the southeast. He began his playing career at Auburn and worked at Duke and Memphis before arriving in Los Angeles. During Helton’s childhood, his father was an assistant for Florida, Miami and the Tamp Bay Buccaneers.
Kevin Whitley, who was the cornerbacks coach under Lunsford, has been serving as the interim coach since Lunsford’s dismissal. Whitley is 1-3 in that role. With a 2-6 record, Georgia Southern will need to win its final four games in order to reach a fourth-straight bowl game.
Lunsford took over as Georgia Southern’s interim coach for the last six games of the 2017 season and ended his tenure with a 28-21 overall record, including a 17-14 mark in Sun Belt play. Georgia Southern just joined the FBS ahead of the 2014 season, but the program has a strong record at the FCS level with six national championships.
