This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Over the past three seasons, Utah has lost two games to USC's interim head football coaches. One of them is now the permanent coach. Ed Orgeron's 19-3 victory over the Utes in 2013 was not good enough for him to keep the position, but Clay Helton's 42-24 defeat of Utah helped him secure the job, as USC announced Monday. Beating UCLA this past weekend obviously improved Helton's credentials as well. In any case, the move gives the Trojans stability in the immediate future as they prepare for Saturday's Pac-12 championship game vs. Stanford at Santa Clara, Calif. For Utah, the significance of Helton's hiring is that it removes any possibility for coach Kyle Whittingham to have become USC's choice. In his statement, USC athletic director Pat Haden acknowledged having interviewed other candidates. Whittingham apparently had not risen to that level of USC's search, but that status could have changed in the coming weeks. The other impact on the Utes is more difficult to measure. USC is the flagship program of the Pac-12 South and will always be the measuring stick for Utah and other schools in the division. The Utes finished 6-3 in conference to play in 2015, tying the Trojans for first place, but USC earned the conference championship game berth via the head-to-head victory. It probably comes as somewhat of a relief to USC's rivals that the school did not hire a bigger name, but who knows? Helton may turn out to be a very good solution to the Trojans' recent history of coaching instability. – Kurt Kragthorpe