USC Fires Head Coach Clay Helton: Latest Trojans National Championship Odds

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  • Instant reaction to the firing of USC head coach Clay Helton, including odds and analysis on betting USC moving forward.

USC Head Coach Clay Helton has been fired on Monday after over six seasons at the helm.

The decision came just two days after USC got blown out by Stanford 42-28 at home.

The Trojans had been among the top-15 teams in betting odds to win the national championship at +5000 at DraftKings and were ranked No. 14 in the country prior to the loss. They are now unranked.

Their odds to win it all were as high as 12th best in the country after they beat San Jose State 30-7 in Week 1.

USC's odds to win the national championship then fell all the way to +15000 after an embarrassing loss to a Stanford team that had a preseason win total of just four games.

BetMGM had USC as +250 preseason favorites to win the Pac-12.

Those odds have deteriorated all the way down to +1200 at DraftKings, tied for fifth in the conference with Washington and behind Oregon (+150), Arizona State (+400), UCLA (+450) and Utah (+475).

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Helton finished his career with the Trojans as the least profitable coach against the spread out of all 27 head coaches that have worked in the Pac-12 since his hiring in 2015. He was 28-39-2 ATS.

In fact, Helton ranks 331 out of 332 coaches ATS vs. schools from the Pac-12, Big 12, ACC, SEC and Big Ten.

The 49-year-old coach went 45-24 with USC, including a Rose Bowl win over Penn State after the 2016 season. That's his only crowning achievement, though — the team either lost their bowl game or didn't make one in every other season.

The Trojans face off against Washington State next week at 3:30 p.m. ET. USC has opened as 8.5-point favorites and that line has held firm.

But, the vast majority of wagers are on Washington State to cover.

About 86% of the total money and 68% of the total tickets are on the Cougars +8.5 as of Monday afternoon, according to The Action Network's betting data.

About the Author
Avery Yang is an editor at the Action Network who focuses on breaking news across the sports world and betting algorithms that try to predict eventual outcomes. He is also Darren Rovell's editor. Avery is a recent graduate from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. He has written for the Washington Post, the Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, (the old) Deadspin, MLB.com and others.

Follow Avery Yang @avery_yang on Twitter/X.

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