“In my opinion, he should win the Heisman”.
Advertisement
Helton remained the Trojans’ playcaller after being named head coach this year but said he will not call plays next season.
“He’s the best player in the nation”. “It’s not even a debate”.
As long as the FBS National Championship playoffs are capped at 4 teams, at least one Power-5 conference is going to be frozen out. The Trojans’ chief problem was that they could not control McCaffrey.
McCaffrey surpassed 3,250 all-purpose yards in his 13th game of the season, while Sanders’ Oklahoma State team played only 11 games in that 1988 campaign.
Said more broadly, McCaffrey was unstoppable. Oregon State fans know this is an excellent bowl destination, one of the best beyond the NY6 bowls, but had what would have been the winning touchdown toss in the Oregon-Michigan State game not been dropped, Stanford would have been in the CFP, and Oregon in the Rose Bowl.
McCaffrey’s importance was demonstrated in the third quarter. McCaffrey only had 66 yards on 12 carries and Stanford lost 16-6.
Christian McCaffrey had 207 yards rushing, a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown in the Pac 12 Championship Saturday night. Hogan then spun off an atttempted tackle by Marvel Tell and put Stanford up again.
“That’s a guy I had posters on my wall of growing up”, McCaffrey said.
Helton said the firings were entirely his decision, and that Trojans athletic director, Haden, is letting him run the football team with his own vision, via ESPN. I don’t know if you take that into consideration or not, but that’s a huge honor.
They included a sack of quarterback Cody Kessler that forced a fumble, which led to a Stanford touchdown. He scored two touchdowns, including a 10-yard run in the fourth quarter, and he threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Hogan on a throwback. Kessler led a 15-play drive in the closing minutes of the half to lead to a 40-yard field goal by Alex Wood that cut Stanford’s lead to 13-3.
The Trojans took their first lead at 16-13 when running back Ronald Jones scored on a 27-yard run with?5:28?left in the third quarter. McCaffrey’s 50 yard run setup Stanford’s second field goal of the game.
W. KENTUCKY 45, SOUTHERN MISS 28: In Bowling Green, Kentucky, Brandon Doughty threw for 410 yards with three touchdown passes and Western Kentucky came from behind in the Conference USA Championship Game. The Cardinal amassed 417 yards of total offense while the Trojans managed only 364 yards. USC C Khaliel Rodgers (ankle) did not play and fourth-string C Nico Falah started in his place….
But that was the only time Stanford crossed the goal line in the first half, despite having reached the red zone in its first four possessions.
Helton, when asked directly, declined to say whether he had spoken with two popular former assistant coaches, Ed Orgeron and Clancy Pendergast, about a return to USC. He said he was confident he would find a job and continue on a career path to become a defensive coordinator and head coach.
USC also accepted a berth in the Holiday Bowl on Sunday, agreeing to face Wisconsin on December 30.
Said USC wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster: “The dude did his thing”.
Despite the loss, the Trojans and coach Helton should be satisfied with how the season turned out.
The Trojans just couldn’t overcome Christian McCaffrey and Stanford to end this turnaround season in the Rose Bowl.
Advertisement
Stanford topped USC 41-22 to take home its third Pac-12 title in four years.
