By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

            If Clay Helton had seams, they’d have busted awhile ago.

            His challenge is to stay healthy and sane the next few weeks, because having a college football team and not coaching it is about killing him.

            “I just spent six weeks away from the game,” Helton said Monday night as the featured speaker at the Macon Touchdown Club only a few weeks after being hired as Georgia Southern’s new head coach. “And I can promise you it was the most miserable six weeks of my life.”

            The personable Helton is part of a big football family. Dad Kim was a long-time head coach, in college and the Canadian Football League and the NFL, and is an assistant at Western Kentucky under Helton’s brother Tyson.

            But he hasn’t been coaching since Southern California fired him after the second game of the season. The Trojans were 1-1, and are now 4-5.

            He told the high school players on hand to treasure their time in the game.

            “Make sure you live every moment,” said Helton, who was 46-24 at Southern Cal. “These memories that you’re making through the playoffs are special. When it’s over, a piece of you kind of goes away a little bit. So don’t ever disrespect your time in the game.”

Helton spent a good 20 minutes afterward talking and taking pictures, and connecting with Georgia Southern football alums like Howard head coach Paul Carroll and Southwest head coach Joseph Dupree, among others.

            His door, phone, and email are apparently open to aid in roster development.
            “Anybody in this room, if you see one that needs to be at Georgia Southern, please call me,” he said. “I don’t want one guy falling through the cracks. Ever. We want to be able to adopt ‘em, raise ‘em, and make ‘em our own.”

            His rep is from his time at Southern California, but he’s a Southerner, born in Gainesville, Fla. He talked of tea, not tofu.

            “I haven’t slept in 10 days,” he said. “I’ve been running on coffee and sweet tea, which I haven’t had in 12 years. I drink about two gallons a day. I run on pure coffee and sugar all day.”

            Helton’s wife and youngest son will stay out west until he graduates high school, not to say she’s not in charge of home-hunting by long distance and internet.

            “I’m in charge of points and wins,” Helton said. The situation allows Helton to spent more guilt-free time building a staff and diving into recruiting.

            “I’ve got the opportunity right now to one, evaluate our team, which never happens,” the 49-year-old said. “Usually these jobs come in December. You take the job and you immediately start recruiting.”

            Helton has been able to meet regularly with the team and players, as well as the coaches. Most everybody is putting their resumes out there each week, and while the Eagles are a disappointing 3-7 and soon to finish only their fifth sub-.500 season this century., Helton has been wowed by the teamwork and chemistry the Eagles are showing, as well as the support they’re getting.

            “I said in the team meeting, ‘Guys, one thing that I’ve taken away from this whole thing is that the men that are in this building are men of honor and men of character and they know how to fight through adversity,’” he said.

No, he’s not going to or retaining the option that has been part of the Georgia Southern debate for years, but he does expect a very strong running team next year.

            Helton spent some time with current Illinois head coach Bret Bielema, who took over rebuilding projects also at Arkansas and Wisconsin, and worked with Bill Belichick. Helton was twice interim head coach at Southern Cal before taking over.

            His mornings are recruiting and talking with high school coaches, and his afternoons are back with the team he’s not yet coaching. Monday was a little busier.

            “Matter of fact, on the way up here, I hit two schools,” he said. “Just for the hell of it.”

            The vision presented by athletics director Jared Benko and the search committee inspired Helton to take the job without making a trip to Statesboro. His two-day interview took place in Atlanta. He’s up on his Georgia Southern history, talking about riding in one of the famous yellow buses with GSU legends Adrian Peterson and Tracy Ham.

            “Just talking about it makes the hair on my neck stand,” he said.

            Part of that vision is continuing to expand GSU’s reach, nationally, with an eye toward the Midwest.

            “I think I’m going to collect the best players in the state of Georgia, and you’re going to wake up, and we will be Cincinnati,” he said. “We’ll be the national story. We’ll be the pride of Georgia.”