Coaches / Head coach / Clay Helton
Form · last two seasons
59
▼ Underperforming -4
Rating63recent
Peak68best 5 yrs
Career67whole career
confidence
Clay Helton
Head Coach · Georgia Southern
Headline rating: as head coach. Every role he has been rated in is below.
Chemistry
66
continuity at Georgia Southern · early
Seasons here5
Programs2
Stints3
Career path
Head-coaching stints since 1936; assistant roles since 2016
Chemistry
vs every head coach since 2016 · 62 = typical
Tenure here
Seasons as head coach at his current school
Staff continuity
Seasons he and his offensive coordinator have worked together
Player retention
Players kept vs. the league norm for similar rosters (fewer transfers out)
Followers
Players and staff who followed him from his previous job
QB & coordinator
How long his quarterbacks have played for the same coordinator
Roster continuity
Share of starters returning from one season to the next under him
Dashed gold ring on the radar = average (62). Chemistry scale: 62 is typical, 20-50 is a warning sign, under 10 is a collapse.
As head coach
Rating63Form59▼ 4 under-performingPeak68Career67
2013–2026 · 13 seasonsRecord 73-49National titles 0Great seasons 1 (top ~7% of all teams that year)
- Rating 63: his whole career, recent seasons weighted most, measured as how far his teams stood above their era, crediting him with half of what each program already was when he arrived (about the share that, historically, follows a coach to his next job), fading as the program becomes his own.
- Peak 68: best five-season stretch, 2013–2016 at USC (16-7, 1 top-10 season by team strength), taking over already a national power.
- Career 67 (#230 since 1936): total accomplishment over 13 seasons (73-49), 0 national titles, 1 elite season; full credit for the program he inherited.
Over expectation · 2016 on61Results against what his rosters' talent predicted (program lift, evaluation, recruiting, staff building, game management).
Rating = who he is: his whole head-coaching career (since 1936), weighted toward recent years — how far his teams stood above their contemporaries, how much he lifted programs, his great seasons and titles. Form = the last two seasons. Career = the all-time ranking number.
Program lift63
Evaluation75
Results60
Recruiting63
Staff building58
Game management72
| Season | Team | Record | Season rank | vs contemporaries |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Georgia Southern | 0-0 | #83 | -0.35 SD |
| 2025 | Georgia Southern | 7-6 | #101 | -0.74 SD |
| 2024 | Georgia Southern | 8-5 | #81 | -0.22 SD |
| 2023 | Georgia Southern | 6-7 | #101 | -0.78 SD |
| 2022 | Georgia Southern | 6-7 | #85 | -0.46 SD |
| 2021 | USC | 1-1 | #69 | +0.04 SD |
| 2020 | USC | 5-1 | — | — |
| 2019 | USC | 8-5 | #30 | +0.72 SD |
| 2018 | USC | 5-7 | #60 | +0.10 SD |
| 2017 | USC | 11-3 | #27 | +0.91 SD |
| 2016 | USC | 10-3 | #7 | +1.57 SD |
| 2015 | USC | 5-4 | #20 | +1.06 SD |
| 2013 | USC | 1-0 | #19 | +1.12 SD |
Season rank = his team among all major-college teams that year; vs contemporaries = how far above the average team (in standard deviations).