LOS ANGELES -- Cmon, Clay Helton. You know you want to. Heres your chance. Heres your chance to tell all the college football experts to go do something anatomically impossible.All he does is give a hearty laugh.Not my style, Helton said. Not my style.Helton is the former soon-to-be-former USC coach. He spent the first month of his first head coaching season hearing why he shouldnt get a second. Now Helton is the middle of his third month, and his No. 13 Trojans are 7-3 with a six-game winning streak as they prepare to finish their Pac-12 schedule at UCLA (10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). USC is a half-game behind No. 10 Colorado, and a half-game ahead of Utah, in the Pac-12 South.The Trojans actually can win the division. If they beat the Bruins (4-6, 2-5), and if No. 22 Washington State wins at Colorado, and the Buffs go on to beat No. 12 Utah next week, then the courtly Helton would have every right to say something that is not his style.Google Clay Helton and you dont have to scroll down very far. The fifth story is, Clay Helton Must Be Fired and USC Needs to Find a Real Head Coach. The seventh and ninth stories provide five names as possible replacements. Those three stories were published in late September, when USC had a record of 1-3.The ready-fire-aim section of my business did itself proud. Yeah, the Trojans got humiliated by Alabama in the opener, 52-6. It turned out that USC, in its first game, literally was not ready for the big time. The atmosphere in Cowboys Stadium, not to mention the Crimson Tide themselves, overwhelmed the Trojans.Yep, they followed with an equally inept offensive performance at Stanford two weeks later in a 27-10 loss. After that game, Helton benched fourth-year junior quarterback Max Browne for redshirt freshman Sam Darnold.He played well in his first start, at Utah, but the Trojans lost fumbles on their first three offensive possessions, and then gave up a touchdown with :16 to play to lose 31-27. All they had to show for the first month of the season was a victory over Utah State and a rabble that had been roused.Gah, Helton said, that feels like years ago.His family rallied around him. In the days after the Utah game, his daughter Aubrey, a high school senior, came up to him, gave him a big hug, and said, Daddy, dont worry about it. Its all going to be good.Not even Aubrey knew how good. But her daddy had an inkling. As the carping about Helton being overmatched reached a crescendo, he came away from the Utah loss convinced that the Trojans would be fine. He wont tell you six-wins-in-a-row, 13th-ranked, division-contender fine. But fine. This wasnt a team pointing fingers across the locker room.There were guys coming up on their own to watch extra film in our meeting rooms and taking it upon themselves to bring their teammates with them, Helton said. Thats what hurt, losing that game, because I saw what each kid was trying to do to help this team win.Helton seized on that kernel of determination and, as the geniuses speculated on his successor -- four games into his career -- he let his team know that he paid it no mind.I kept telling myself, Remember, 18- to 21-year-olds look to their leader and look to their coaching staff, Helton said. How we react, theyre going to react. Just stay poised. Dont panic. Stay consistent in what youre doing and what you believe in and live with the results.Six starts later, Darnold is the best first-year quarterback in the FBS. Dont ask me, Jalen Hurts fans. Ask Darnolds QBR (86.8), fifth in the nation. Darnold has been so effective as a passer he has reopened the running lanes for backs Ronald Jones II and Justin Davis.That is as good a decision as any to probe whether Helton could coach his way out of a paper bag. With 20/20 hindsight, it seems perfectly obvious that Darnold is the better quarterback. But Helton remains steadfast that the full-speed decision he made to start Browne in the first three games is one he would make again.I had seen a kid, Max Browne, whos a redshirt junior, that had been in college football games, was efficient, had been a team captain, very respected by our team as a leader, Helton said. And I saw Sam, just this ultra-talented thing, just brilliance. But had never seen him in a ballgame, a real live college game.Browne didnt make mistakes, but he didnt make magic, either. Darnold proved he could handle major college football. Boy, could he. Should you blame Helton for not getting Darnold ready for the opener? You should, as long as you ignore that the offense had a new coordinator, the defense had a new coordinator, and so did the special teams. That contributed to the slow start as well.Look at the way the defense has improved over the course of the season: five sacks in the first four games, 14 in the next six. The Trojans have allowed an average of 18 points per game during their six-game winning streak.USC is coming off a 26-13 victory at No. 4 Washington, a vivid illustration of how far the Trojans have progressed since that loss to Alabama. Here was another fast, talented team. Here was a game in Husky Stadium, one of the most intimidating atmospheres in college football. USC didnt wilt this time.As I look back on our entire season, it really culminated in last week, Helton said. ...I just saw unbelievable poise and maturity. It was as electric an atmosphere as you could possibly have. It was as good a scene for college football as you could see, and the moment wasnt too big for them. They really walked in there with a sense of maturity and confidence. Hey, lets just focus on our job. Lets dont care about the stadium. Lets dont care about the noise. Lets dont care about the weather. Lets just get our job done.They have two rivalry games remaining -- Notre Dame comes west next week -- and Helton said he has seen no heads swelled by the win at Washington. Coach Overmatched could end up with a 10-win season. And a Pac-12 title. The guy that the internet fired seven weeks ago may end up in the Rose Bowl.Heltons unfailingly polite, unerringly even-keeled, unbelievably unexciting personality ended up being just the right touch for a young team. So, cmon, Coach. Let it go. Tell the experts off.You have to be very strong-willed, Helton said. You have to have thick skin. And dont get your feelings hurt. Believe in what youre doing. Believe in the things youre doing for kids.Oh, well. They got off lucky. http://www.saintsrookiestore.com/Saints-Sam-Mills-Jersey/ .C. -- When North Carolina freshman Ryan Switzer reported to training camp in August he was a little miffed to learn he was third on the depth chart at punt returner. http://www.saintsrookiestore.com/Saints-Marcus-Williams-Jersey/ . -- Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a $630,000, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration. http://www.saintsrookiestore.com/Saints-Ted-Ginn-Jr-Jersey/ . Durant finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds, Jackson matched his career high with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and Lamb scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, lifting the Thunder to a 94-88 win over San Antonio and snapping the Spurs 11-game winning streak. http://www.saintsrookiestore.com/Saints-Sheldon-Rankins-Jersey/ . The Montreal Canadiens announced on Friday that the veteran forward will return to the teams line-up on Saturday night when the Habs visit the Nashville Predators. http://www.saintsrookiestore.com/Saints-Willie-Roaf-Jersey/ . The Nashville Predators were glad their captain was still on their side. Weber had a goal and two assists, and Roman Josi scored the shootout winner to lift the Predators to a 4-3 win over the Flyers on Thursday night. It was not easy to watch the last minute or so of Kell Brooks bold attempt to beat Gennady Golovkin in the final episode of the hot summer of boxing at the O2 on Saturday night.The fight was stopped in the fifth round when Dominic Ingle, the man that has trained Brook for nearly 20 years, tossed a towel in the ring at the feet of referee Marlon Wright. It was not surrender, it was mercy, and Brooks complaints were swallowed as he was embraced.Golovkin had chopped away at Brooks resistance from the opening bell, starting the fight a lot faster and with far more intent than most people expected. Brook had sustained an injury to his right eye by the end of the furious opening round, and it was that eye which limited his vision and left him vulnerable and ultimately forced Ingle to call it off.At the end of the fourth round, Ingle placed a blood-smeared towel over Brooks head and then ducked his own head inside the desperate tepee, a move designed to avoid the corner microphones, to warn his fighter it was his last round. Brook was helpless on the ropes, but still wanting to fight when it was called off and his career was saved. Many boxers have taken less punishment and failed to ever reach their previous heights, and Golovkin is a man that ruins careers. Ingles gesture might just have salvaged Brooks hopes of getting back to this level.There was a sea of praise in the aftermath with Golovkin and his trainer, Abel Sanchez, insisting that Brook had been a great opponent. Brook returned the compliment before a trip to hospital and a scan that revealed a broken right eye socket. He will have surgery on Monday and will not fight again this year.We knew it was going to be hard and it was, Brook said. To beat somebody that good you need two eyes and I was in trouble from the second. I couldnt see, and I knew then it was bad.In round two, Brook caught Golovkin repeatedly with quick combinations and one particular right uppercut landed flush. The action delighted the crowd, but made no sense and now that we know Brooks vision from the right eye was fading the grandstanding effort makes a little more sense. It was, in reality, his last stand, a move made painfully necessary by his impaired vision and not part of some carefully maintained strategy.Golovkin was accused of being sloppy by some purists, which seems harsh on Brook, and faiils to capture the effort Golovkin had to put in.dddddddddddd It is true that he was never hurt, never wobbled and never in trouble, but he had to fight in every round and in the second, for all the wrong reasons, he had to dig deeper than at any point in his professional career. Brook, meanwhile, displayed the guts that some fools believed he lacked.There is no doubt that Brooks speed, heart and resistance shocked the Kazakh maestro, who talked after the fight of having to have a war and not a boxing match to win. Brook, by the way, took the type of punches that few of Golovkins previous 35 victims have managed to absorb. However, his bravery failed to keep him from the list and he was added to the 23 consecutive stoppage wins, including the 18th in a world title fight by Golovkin.Im still struggling to take it all in, said Eddie Hearn, the promoter, at the end of the fight as he stood in the empty ringside pit surrounded by the junk left behind after a big night of boxing. I truly believed he could do it, but with the eye, there was no way that it could have gone longer. Kell took everything, my respect for him has increased. Hearn was visibly shaken by what he had seen from his seat, just five-feet of safety away, at ringside and that is because up close you can hear Golovkins punches and it is both impressive and frightening.As the respective camps left the ring, walking from the ringside to the mixed receptions in their dressing rooms there were other stunned faces left behind, veterans of previous nights when great boxers have shown up in British rings and delivered sobering beatings to our best fighters.?Golovkin left the most emphatic of messages and will deservedly never be forgotten by those present.In the subdued aftermath I grabbed a few moments with Sanchez, the quiet man that has shaped Golovkin into such a damaging fighter, and he looked relieved that the fight and the week had come to an end.You know, he said, Kell never knew how to lose and that made him a danger. Gennady is methodical and he was starting to hurt him. Im glad Dominic stopped it. 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