Clay Helton
Followed Chad Lunsford. Clay Helton held Georgia Southern at Regional Program III for 5 seasons.
In his own words
It’s a good start, but there’s a lot to grow from too
The first quarter was about as good as you could draw
Guys were playing in the backfield, they were playing ultra aggressive
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Blue Blood in his 1st career season — faster than 59% of the 100 FBS coaches who have ever reached Blue Blood (rank #1 of 100 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
11–7 against his rivals. Just 1–4 against Brian Kelly.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
5th-best Georgia Southern tenure of 5 by the numbers.
Outperforms his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Followed Chad Lunsford (2017–2021).
| Season | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 6–7 | 6–7 | 8–5 | 7–6 | 0–0 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | L bowl | L bowl | W bowl | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #108 | #100 | #91 | #80 | #89 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||
| Pass rate | 62.2 | 60.5 | 50.3 | 48.3 | 66.4 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||
| OC | Bryan Ellis | Bryan Ellis | Ryan Aplin | Ryan Aplin | Ryan Aplin | |
| DC | Will Harris | Brandon Bailey | Brandon Bailey | Brandon Bailey | Mike Mutz | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | 77 | 52 | 49 | 72 | 36 | |
| Defense | 11 | 12 | 32 | 14 | 96 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 59.7 | 58.0 | 50.0 | 45.7 | 63.5 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 49.2 | 57.5 | 45.9 | 36.0 | 35.0 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 23.9 | 29.5 | 25.0 | 37.9 | — | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in smaller-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
5th-best USC tenure of 17 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
Succeeded by Lincoln Riley (2022–2026).
| Season | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||||||
| Record | 6–2 | 9–4 | 5–4 | 10–3 | 11–3 | 5–7 | 8–5 | 5–1 | 3–7 | |
| Postseason | — | W bowl | L bowl | W bowl | CFP loss | — | L bowl | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | — | #10 | #2 | #10 | #4 | #4 | #20 | #55 | #8 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||||||
| Pass rate | — | 46.7 | 46.8 | 47.8 | 47.5 | 50.4 | 56.8 | 58.8 | 55.5 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||||||
| OC | — | Clay Helton | Clay Helton / Tee Martin | Tee Martin | Tee Martin | Tee Martin | Graham Harrell | Graham Harrell | Graham Harrell | |
| DC | — | Justin Wilcox | Justin Wilcox | Clancy Pendergast | Clancy Pendergast | Clancy Pendergast | Clancy Pendergast | Todd Orlando | Todd Orlando | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||||||
| Offense | — | 81 | 72 | 87 | 79 | 46 | 84 | 50 | 48 | |
| Defense | — | 65 | 65 | 59 | 57 | 51 | 18 | 57 | 14 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | — | 52.5 | 45.6 | 44.6 | 40.0 | 42.4 | 57.2 | 59.9 | 55.3 | |
| Red-zone pass% | — | 51.3 | 38.8 | 48.1 | 36.8 | 52.6 | 57.0 | 50.0 | 48.5 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | — | 39.5 | 50.0 | 21.6 | 39.1 | 32.5 | 20.0 | 50.0 | 25.6 | |
A typical amount of portal roster-building.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
40 NFL Draft picks: Robert Woods (2013), T.J. McDonald (2013), Matt Barkley (2013), Khaled Holmes (2013), Marqise Lee (2014), Marcus Martin (2014), Devon Kennard (2014), Leonard Williams (2015) + 32 more
1 player-season honored (All-America / national award): Talanoa Hufanga (2020)