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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. 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There are surprises among the Vezina candidates, but most of the others are standard top-tier performers, even if the two Hart Trophy runners-ups have never been quite as good as they have been through the first half of the season. Fake Nike Shoes From China . Three came down to the fourth quarter while quarterbacks continued to shine in all four games; so important to the overall quality of the game.SILVIS, Ill. -- Zach Johnson made himself right at home in the John Deere Classic -- again.From just up the road in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the two-time major champion shot a 6-under 65 on Thursday, leaving him two strokes behind leader Andrew Loupe in the suspended first round.I dont know what it is, but I love the golf course, said Johnson, the 2012 winner at TPC Deere Run. I love the putting surfaces. I do know the moment I feel like I can take this place down is the moment it can bite me, so Ive still got to stay focused and keep the pedal down.Loupe topped the leaderboard at 8 under when play was suspended because of darkness. The tournament was delayed for 3 1/2 hours by a storm that dropped just over an inch of rain. The round resumed at 3:08 p.m., with none of the afternoon starters able to finish.Loupe will resume play Friday with a 6-foot par putt on the par-4 15th hole. The 27-year-old former LSU player had five birdies in a seven-hole stretch on the front nine and added birdies on 11, 13 and 14.Patrick Rodgers and Ryan Moore were in at 65 with Johnson, and Tom Gillis also was 6 under with two holes left.Johnson had five birdies in a seven-hole stretch in the bogey-free round that he started on the 10th tee. The 12-time PGA Tour winner capped the run on the par-5 second and also birdied the par-4 sixth.As far as the start and stop, were used to that, Johnson said. Thats not any secret. It happens all the time. Theres days where theres a 30-minute delay, theres days where, shoot, it takes 30-some odd hours to play 18 holes. Im used to it. Relaxed a little bit, ate something, worked out a little bit, that kind of thing, just to stay loose, and then went back at it.Rodgers birdied the final hole for a back-nine 31.Today was a really solid day for me, said Rodgers, the former Stanford star from Indiana. I felt like I was very consistent tee to green and gave myself a lot of opportunities to make birdies.dddddddddddd My only bogey was a three-putt. My only missed green was in the fringe, so I played really solid golf. There wasnt a whole lot of opportunities to make mistakes.Moore eagled the par-5 17th in his opening nine, and finished with a 30-foot par save on No. 9.I was playing well and you hate to drop a shot on the last hole, the four-time tour winner said. I didnt play the hole well by any means. I didnt hit any good golf shots. But a good putt can save just about anything, and thats what happened.Jordan Spieth chose not to defend his title because he didnt think it would be appropriate in light of his decision to skip the Rio Olympics.Scott Pinckney and Scott Brown shot 66, and Geoff Ogilvy and Morgan Hoffman also were 5 under. Ogilvy completed 12 holes, and Hoffman 14.Pinckney made five straight birdies and six in a seven-hole stretch on his final nine.Honestly, I played good on both sides, but the putts started to drop, and I put it a little bit closer on the back side, Pinckney said. So, it wasnt like all of a sudden Im hitting it good.Three-time champion Steve Stricker had a 70. The 49-year-old Stricker, a former University of Illinois player from Wisconsin, won the event in 2009, 2010 and 2011.Even after the rain, the inch of rain we got, the conditions were pretty good, Stricker said. I just didnt play that sharply.Wesley Bryan has 2 under with eight holes left. He won his third Web.com Tour title of the season last week in Kansas to earn an immediate PGA Tour promotion.NCAA champion Aaron Wise was 1 under after seven holes in his PGA Tour debut as a pro. The former Oregon player won a Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada event two weeks ago in Edmonton, Alberta. ' ' '