College football coaches on hot seat: Clay Helton needs to reclaim USC's Pac-12 supremacy

The offseason glance at the hottest seats in college football lost an annual contender in former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, whose posterior has cooled considerably in the move to American Athletic Conference powerhouse Central Florida.

But many of the recent standbys remain. There's always Southern California coach Clay Helton, who responded to his doubters by going 5-1 during the recent pandemic season but will be pressured to repeat that winning percentage across a complete schedule.

From some of the biggest programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision through coaches struggling to make ends meet in the Group of Five, these are the names to watch.

Clay Helton, Southern California

Helton struggles in comparison to a few USC coaching legends of the past, most recently Pete Carroll, but the real concern surrounding his fairly successful tenure — he's 44-23 overall and 36-13 in conference play since replacing Steve Sarkisian in 2015 — stems from the Trojans' inability to take advantage of an uneven Pac-12 and reclaim conference supremacy and a permanent place in the College Football Playoff conversation. So here we go again: Helton enters this season with the schedule and the talent to make noise.