Lame-duck coaches find nest in Las Vegas Bowl

In Clay Helton's office at Southern California is a two-year-old picture of he and eight other coaches.

They had just concluded their final team meeting, the last one all would be together, and they wanted to capture the moment on camera.

John Baxter now is at Michigan, Clancy Pendergast is with the San Francisco 49ers, Tommie Robinson is at Texas.

And Helton is USC's head coach, having had the interim title removed on Nov. 30. He also was the Trojans' interim coach in 2013 as they prepared for the Las Vegas Bowl, and Helton, his staff and their players stuck together and drilled Fresno State 45-20.

"Two things have to really happen in that situation," Helton said. "One, you have to really trust your assistant coaches that they're going to do their job and focus on the kids. And then kids themselves. They were all in, too."

Interim and lame-duck coaches are nothing new for the Las Vegas Bowl, and this week's game is another example. Bronco Mendenhall will coach his final game at Brigham Young before leaving to take over Virginia and take six assistants with him. The Cougars face 22nd-ranked Utah at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium.

This is the third consecutive season this game will feature one coach who is in some kind of temporary role, and it's the fourth time in five years and sixth overall.

Mendenhall's situation is different from the other five. He took another job and decided to coach in the game, unlike last season when Jim McElwain left Colorado State for Florida, and Dave Baldwin coached the Rams.

No situation has been more unique than what occurred in 2002, the first time the Las Vegas Bowl faced this kind of issue. When UCLA fired coach Bob Toledo, instead of handing the job to an assistant, athletic director Dan Guerrero installed Ed Kezirian as the interim.

Kezirian had coached at UCLA for 13 years, but hadn't been an assistant since 1992. He was UCLA's assistant athletic director of academic services, and wasn't all that comfortable about becoming a coach over someone on the staff.

His approach was to become more of an overseer by taking care of details such as getting to different bowl events on time. The coordinators ran their respective sides of the ball and met with the media after practices, and Kezirian was helped that he knew the players from having worked with them on the academic side.

"So doing that for 10 years, I guess the administration felt like maybe I had ties in and had their trust as much as anyone," Kezirian said. "Coach Toledo was at UCLA for nine years, seven as head coach. That's a good run. Some of the players rolled with the punches better than others, but I think over time as we started getting into the next 2½ weeks leading up to the game, the players turned out to be very supportive.

"But it was difficult for them as well with the change."

As odd as the situation was for Kezirian and the team, the Bruins handled it well and went on to beat New Mexico 27-13.

"It was a process, and I didn't try to take over and be the head coach or be the CEO initially," Kezirian said. "I kind of waited a week. I tried to gradually move toward where I felt my role was as much to be a healer."

When a coach is fired, it puts bowl officials in the position of promoting the game with the dismissal hanging over the lead-up to what is supposed to be a celebration.

"Every interim coach we've worked with, they've been unbelievable," bowl executive director John Saccenti said. "Where it becomes a challenge is you never know what you're going to get out of the team."

The results have been mixed, with teams going a combined 2-3 in this bowl with an interim or lame-duck coach.

UNLV athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy, the bowl's executive director from 2000 to 2012, said the key is to not forget why the teams are in town.

"It's not the best situation for sure, but you handle it and you get through it because, really, the most important thing is the game," Kunzer-Murphy said. "Once you get there, you're fine. It's just through all of this other stuff that makes it a pretty interesting week."

No team handled such a situation better than USC in 2013.

Lane Kiffin was fired in late September that year, and Ed Orgeron was installed in his place. When the Trojans went on a late-season run, Orgeron hoped he would be given the job.

Instead, USC decided to go with Steve Sarkisian, prompting Orgeron to leave. Helton became the interim for the bowl.

A game the Trojans dominated.

"We had a lot to play for that week," Helton said. "One, the chance to be a bowl champion. Two, we were playing for our 10th victory that year. And, three, we were playing a pretty dang good team, a top-20 team in Fresno State.

"To be honest with you, it was an easy preparation for us because there were a lot of goals out there."

Helton was put in a similar situation this season when Sarkisian was dismissed in October. Having had that opportunity leading up to the Las Vegas Bowl helped prepare him this year in which Helton earned the job on a full-time basis.

"That whole year helped me to recognize that when you get in these positions or any time you're a head coach, you focus on your players," Helton said. "As a coach or interim coach, it doesn't matter. You're a servant to your players and your university, and if you approach it that way, you don't worry about what's going to happen a month from now, two months from now.

"You just focus on winning the game, focus on helping the kids, and good things are going to happen."

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65