OK, here we go.
This thread is unfair to Bryan Ellis, who none of you guys know. I barely know him and I'm there every day we're allowed to be there. Tyson Helton was the QB coach/passing game coordinator. He left after the regular season for Tennessee. But before that, as has been reported numerous times, he suggested passing plays to be included in the game plan and call sheet for Tee, as you would hope the passing game coordinator/QB coach would. He also sat next to Tee during games and suggested passing play calls on third down especially.
With Tyson leaving, Clay made the sensible adjustment to have grad assistant (simply an NCAA term for his staff position not to count against the nine full-time assistants allowed, not a commentary on his professional qualifications) Bryan Ellis step in there after helping out at that spot all year. He has been a Division I player as a competent QB at UAB. He also has been wide receiver and QB coach and passing game coordinator at Western Kentucky. And while it's easy to dismiss the Hilltoppers, they finished Top 25 the last two years Bryan coached there and for a directional school in Bowling Green, Ky., that's a hell of an accomplishment.
WKU head coach Jeff Brohm then went on to Purdue after the regular season last year and greatly improved that program this season. He is truly one of the best offensive minds of his generation. When he left, Bryan was elevated to offensive coordinator for last year's Boca Raton Bowl and called the plays in a game that Western won impressively over Memphis, scoring 52 points. So he's no novice "grad student" as he's being portrayed. He's been there, done that -- at a lower level bowl, at least.
And to listen to reports designed to do nothing but stir negative stuff up and jump on them like they're new news or that they say anything about what was going on in the Cotton Bowl is silly. Now I might not like the three-headed play-calling process, especially for game flow, rhythm, playing fast and all of that. But it's what USC has been doing all year. They simply had Bryan step in for Tyson.
He's the guy who works with Sam and the QBs every day and is in the film room with them. It would be silly for him not to have a voice in what passes they throw. And that's the way Tee wants it. But having talked to Tee about it, what he gets are suggestions that he's asking for. Neither Tyson nor Bryan "called the plays."
I was there in the locker room after the game and I asked Sam about why USC got ready to run tempo, practiced tempo and then failed to run tempo. Sam said he wasn't exactly sure why but that "Bryan and Tee wanted to see what defense Ohio State was in first" before making the calls. Not my call if it were up to me. But that's what they decided. My guess is that someone overhearing that who may have been nearby turned it into "a grad student was calling the plays for USC" when they heard Bryan's name mentioned by Sam.
He wasn't.
And it's really not fair to be going after him the way some have chosen to just to make a hit on USC. Most of what was wrong with the pass offense Friday has been wrong with it all year.
Hope this helps.
Dan