Firing of Clay Helton has to help Michigan Football with Domani Jackson

Michigan football hosted five-star cornerback Domani Jackson this past weekend, who is committed to USC and with Clay Helton out, U-M’s stock is rising.

USC dropped a bombshell on Monday as Clay Helton, the long-time head coach of the Trojans, was fired after a disastrous loss last Saturday against Stanford.

The Cardinal, who were beaten badly by Kansas State in Week 1, threw all over the Trojans and won the game going away.

Helton was already on the hot seat and while his termination wasn’t totally unexpected, the timing is pretty shocking.

You might be wondering what this has to do with Michigan football?

Well, if you follow recruiting, you know it has everything to do with Domani Jackson, a five-star cornerback  Michigan football is desperately trying to land.

Jackson, the No. 5 overall prospect in 2022 according to the 247 sports composite rankings,  committed to USC last January and is tight with Donte Williams, who has been named as the interim head coach.

But Michigan football has been called his “dream” school and his father, who grew up in Ohio, was a fan of the Wolverines. He even said before all this he couldn’t count out the Wolverines.

Despite being a USC commit, Jackson visited this past weekend and things seemed to go really well. I mean it was a perfect storm as Michigan football blew out Washington. Plus, with the Maize Out and it being a night game, the atmosphere was electric.

The defensive effort wasn’t bad either. The point being, Michigan was trending up in Jackson’s recruitment prior to the news about Clay Helton, which can only help the Wolverines.

How Clay Helton’s firing can help Michigan?

Jackson and current five-star pledge Will Johnson are tight and they have talked about playing together. It’s what prompted Johnson to take a visit to USC over the summer.

And Johnson has been trying to get Jackson to come to Ann Arbor.

Back in November, when Johnson took a self-guided visit to Ann Arbor, there were rumors about his possibly committing to Michigan. Of course, he didn’t, and in the midst of a 2-4 season, who could blame him?

Now, the stability issues appear to be solved. Jim Harbaugh has Michigan football looking solid and back in the Top 25. The defense also looks stellar under new defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald.

Just imagine how it would look with Johnson and Jackson, two five-star cornerbacks manning the outside spots for the next few seasons?

With Clay Helton gone, it’s more likely to happen now.  Interim head coaches normally don’t stay after and even though Williams is close to Jackson, he probably won’t be back.

Even if he is, the situation now has much more uncertainty than Michigan does, which can only help the Wolverines in their effort to flip the five-star recruit.