USC head coach Clay Helton believes Hue Jackson is spot on when he says Cody Kessler can be something special in the NFL.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- USC coach Clay Helton nodded his head last week when he heard Hue Jackson ask folks to trust him that unheralded quarterback Cody Kessler can be something special.
"I think coach Jackson's going to be the guy that's the smart one down the road here,'' said Helton, who was Kessler's position coach and coordinator before becoming his head coach midway through last season. "I think Cody will be somebody that everybody looks up two or three years from now and says 'wow, where did this guy come from?'''
Helton, who recruited the Browns' third-round pick out of high school in Bakersfield, California, knows it strains credulity for Kessler to leapfrog the draft's big-name quarterbacks -- Jared Goff, Carson Wentz and Paxton Lynch. But he's seen enough to be a believer.
"The kid has been trained in that style of (West Coast) system that the Browns are going to run, and his transition will be with ease,'' said Helton. "You're never going to have to worry about the guy from the work ethic standpoint or the type of person he is. He's going to represent the organization well.''
Helton, who's father, Kim, was Bernie Koser's offensive coordinator at the University of Miami and also a longtime NFL assistant, has watched Kessler (6-1, 215) come from behind to win the starting job at USC and then persevere through four coaching changes, including two in mid-season, when Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian were fired, the latter because of a drinking problem.
"Cody's had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at him and maybe that too and where he's gotten to in his career right now, I'm just ultra-proud of him because at any point in time, he could've used the things that were going on as an excuse,'' he said. "Instead, he turned it into an unbelievable career here."
When Kessler lost Kiffin in 2013 and Sarkisian last year, Helton said Kessler came to him and said, "'let me be the answer. Let me guide us through those tough times,''' Helton recalled. "It speaks volumes to the type of man he is and the type of leader he's going to be for the Browns organization. He's doesn't shy away when times get tough and he actually looks forward to it.''
Last season, despite Sarkisian's ouster, Kessler led the team to five wins in its last six games, a trip to the Pac-12 championship game and a berth in the Holiday Bowl.
"I'll be honest with you, I don't think it could've been done unless you have a guy like Cody Kessler as the captain of the ship,'' said Helton.
He thinks so much of Kessler that "he's the first one that I bawled like a baby after our last game and I've been in it for 21 years."
Still, he hasn't let his affection for his protege cloud his judgment. Like Jackson, he believes Kessler -- who will have a chance to compete for the Browns' starting job against presumptive starter Robert Griffin III -- has what it takes to succeed in the NFL.
"He does the things a great quarterback does,'' Helton said. "You've got to have great intangibles. You have to be a man a of character. You have to look at decision-making, timing and accuracy. And you look at what the kid's done throughout his college career. His junior year he had 39 touchdowns and five interceptions.
"He's been a 69 percent completion rate quarterback not just one year but his entire career and even last year, he was in the high 20s in touchdowns with seven interceptions. He's a great decision-maker, unbelievably accurate and does a nice job of getting the ball out.''
Will Hue Jackson be right about Kessler?
Helton scoffs at the notion that Kessler doesn't have the arm strength to excel in the pros.
"I've seen him make every throw on the field and now he's got even more of an advantage because the NFL game is played in the middle of the field,'' Helton said. "In college you've got wide hashmarks, where you've got that long comeback throw or that long outcut and he's able to make them with ease. Now, put him the middle of field the whole game and I think he's going to thrive.''
Helton also rejects the common wisdom that USC quarterbacks labor in the NFL. While Carson Palmer has succeeded, others -- such 2006 No. 10 overall pick Matt Leinart -- have flopped.
"Every starting quarterback since Carson Palmer has gone onto an NFL career and Carson's doing a wonderful job in Arizona,'' Helton said. "I look at the career of Mark Sanchez and what he did with the Jets and I still think he can produce in this league. I'm looking forward to Matt Barkley (now with the Cardinals) getting his opportunity one day to lead a team.
"Some of them have had great success and some of them have not, but that's the life of an NFL quarterback. A lot of times it's about the system, the personnel. I know when they leave here they're ready for the NFL and a lot of them have succeeded.''
He said Kessler wasn't as highly-touted as some of the other USC quarterbacks to come out in part because of the turmoil of the past few years.
"Sometimes it gets into wins and losses,'' he said. "After his junior year he was looking at being possibly one of the top five quarterbacks in the draft. We end up winning the Pac-12 South title, and we have a coaching change. We didn't win the national championship. We didn't go to the Rose Bowl this year, so sometimes how successful your year is could play into it, but I think he's one of the best to come through here.''
Despite all the turnover at USC, Helton remained a constant for Kessler and so did the pro-style West Coast offense.
"The same play that Matt Leinart threw to Dwayne Jarrett to beat Notre Dame right before the Bush Push is still being run here and still being thrown here,'' said Helton. "The coaches changed, but the system didn't necessarily change. It did go from huddle to no huddle, but as far as still being two-back offense, two tight offense, 11-personnel with three wides, it's still using the NFL terminology and the NFL multi-progression system. That didn't change here."
It's that system, which borrows some of former Browns offensive coordinator Norv Turner's philosophy, that has Helton believing Kessler will make a smooth transition to the pros.
"He's had to ID fronts, he's had to ID the Mike 'backer and he's made multi-progression reads like they'll run in Cleveland where he's had to see the safety rotation,'' Helton said. "He's had to audible. He's been given two plays and said, 'hey, get us in the right play.' He's been able to see where pressure is coming from and where you slide protections. He's had all the attributes you want for a pro quarterback.''
In addition to running a pro-style scheme similar to what Jackson will run, Kessler's work ethic in unparalleled, Helton said.
"He's a student of the game and he's going to be the first one in the office and the last one to leave,'' said Helton. "He's all about the team to the standpoint where his junior year, he broke every individual record here at USC and then his senior year he was asked to do a little bit different because of where our defense was. We had to hand off the ball a little bit more than we were accustomed to, but he's just a really team guy and a guy the city of Cleveland's going to be proud of.''
Helton recalled the game in 2014 when Kessler broke USC's record with seven TD passes in a 56-28 rout of Colorado.
"We had the six touchdowns and somebody came up and said 'Cody's one away from breaking the record,''' Helton said. "I remember getting him on the phone saying, 'man, you're having a great game, but we've got one away from the record here.' He goes 'coach, all I care about is the game, do whatever we've got to do.'''
Helton recalls how he almost lost Kessler to Washington in the spring of his junior high school year. Helton begged Kiffin to offer Kessler a scholarship even though they already had another top quarterback committed in Max Wittek.
"Cody was literally getting ready to pick up the phone and commit to Washington,'' said Helton. "He was like 'coach I've been waiting for this call. This is exactly what I've always wanted to do.' I don't how many kids would've done that with a top quarterback in the country already committed. He was just never scared of competition.''
And in his first year, after the coaches picked Wittek to replace an injured Barkley in the Sun Bowl, Kessler didn't pick up his ball and go home.
"I've seen kids in that situation transfer, but Cody said 'no, I'm going to show you coach in the next training camp, I'm better,''' said Helton. "And he was. He played better than Max and won the starting job and never looked back.''
That's why Helton didn't bat an eyelash on draft weekend when Sashi Brown said Kessler "is not a guy I would sleep on'' if you want to be the starting quarterback of the Browns.
"He thrives on that kind of competition,'' said Helton.
Trust him. He's seen it firsthand over the past five years.
