The University of Southern California has parted ways with its head football coach, Clay Helton, athletic director Mike Bohn announced in a statement on Monday.
Bohn said it was time "make a change in the leadership of our football program" and thanked Helton for his years as head coach. Associate head coach Donte Williams will serve as interim head coach going forward.
Bohn's decision to fire Helton came in the wake of a 42-28 loss to Stanford University on Saturday at the Coliseum in Los Angeles, one of the worst in the team's history.
The team's perceived underperformance had reporteldy stoked the ire of major university donors. Insiders speculated that Bohn's decision to let Helton go came as outrage among fans and boosters overwhelmed the financial sense of keeping the head coach, one of the highest paid figures in college football, on board.
Helton's exact salary is not known, as USC is a private school and not obligated to release such information to the public; but his compensation is hypothesized to have been a significant motivating factor in Bohn's past decisions to retain the coach.