Clay Helton is officially heading back to the college football sidelines.

According to Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, Helton has signed a 5-year deal to become the new head coach at Georgia Southern, where he’ll make almost $800,000 per season. Helton was fired by USC after the Trojans got off to a 1-1 start to the 2021 season.

Georgia Southern fired Chad Lunsford after its 1-3 start, creating an opening for its head-coaching role. The Eagles had a winning record in each of Lunsford’s first 3 seasons from 2018-20, but they’re currently 2-6 after their tough start.

Helton will look to get the program back on track. This will only be the second time that he’ll be a head coach after going 45-24 at USC from 2015-21.

Prior to becoming the Trojans’ head coach, Helton was an assistant on their staff from 2010-15. Before that, he had stints as an assistant at Duke (1995-96), Houston (1997-99) and Memphis (2000-09).

There will be plenty more coaching hires to come throughout the rest of the year. However, Georgia Southern made its decision early and took Helton off the market in the process.