Clay Helton Says Transferring Lineman E.J. Price Didn't Punch Him in Face

Clay Helton said freshman offensive tackle E.J. Price is transferring just three games into his college career in order to be closer to his Georgia home and not because of a physical altercation with the head coach.

"“I’m not a big social media guy, but I got told today about E.J. Price hitting me, which is funny. I wouldn’t be here; I’d be dead, one,” Helton said. “May make my face look better, but when it comes to E.J. — I know a lot of times when a guy doesn’t show up on the field there’s questions. “I talked to E.J. a couple days ago. E.J. has some personal family issues that are going on — a lot of homesickness and missing family really bad. With us sitting down and visiting, really felt, mutually, that it was important for him to go find a school that is closer to home, where he can deal with his family.”"

Helton was referring to a post on a USC message board suggesting Price had “popped [him] a good one.”

Price’s departure is the latest bit of bad news for the struggling Trojans. The four-star lineman was a prized recruit who chose USC over Georgia. Helton’s team is 1-2 on the year and has looked painfully overmatched against both Alabama and Stanford. The schedule doesn’t get much easier the rest of the way with trips to Utah, Washington and UCLA and visits by Oregon and Notre Dame.