After months of promising major changes to its personnel operation, USC has hired a general manager for its football program.
Chad Bowden will be USC’s next general manager, a person familiar with the decision not authorized to speak publicly told The Times, after spending the previous three years at Notre Dame.
Bowden, 30, had only just been named general manager and assistant athletic director with the Irish less than a year ago. That promotion came in March after Michigan pursued Bowden for its open general manager job. Notre Dame proceeded to make a run to the final of the College Football Playoff, where it fell Monday to Ohio State.
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At USC, Bowden is expected to be one of the highest-paid personnel directors in all of college football. He’ll have a significant job ahead of him, with landscape-altering changes on the horizon in college football, as well as at USC, where the personnel operation has lagged behind other blue-blood programs.
Plans to hire a new GM at USC were first put into motion last August, as athletic director Jen Cohen put on a full-court press to lure Alabama general manager Courtney Morgan to L.A. But a $1 million salary wasn’t enough to convince Morgan, who took less money to continue working alongside Kalen DeBoer, both of whom worked under Cohen at Washington.
How Bowden and a revamped personnel operation will work with USC’s coach, Lincoln Riley, remains to be seen. Previously, Riley worked closely with Dave Emerick, USC’s current general manager, on all personnel matters.
It’s unclear how Emerick’s role will change with a new general manager at the helm. But a person familiar with the situation told The Times that he was expected to remain with the program in a different role.
Before coming to Notre Dame with coach Marcus Freeman, Bowden served as a recruiting staffer at Cincinnati. He’s made a rapid ascent since, stepping into key personnel roles at two of college football’s proudest programs.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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