USC hires Notre Dame’s Chad Bowden as its football general manager

After months of promising major changes to its personnel operation, USC hired a general manager for its football program.

Chad Bowden, after spending the previous three years at Notre Dame, was hired Friday as USC’s general manager.

“Chad is the perfect fit to help us build and sustain a championship-level football program in the new era of college athletics,” USC athletic director Jen Cohen said in a statement. “Combined with USC’s competitive resources and growing support, adding a general manager of Chad’s caliber and pedigree to our staff is a vital step toward fully realizing this program’s enormous potential.”

Bowden, 30, was named general manager and assistant athletic director at Notre Dame last March, after Michigan pursued him for its GM job. Notre Dame proceeded to make a run to the national championship game, losing to Ohio State. Before that, Bowden first served as Notre Dame’s defensive recruiting coordinator for one year, then director of recruiting for the two years after that.

At USC, Bowden is expected to be one of the highest-paid personnel directors in college football, with a salary believed to exceed $1 million. He’ll have a significant job ahead of him, with landscape-altering changes on the horizon in college football and at USC, where the personnel operation has lagged behind other blueblood programs.

Bowden, in a statement, called the role at USC a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”.

“This is a place with the resources, facilities and support to build a perennial winner,” Bowden said, “and I’m excited to get to work to help bring more national championships to USC.”

Plans to hire a new GM were first put into motion last August, as Cohen put on a full-court press to lure Alabama’s Courtney Morgan to L.A. But a $1-million salary wasn’t enough to convince Morgan, who took less money to continue working alongside Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer, both of whom worked under Cohen at Washington.

After missing out on Morgan, USC set out on a months-long search that yielded several candidates from the NFL front office ranks, according to a person familiar with those discussions. But USC landed on Bowden, whose vision for USC’s future on the personnel side immediately impressed leaders in the department.

How Bowden and a revamped personnel operation will work with USC’s coach, Lincoln Riley, remains to be seen. Riley worked closely with Dave Emerick, USC’s current general manager, on all personnel matters. It’s also unclear how Emerick’s role will change. A person familiar with the situation told The Times that he was expected to remain with the program in a different role.

Riley, in a statement, called Bowden’s hire “vital to the future of our program.”

Before coming to Notre Dame with coach Marcus Freeman, Bowden served as a recruiting staffer at Cincinnati. He’s made a rapid ascent, stepping into key personnel roles at two of college football’s proudest programs.