USC athletic director Mike Bohn and legendary former Trojans football coach Pete Carroll had developed a relationship through this protracted coaching search the last two and a half months as the school ... well, looked to find the next Pete Carroll.
And so the AD and the last coach to lead the Trojans to a national championship were playing phone tag a couple weekends ago as rumors started intensifying nationally about who Bohn was or wasn't going to be able to hire.
"He's got his own program to run but he was so respectful and he wants what's best for USC," Bohn says of Carroll, the Seattle Seahawks head coach. "... Coach was engaged in watching the process unfold."
Bohn, meanwhile, had been a bit consumed himself with the task at hand, especially that weekend as USC was quietly but diligently preparing to shock the college football world. But with the job complete by some point early that Sunday and with only a matter of time before it inevitably leaked out that USC had hired Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma, there was a window to share the news with just a select few.
Bohn got on the phone with Carroll.
"Pete's energy, passion, true excitement and genuine thrill that Lincoln was coming to USC was really uplifting," Bohn says, sharing the anecdote a couple days after formally introducing Riley as USC's head coach. "It was just, it was very, very special and I really salute and appreciate Pete's energy and his genuine excitement about Lincoln coming to USC. And he touched me -- and I know his affinity for USC will touch Lincoln as well."
In another room, executive senior associate AD/chief of staff Brandon Sosna was making a call of his own. He doesn't specify to whom, but he notes it was somebody "who is a long-time supporter of ours, who helps us out with so many things." In picking up the story from his perspective, Sosna reflects back to a conversation he had with the gentleman while standing on the sideline at Notre Dame back in October when the man suggested to him, "Lincoln Riley's the guy. You should make that happen."
Sosna smiles thinking back on it now -- as he probably did in the moment then -- because Riley was rarely mentioned by fans or media in connection with USC's coaching search. Quite frankly, that outcome just seemed far-fetched ... even if he was the first choice for the Trojans administration all along, as they say.
Bohn and Sosna had kept a tight lid on all aspects of the coaching search, such that Bohn says he didn't even share with his family the plans to make a run at Riley -- not intentionally, at least.
"No, I would never put them in a situation with that. But I'd be disingenuous if I ... my wife hears different things just because she happens to be in a certain area when I'm taking a call and don't want to miss one," Bohn says. "But she knows and my entire family understands the importance of confidentiality and they just want the best for USC and best for our family."
The point being, the secret had been well-kept -- especially as it wasn't clear even to Bohn or Sosna that they could entice Riley to consider the job amidst an immensely successful 55-10 run as the Sooners head coach the last five years -- until it actually happened and the Twitter reports soon started to multiply rapidly late that Sunday morning.
So Sosna was on the phone in one room of the USC athletics offices, on his call, while Bohn was on the phone in another, finally ready to divulge the details while it was still their surprise to reveal.
"There was a period of time between when Lincoln was informing the team [at Oklahoma] and it would get out there that there were just a few phone calls that we wanted to make," Sosna says. " I was on the phone with [the USC athletics supporter] when all of a sudden I just heard an eruption from the other room with Mike and Pete. ... I think that moment with Pete was representative of just how that response has been across of all our former [Trojans].
"Obviously, we're about our current team and we wanted to deliver a coach worthy of their talent, but for all of our former players securing a coach that's going to lead us to the level of play and the style of play that they expect, as a leader that is a really fulfilling thing."
There wasn't much time for celebration on their part, though.
Later that night, Bohn, Sosna and USC director of player personnel Spencer Harris were on a private plane to Oklahoma to bring the prize of this wild 2021 coaching carousel back to Los Angeles.
Days later, after the whirlwind had subsided somewhat and the shock of it all had started to give way to reality, USC's athletics leaders shared in exclusive interviews with TrojanSports.com their perspective on the "frenetic" 24 hours or so that followed the resounding kaboom they dropped on the college football world.
Starting with that phone call to Carroll, the coach who most recently established the expectations Riley will now be chasing ...
"We were in the process of playing phone tag and the timing of it just worked out perfect, so I think there's some irony in that," Bohn says of that call. "Obviously some positive Trojan karma there, which is actually very, very interesting when you think about it."
