For more than a year and a half, since taking over as USC's athletic director, Mike Bohn, his top lieutenant Brandon Sosna and their team have been working to build up the infrastructure of Trojans football from within.
That includes everything from the significant expansion of the recruiting staff along with additional support staff, to their role in some of the assistant coaching changes, to even upgrading the groundskeeping of the practice fields ... and plenty in between.
So, the question came Thursday, as Bohn and Sosna met with reporters after football practice, what are the expectations for coach Clay Helton on the field this season with all that additional support in place?
"I think first of all when you think of championship expectations, it requires championship support and I believe we've made strides associated with that and Brandon has been a key part of helping [drive] that, along with Clay, so our expectations are what they've always been. We want to be in the Rose Bowl and being a part of that College Football Playoff. Those are our goals," Bohn said.
"… We’re making progress, but we recognize that the expectation and the history is for us to get to the CFP and that's certainly our goal, and what we're trying to do. And I know that's what these young men are trying to do."
USC hasn't been in the Rose Bowl since the 2016 season -- Helton's first full year as head coach -- and the Trojans have yet to be invited to the College Football Playoff (finishing No. 9 in the CFP rankings that year).
It's been a true odyssey since then, as Trojans fans well know.
A strong 11-3 season in 2017, the drop-off to 5-7 in 2018, a middling 8-5 mark the next year but with the program's lowest-rated recruiting class on record (last in the Pac-12, tied for 71st nationally), and then the 5-1 pandemic-shortened 2020 season that ended with a tough loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship game.
Through most of that, Helton's status and future have been the source of many opinions and much scrutiny.
Bohn was asked what parts of the vocal criticism from within the fan base are fair or unfair, and what might be something that he would like those fans to know that perhaps they don't see.
"Well, obviously we're committed to winning. And I think that our investments and the things that we've done that we said we'd do, we've delivered on and we're going to continue to do that," he said. "So we're going to do everything we can to ensure that we can attract the type of support that can play a significant role in helping us."
Indeed, the infrastructure upgrades have been significant. Much has been written about Bohn and Sosna immediately going to work to address long-overdue needs of the football program, Sosna meeting with executive director of football operations Joseph Wood and director of player personnel Spencer Harris right after the lopsided 2019 Holiday Bowl loss to Iowa to ask what the Trojans needed to be successful -- and then checking off those items one by one.
More than doubling the size of the recruiting department and assisting Helton in remaking the defensive coaching staff played a massive role in USC's impressive recruiting resurgence over the last year (ranking No. 8 nationally in the 2021 cycle).
The COVID-upended 2020 season made for a tough evaluation period on the field, meanwhile.
The Trojans won their first five games, but they needed wild comebacks against Arizona State, Arizona and UCLA to do it. That said, they installed new defensive and special teams coordinators without the benefit of spring practice, and multiple players and coaches have referenced in reflection the substantial challenges COVID added to the proceedings last fall. Ultimately, the 31-24 loss to Oregon in the Pac-12 championship was a tough way to end things heading into the offseason, as USC opted out of bowl consideration due to mounting injuries and the toll of the pandemic season.
Many questioned USC bringing Helton back after the 5-7 season in 2018, or the recruiting struggles and humbling ending to 2019, but there wasn't so much of a decision hanging in the balance after 2020, with recruiting back on the rise and general optimism within the building about the pieces in place.
But 2021 will bring a fresh evaluation -- surely for the fan base, which longs for the glory days of the Pete Carroll era and a return national contention and won’t settle for anything less.
But also for Bohn.
He was asked if this is a make-or-break year for Helton ...
"For those that know our program, we recognize the improvement in the program and all the different things we’re doing. Our trajectory is strong. So I don’t think that’s accurate," Bohn said. "We know the championship expectations. We’re competitive. That’s why we’re here and that’s why we continue to make the improvements that we make. Some of those national people maybe just don’t understand all the different things that are going on here, and all you have to do is watch these young players and the way this recruiting class is really producing for him and us. We’re encouraged."
(To be fair, that's the only way Bohn could have answered that question. He's not going to put his own coach on the hot seat, nor is there any upside to him or the program in framing the 2021 season that way. The outcomes on the field will shape the narrative clearly enough.)
Both Bohn and Sosna, who works directly with the football program and has been integrally involved in leading the charge on many of the aforementioned upgrades, were asked what drives their confidence in the direction of USC football and its leadership.
"Well, I think I [already] represented that. I didn't even get into the recruiting progress that we've made and the way this team has come together with their synergy and their affection for each other," Bohn said. "It's impressive and that's a reflection on our head coach. So I'm very, very proud of the progress that we've made and I'm looking forward to Sept. 4 and kicking off. And we play every game on a Saturday and we've got a bye week right when we need it before Notre Dame just like they do, and we're trying to do everything we can to ensure that we support our coach with championship support. And I think that's really important to us."
Sosna, who can often be seen on the practice field talking with Helton as the coach's point person on the needs of the program, referred back to that bolstered infrastructure that's been put in place over the last 19 or so months.
He mentioned the investment made in the nutrition management side of player development led by Amy Johnson, the department they've built around Harris -- "we have the best director of player personnel and recruiting in the country in Spencer Harris [and] have tripled the size of our recruiting personnel department" -- along with praise for Wood as "the most brilliant director of operations in college football" and bringing in new director of football sports performance Robert Stiner from Notre Dame. In summation, he emphasized that USC has built an organization that "really resembles more of a professional football model in terms of the way we operate our personnel."
"I think over the last year and a half we've systematically looked at every aspect of the program looking for ways that we can enhance it. And I think that as an administrator, my job is really to show up every day and figure out how I can help the program be successful. I literally wake up every day thinking about how I can help those young men and this football program win a championship," Sosna said.
"... I have two post-it notes on my desk from the first couple meetings that we had with Clay and his staff, of all things that we needed to address, and we're really excited that I think we've checked off almost every single one of those boxes and continue to look at it every single day."
Now it's just a matter of all those legitimately notable upgrades and changes manifesting into the kind of season on the field that USC fans expect.
