USC hires Dave Emerick as general manager/senior associate AD for football

Lincoln Riley has made a hire for the USC football program.

Dave Emerick, a senior associate athletic director for football at Mississippi State, announced on Twitter that he is joining the Trojans as general manager/senior associate AD for football.

Emerick essentially replaces former USC director of player personnel Spencer Harris, who left to head up the BLVD operation for Stay Doubted, which is the newly-announced third-party NIL representation/support/promotion venture for USC student-athletes.

Emerick will report to Riley. The two worked together at Texas Tech back during Riley's early years there. Emerick then followed head coach Mike Leach to Washington State and Mississippi State.

The Trojans still have not replaced executive senior associate AD/chief of staff Brandon Sosna, who oversaw the football department for athletic director Mike Bohn. Sosna was hired away by the Detroit Lions earlier this month.

Harris ran USC's recruiting department for the last three-plus years. While Emerick is replacing his spot on staff, it's not clear exactly what his scope of roles will be, as Riley also brought executive director of football recruiting Annie Hanson over from Oklahoma soon after his hiring. Hanson and Harris worked together the last seven months, but it's possible Riley has now restructured the roles within the department to more in line with what he had at Oklahoma.