After a prolonged and detailed search to land a general manager for the football program, USC struck a blow to its rival in hiring away Chad Bowden from Notre Dame.
USC officially announced the hiring Friday afternoon.
"We are very excited to welcome Chad Bowden to our staff," coach Lincoln Riley said in a statement. "His outstanding body of work in recruiting and roster management is recognized throughout the country. With the support of Jen Cohen and the administration, Chad's hire is both vital to the future of our program and sends a strong message about the direction of USC Football. We're excited for him to arrive and hit the ground running."
Athletic director Jen Cohen also issued a comment on the hiring.
"The Trojan Family is thrilled to welcome Chad and his wife Ava to USC," Cohen said. "Chad is the perfect fit to help us build and sustain a championship-level football program in the new era of college athletics. His work and expertise will be essential in the construction and management of our roster, the elevation of our robust NIL program and the organization of our entire football operations. 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, and I am eager to work with him and Coach Riley to add to USC's unparalleled legacy of Heisman winners, All-Americans and national champions."
Bowden was just recently named FootballScoop.com's Player Personnel Director of the Year.
Bowden carried the title of assistant athletics director/general manager at Notre Dame -- the first to hold that title for the program as that role has only recently come into popularity at the college level.
He initially followed coach Marcus Freeman (then the defensive coordinator) to Notre Dame in 2021 and took on the role of defensive recruiting coordinator in an analyst role before Freeman promoted Bowden to director of recruiting for the entire program once he became head coach. He held this role during the 2022 and 2023 seasons before earning the promotion to general manager in March 2024.
Michigan made a run at poaching him a year ago before he opted to remain with the Irish.
“He’s elite at what he does, and he’s one of the hardest workers I know,” Freeman said of Bowden in December of 2023 on Wake Up the Echoes, a video podcast produced by Notre Dame’s in-house Fighting Irish Media. “There’s times where I’m actually like envious of the relationships he has with our recruits — maybe even with my kids. My kids, when they come to the office, most of the time they say, ‘Hi, Dad.’ They go right into the recruiting office and spend time with Chad and his staff, because they have a unique ability to bring those kids in and communicate and spend time with them.
“That’s trust. Trust is built over time. That’s why I’ve always wanted to work with him. He’s a hard worker. He’s a really good person. Most of the time he has outside the box ideas. He pushes me. Like one of our things is ‘The Golden Standard’. Challenge everything. You talk about a guy that challenges me to think outside of the box to get outside my comfort zone, sometimes I gotta say no. He is a guy that makes me better.”
Notre Dame's recruiting classes ranked No. 6 in 2022, No. 11 in 2023, No. 9 in 2024 and No. 11 in 2025.
Bowden worked previously as Cincinnati's director of recruiting under head coach Luke Fickell. Prior to his promotion, Bowden was a student assistant in the recruiting department at Cincinnati. There, he developed his relationship with Freeman, when the current Notre Dame head coach was the Bearcats' defensive coordinator/linebackers coach.
Bowden's father Jim Bowden is a former Major League Baseball general manager with the Cincinnati Reds and Washington Nationals.
"My wife, Ava, and I couldn't be more grateful and excited to join the Trojan Family," Chad Bowden said in a statement. "Jen Cohen, Lincoln Riley and USC's total commitment to excellence make this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. This is a place with the resources, facilities and support to build a perennial winner, and I'm excited to get to work to help bring more national championships to USC."
USC has had Dave Emerick in the role of senior associate athletic director for football / general manager. A long-time friend of Riley whom he brought over from Mississippi State, Emerick will move into a chief of staff role for the football program, having his hand in a lot of areas while also remaining involved in recruiting efforts, while Bowden will lead the recruiting department overall and manage the components of recruiting that define this new world of college football with revenue sharing “salary cap” management on top of NIL, dealing with agents, etc.
The bottom line is the response around college football reverberates that the Trojans just made a major addition to their operation.
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