When he lived in Los Angeles earlier than, Chad Bowden labored at one level as a telemarketer. He was 18 on the time, making requires a Google advert companies firm primarily based out of the Flynt Constructing in Beverly Hills. On daily basis, a whole lot of instances per day, folks on the opposite line would discover colourful methods to share how sad they have been to listen to from him.
It was a thankless job. For some time, it wore him down emotionally. However “it was the greatest experience,” he says.
Seems, as Bowden discovered later, it was good coaching for a profession in main faculty soccer.
“Because I’m so used to people telling me no,” Bowden says, “and trying to get them to say yes.”
That conviction is a part of the rationale why Bowden has risen so shortly by the front-office ranks and why USC made him one of many highest-paid personnel administrators within the nation in late January, plucking him for Notre Dame with a seven-figure wage.
However at USC, he hasn’t needed to do a lot convincing in his first six weeks. Since his first conversations with coach Lincoln Riley and athletic director Jennifer Cohen, it was made clear to Bowden that they believed in his imaginative and prescient for what USC might turn into — and would offer the sources to make it occur.
These elements weren’t all the time in his full management at Notre Dame.
“I knew I was coming to USC when, in an hour’s time span, I spoke to Jen and Lincoln and had voiced my aspirations and what I believe college football is going to be and how aggressive I’d like to be in that new era,” Bowden stated. “They shared a lot of the same thoughts as I did.”
“That’s a huge reason as to why I chose to leave a great situation. Because I felt like this was better.”
His arrival at USC has since been heralded as one of many greatest strikes of the faculty soccer offseason to this point. However whereas Cohen and Riley have raved about their new normal supervisor, nobody appears happier about these new circumstances than Bowden.
Each morning, he says, he appears into his closet stocked with cardinal and gold attire and has to pinch himself.
“I always felt like USC was the sleeping giant of college football,” Bowden stated, “and I remember thinking if I ever got that opportunity, deep down, I’d want to take it because I know what this place can do.”
He’s been thrilled with Cohen, whom he referred to as each “a friggin’ animal” and the “best [athletic director] in the country.” He’s overjoyed with Riley, whom he says “can do it all,” together with grilling up a imply balsamic steak, one Bowden was nonetheless interested by weeks later.
The place there have been issues up to now about USC having sufficient sources to compete with different blue bloods, Bowden says he has no such fear.
USC “won’t be slowed down” by the brand new period of income sharing, he assured. And its NIL strategy can be amongst “the most aggressive” within the nation.
“USC has everything,” he says. “There’s not one thing that this place doesn’t have.”
What it lacked was a imaginative and prescient — and the mandatory infrastructure — to maintain up within the incoming period of revenue-sharing in faculty soccer. However since Bowden’s arrival, USC has put an amazing quantity of belief in its new normal supervisor to fill in these blanks.
That’s led naturally to questions in regards to the dynamics across the new normal supervisor function. Bowden technically experiences to each Riley and Cohen. However he shrugged off any suggestion of a possible “power struggle”.
“We’re all in this together,” Bowden stated. “I’ve always viewed it that way.”
Already, the plans Bowden specified by these calls with Cohen and Riley are beginning to come to fruition. Bowden has stocked the entrance workplace with rising star personnel staffers that he labored with at each Notre Dame and Cincinnati, three of which — Dre Brown, Max Stienecker and Weston Zernechel — Bowden stated have been normal managers in their very own proper.
The main focus since has virtually fully been on the recruiting path, the place lately, Riley has spent a whole lot of time chasing big-time prospects exterior of the state, lots of whom ended up flipping to native faculties late within the course of. However that strategy has been scrapped since Bowden’s arrival, as USC now plans to focus most of its effort on recruiting Southern California.
“Again when nationwide championships have been gained right here, when Rose Bowls have been gained right here, you recognize, you look again at Pete Carroll’s lessons — ‘02, ‘03, ‘04 — over 80% of the recruiting classes were from the state of California,” Bowden said. “History repeats itself. It always does. And if you look into the fine details of how programs are built and how the place was built and when success had happened, that was a key part of USC being on top. My plans and my vision is to bring that back and take care of the state.”
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It’s an necessary time to begin severely recruiting the state, contemplating the wealth of expertise within the 2026 class. Bowden stated he believes it’s “the best class that California has had in two decades.”
With that in thoughts, he has spent the higher a part of the previous 30 days dropping by native excessive faculties and assembly with the game’s native powerbrokers. He prefers to say he’s “enhancing” these native ties, slightly than “restoring” them; although, it’s clear lately that they’d light.
“We’re going to take care of those people and they’re going to know that we’re here,” Bowden stated. “That’s not done over one call. That’s not a text message every day. It’s done through consistent communication and action.”
A brand new normal supervisor and new imaginative and prescient gained’t change a program in a single day on their very own both. However as Bowden sees it, USC is “a lot closer than people think.”
As for the remaining distance? Bowden appears content material to hold USC himself.
“I’m gonna give every ounce of me to whatever is necessary for USC to win,” Bowden stated. “Whatever this place needs, I’m gonna do it.”
