The new GM GM from USC does not require power against Lincoln Riley

When he previously lived in Los Angeles, Chad Bowden worked as a telemarkter at one point. At that time he was 18 years old and called for a Google ad services company that comes from the Flynt building in Beverly Hills. Every day, hundreds of times a day, people found colorful opportunities on the other line to share how unhappily they hear from him.

It was an ungrateful job. It was emotionally fitting for a while. But “it was the greatest experience,” he says.

It turned out that Bowden, as Bowden later learned, was a perfect training for a career in big college football.

“Because I got used to it that people tell me no,” says Bowden, “and try to get them to say yes.”

This conviction is one reason why Bowden rose through the front office ranks so quickly and why USC made him one of the nation's best paid personnel managers at the end of January and to put him up for Notre lady with a seven-digit salary.

But at USC he didn't have to make much convincing in the first six weeks. Since his first conversations with coach Lincoln Riley and sports director Jennifer Cohen, it became clear that they believed in Bowden that they believed in his vision for what could be USC – and the resources would make it available to achieve this.

These factors were not always in his full control over Notre Dame.

“I knew that I came to USC when I spoke to Jen and Lincoln in an hour and my efforts and what I think had expressed what college football would be and how aggressive I would like to be in this new era,” said Bowden. “They shared many of the same thoughts as me.”

“It is a big reason why I decided to leave a great situation. Because I felt that this was better. “

His arrival at USC has since been announced as one of the biggest steps of the previous College Football -OffSeason. But while Cohen and Riley raved about their new general manager, nobody seems to be happier than Bowden about these new circumstances.

Every morning, he says, he looks into his cupboard equipped with cardinal and gold clothing and has to get involved.

“I always felt that USC was the sleeping giant of college football,” said Bowden, “and I remember that I was thinking about it if I ever want to get this opportunity, I would take it deep inside because I know what this place can do.”

He was enthusiastic about Cohen, which he called “a damn animal” and the best [athletic director] in the country. “He is overjoyed with Riley, of whom he says that he can” do everything “, including the grilling of a common balsamic steak, a bowden still thought weeks later.

In the past, there have been concerns that USC had enough resources to compete with other blue blood, and says he has no such concern.

USC “is not slowed down” by the new era of participation in sales, he assured. And his zero approach would be the “most aggressive” of the country.

“USC has everything,” he says. “There is no thing that this place does not have.”

What was missing was a vision and the necessary infrastructure to keep up in the incoming era of the income event in college football. But since Bowden's arrival, USC has enormously trustworthy its new general manager to fill them out.

Of course, this leads to questions about the dynamics of the new General Manager role. Bowden reports technically to both Riley And Cohen. But he shook a proposal for a potential “power struggle”.

“We are all together,” said Bowden. “I've always seen it that way.”

Even the plans that looked at Cohen and Riley in these calls are realized. Bowden has equipped the Front Office with rising star personnel employees, with whom he worked with both Notre Dame and Cincinnati.

The focus since then has been almost exclusively on the recruitment path, where in recent years Riley has spent a lot of time to pursue large views outside the state, many of which turned local schools late in the process. However, this approach has been scrapped since Bowden's arrival, since USC is now planning to concentrate most of its efforts to recruit Southern California.

“When the national championships were won here when Rose Bowls was won here, they look back on Pete Carroll's classes – '02, '03, '04 – over 80% of the recruitment courses came from the state of California,” said Bowden. “The story is repeated. It always does. And if you deal with the good details of the creation of programs and the establishment of the place and when the success took place, this was an essential part of the USC. My plans and vision are to bring it back and take care of the state. “

It is an important time to seriously recruit the state if you take into account the prosperity of talents in class 2026. Bowden said he believed that it was “the best class that California had in two decades.”

In this sense, he spent most of the last 30 days at the local high school and met with the local power brokers of the sport. He prefers to say that he “improves” these local ties instead of restoring them; In recent years, however, it has been clear that they were faded.

“We will take care of these people and you will know that we are here,” said Bowden. “This is not done about a call. This is not a text message every day. It is carried out through consistent communication and action. “

A new general manager and a new vision will not change a program alone overnight. But as Bowden sees it, USC is “much closer to people”.

As for the remaining distance? Bowden seems to be satisfied to wear USC himself.

“I will give every ounce of myself to everything that is necessary for USC to win,” said Bowden. “Whatever this place needs, I'll do it.”