The Times of Troy: Chad Bowden’s arrival has shifted the power dynamics for USC football

Hi, everyone! Welcome back to another edition of the Times of Troy newsletter. I’m Ryan Kartje, your USC beat writer at the L.A. Times, and I’m still hurting from last night’s third helping of cheesy potatoes, a Kartje family Super Bowl staple. Soon enough, it will dawn on me that football isn’t coming back for another six months. But today is not that day!

In fact, there’s still plenty to talk about within USC’s football program after we got a better idea last week of the school’s plans for its revamped personnel department. So let’s start there.

Since USC hired Chad Bowden to be its new general manager last month, there has been a lot of discussion about power dynamics within the football program.

And there’s no denying that Bowden’s arrival has shifted that balance. That’s because before USC set out to revamp its football front office, the entire operation ran largely through one man: Lincoln Riley. And while that approach might have worked a few years ago, everyone at the top of USC’s athletic department understood by last fall that that simply wasn’t sustainable.

As one person told The Times, “This wasn’t a sudden realization.”

USC already had a general manager in place when Jennifer Cohen took over as athletic director in the fall of 2023. Dave Emerick had been handpicked a year earlier by Riley as a friend and confidant plucked straight from the staff of his mentor, Mike Leach, at Mississippi State,

But NIL was in its infancy then, and the floodgates had yet to open on the transfer portal. The job, just two years later, had become completely different — and far more complicated — with tampering rampant and revenue-sharing on the horizon and agents negotiating and renegotiating deals on players’ behalf.

The result, at USC, was a setup that frustrated players, parents and NIL agents alike. The Times spoke to several people over the past year who described phone calls that went unreturned, mixed messages about NIL offerings and general confusion in the negotiation process. The consensus, from all involved, was that USC’s approach wasn’t going to cut it. Not with the landscape set to shift even more dramatically this fall.

Cohen understood that. But so, too, did Riley.

This wasn’t a case of Cohen marching into Riley’s office and demanding he give up personnel power within the program or else. There’s more nuance to the situation than that. Cohen and Riley brought candidates to the table during USC’s search for a new general manager, I’m told, and the coach was integrated in every step of that process.

All that to say, the changes within USC’s personnel department have undoubtedly wrested some control from Riley. And that’s a good thing. When Mike Bohn was leading USC’s athletic department, the head coach was in complete control of every facet of the program, for better or worse.

That dynamic looks a lot different now. And Riley, for what it’s worth, seems to be OK with that fact. Or at the very least resigned to it. His expectation for Bowden, he said last week, is that he’ll “run the show” when it comes to personnel. That’s not something we’ve heard Riley say before about … well, anything.

“That’s what we wanted,” Riley said. “That’s what I wanted. One of Chad’s first things when we talked, he said, ‘I want to make it where you can just coach, coach the team, run the team, run the organization, and you can know these things are handled. We’re gonna handle it, and we’re gonna build a team that’s going to take care of it for USC.’”

Bowden has since built his own team with people he trusts from past stops. And more changes are expected, including building out more robust analytics and scouting structures within the front office.

We don’t know yet how much of an influence those changes will have, no matter the declarations of USC now having “the best front office in America”. A team of young personnel directors aren’t going to suddenly turn around a program that’s been struggling for a decade. I, for one, am old enough to remember when hiring a team of videographers and branding folks away from Louisiana State’s athletic department was portrayed as a program-altering move.

But with Riley now left to focus only on the job that he was hired to do, we can say one thing for sure: No matter how unified the coach and his athletic director are at the moment, there are no more excuses left to make for Riley falling short.

Desmond Claude drives on Illinois’ Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn in a January game.

(Craig Pessman / AP)

—Bowden didn’t reveal many specifics last week about his approach as USC’s GM. But he did offer some idea of his plans for roster construction. And it starts with emphasizing Southern California on the recruiting trail. That hasn’t always been the plan under Riley, which has rankled plenty of USC fans over the last year, but the coach had made a concerted effort to shift that focus even before Bowden was hired. Now, Bowden plans to “be on offense” and “attack” roster building. “We’re going to do everything we can to get the best players in California to stay here and play for USC,” Bowden said. It doesn’t hurt to have hired two ace recruiters in Chad Savage and Trovon Reed to the full-time staff. They’ll be key as Bowden said that USC will “major in high school” and “minor in the portal” as it sets out to build a better foundation for the program’s future.

—Luke Huard is USC’s new offensive coordinator in name only. So for those hoping Riley was relinquishing some control on offense, that’s not what’s happening. But Huard’s promotion is certainly a show of faith from Riley in his quarterbacks coach, who has earned his trust since becoming a full-time assistant in 2022. Huard was instrumental in landing five-star quarterback Husan Longstreet, and when I spoke to Ja’Kobi Lane’s high school coach last season, he was effusive in his praise. “He’s unreal. The guy is one of the best in the business as far as recruiting,” Red Mountain coach Kyle Enders told me in September. His stock has only risen since.

—Rob Ryan is going to fit in just fine at the college level. Last week, the Super Bowl-winning assistant had one of the more memorable — or unhinged, depending on your perspective — introductions that I can remember from any college coach. No description of mine will do it justice, so do yourself a favor and watch the video. But in between stories and random streams of consciousness, it wasn’t hard to see the appeal of having someone such as Ryan on your staff. Ryan even came along on the recruiting trail in recent weeks. “They didn’t trust me going out by myself,” Ryan said. “I probably would have broke every rule? No, I wouldn’t. Maybe a few.” Whether he continues to travel on the recruiting trail remains to be seen — USC must designate one of its 11 staff members to not travel. But Ryan’s role in building back the linebacker room will be critical, after USC lost two starting inside backers. He did, however, inherit Eric Gentry, whom he raved about. “He [makes] the unnatural, natural,” Ryan said. “Like, I love this kid. This guy’s going to be fun to work with. He’s got these vines for arms.”

—Desmond Claude’s injury came at an especially unfortunate time. Claude fought through the pain in a win over Michigan State, but he’s sat out the two games since. The timing couldn’t be worse considering that USC had just climbed into bubble consideration and is in the midst of a critical part of its schedule. Clark Slajchert played well in his absence, but as Michigan State coach Tom Izzo put it, Claude is “the straw that stirs the drink” for USC. We don’t know the extent of Claude’s injury yet, but if he’s out against Penn State and Minnesota at home, USC could find itself sliding off the bubble and unable to climb back.

—One of the biggest games of the women’s basketball season is on tap at Galen Center Thursday. UCLA has been the most dominant team in women’s college basketball this season. USC has the best player in the game in JuJu Watkins. That combo should make for an electric atmosphere at Galen. UCLA has beaten every opponent but one this season by double digits, while USC last week just suffered its first loss since before Thanksgiving. The Trojans might be the only Big Ten team capable of upending the top-ranked Bruins. But doing so will require a better effort than what they’ve put together lately. Watkins especially will need to play better on offense — she’s shooting just 33% over her last six games.

In case you missed it

Kiki Iriafen and Kennedy Smith lead No. 7 USC to victory over No. 8 Ohio State

With leading scorer Desmond Claude still out, USC falls to No. 7 Purdue

USC women bounce back from loss with win over Wisconsin

USC coach Lincoln Riley touts new hires who are overhauling recruiting and NIL funding

USC men lose on shot in final seconds at Northwestern, spoiling last-minute comeback

What I’m Watching This Week

Noah Wyle in “The Pitt.”

(Warrick Page / Max)

I’m a sucker for good medical drama, and “The Pitt” on Max is one of the better ones I can remember. From some of the minds behind “ER” — and starring one of the same lead actors, Noah Wyle — “The Pitt” is set during one 15-hour shift, with each episode covering one hour in real-time. (I’m also a sucker for messing with storytelling conventions.) The show is fast-paced, but also takes its time telling, giving you a chance to really connect to the patients over multiple episodes. Episode 4 is especially great; though, you won’t have to wait that long to be hooked.