Notre Dame General Manager Leaves For Rival Program
01/24/2025 05:42 PM
In the days since the end of the college football season we've seen players from both Notre Dame and Ohio State depart the program for either graduation, the NFL Draft or greener pastures. But between the two, it's hard to argue that Notre Dame's departures haven't been more impactful.
Earlier this week, Notre Dame suffered arguably the biggest blow to its potential national title game return in 2025 with the announcement that defensive coordinator Al Golden would be leaving the team and going to the NFL. Golden ranked among the most experienced coaches on the staff and was responsible for building a Fighting Irish defense that allowed over 17 points just four times all year.
In the day since Golden's departure, Notre Dame has been hit by graduations, transfers and NFL Draft declarations. But today they were hit with another noteworthy departure.
On Friday, Tom Loy of 247Sports reported that the USC Trojans have hired away Notre Dame general manager Chad Bowden to serve in the same role at their program.
It's official. As @mzenitz was all over, I can confirm that Chad Bowden has accepted the General Manager position for @uscfb.
— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) January 24, 2025
He did some incredible things during his time in South Bend with the Fighting Irish and will surely have success in this role with the Trojans in Los… https://t.co/52fcCOgLqkpic.twitter.com/aO205nbX8I
Bowden's role at Notre Dame was effectively the assistant athletic director and he had previously turned down lucrative offers at other power conference programs to stay in South Bend. A number of insiders have credited Bowden with being essential to the team's roster development in 2024.
As you might expect, USC fans are celebrating the arrival of a personnel guy who might finally help the program get back on top. As for the Fighting Irish fans, they're bordering on funeral mode:
"BANG!!! USC finally hired a real GM! We are so back," Barstool USC wrote on X.
"Always so dissapointed with reality man. All the guy ever did was talk about was how much he loved notre dame and reality just alittle more money and he gone. That's todays world we live in," wrote another.
"Jesus even the gm knows he can't recruit guys to play at ND to win it all. Brian Kelly was right," a third remarked.
How impactful do you expect Bowden's move from Notre Dame to USC will be for both of those football programs?
Related: Notre Dame Loses DC Al Golden After National Championship Game
