Chad Bowden to USC

[IrishLax]

I’ll take “Things that aren’t true for 1000”

You sure about that? I’ve seen multiple ND sites say something similar about “pushing envelopes” or “ruffling feathers” in some of these areas

 

[dublinirish]

Bowden gone but the cringe lingers


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[IrishLax]

The head of the Trojan Alumni Chapter in SF said this was what he heard from someone who talked to Bowden.


k.

I asked why he left ND and he said “money and butted heads with people”

 

[Dale]

You sure about that? I’ve seen multiple ND sites say something similar about “pushing envelopes” or “ruffling feathers” in some of these areas

Before Bowden left people were saying he was the problem not the other way around

The fact that this person thinks they are gonna spend like Oregon invalidates most everything else to me


EDIT: If you believe ND sources

“He’s at times, less aggressive than he needs to be.
- He’s a bit too nice at times, and can be naive in some situations.”

That doesn’t align with Bowden being the aggressor

 

[IrishLax]

Yeah we’ve bought the top qb in the portal two yrs in a row. I’m not too worried about our money pumping into the program

Price tag on both was reported in the $1-$2 range.

Look at what Underwood is making out of HS and what Beck got paid by Miami.

 

[IrishLax]

Before Bowden left people were saying he was the problem not the other way around

The fact that this person thinks they are gonna spend like Oregon invalidates most everything else to me

Sure what do you think Bowden’s perspective would be then? Like if ND people think he’s the problem for pushing to hard, what do you think Bowden’s perspective is? Not hard to see what the USC angle would be and why.

 

[Plankton]

Fuck him. Enjoy the soft ass program out there.

 

[IrishWayDomer]

Price tag on both was reported in the $1-$2 range.

Look at what Underwood is making out of HS and what Beck got paid by Miami.

Right. The market for top QB isn't $1M, it's $4M (and climbing). ND getting Hartman and then Leonard isn't some NIL flex, we had just enough NIL and they happened to like ND. We need to get serious, having a top 10 NIL has no downsides.

Every deal that seems outrageous now will be looked at as a steal 5 years from now.

 

[Dale]

Sure what do you think Bowden’s perspective would be then? Like if ND people think he’s the problem for pushing to hard, what do you think Bowden’s perspective is? Not hard to see what the USC angle would be and why.

i think Bowden left because they tripled his salary. As he should in that case

The insider post (which I also questioned the other direction) put the blame on Bowden for not pushing hard enough. So he said she said really is no value to me. I don’t believe drastically that Bowden was this huge problem. I also don’t buy ND was holding back Chad Bowden. That seems fair?

I think a lot of disgruntled parties around the country are blabbing about money these days and it is not reliable source material to me

 

[Huntr]

I asked why he left ND and he said “money and butted heads with people”

A million per definitely makes leaving understandable. I don't even blame the guy.

Bowden just may not be disseminating accurate depictions of conditions at ND on Day 1 of his new job at USC.

 

[IrishLax]

FWIW I believe maybe 20% of that info to be stone cold accurate. I think a lot is spin and wish casting. Every school has their own narrative and PR way of looking at things and they’re looking optimism after back-to-back trainwreck seasons.

The part that makes a lot of sense to me is overpaying him because they don’t trust Riley and them promising him “unlimited” NIL even if they don’t actually have that kind of $$ on hand. No one is going to say “we expect Oregon to keep eating our lunch and won’t be competitive with other Big Ten schools.”

 

[Dale]

Price tag on both was reported in the $1-$2 range.

Look at what Underwood is making out of HS and what Beck got paid by Miami.

This is disingenuous. The market has gone up in price. Miller Moss will likely make more than Sam Hartman did. It does not change the fact that ND had to outspend other teams.

 

[SeekNDestroy]

Hey HC here is your roster, good luck with no DTs

Rumor is Bowden has Ty Chan locked up.

 

[pumpdog20]

Bye bowden, you fuck

 

[TheRealLynch51]

You sure about that? I’ve seen multiple ND sites say something similar about “pushing envelopes” or “ruffling feathers” in some of these areas

I've seen multiple that Freeman was done with a lot of his amateurish antics. Of course you're going to get the sunshine from the USC side, but from all the things I'm hearing from insiders, it's mutual.

 

[NDpendent]

Based on what John Brice reported, ND’s 2024 payroll was around $7 Million, UGA was $12M+, and Ohio State was $20M+. A big issue is ND doesn’t have a website where ND fans can donate directly to NIL, which apparently isn’t the case with the SEC schools, Ohio State, and Oregon. I reached out to the RALLY folks and was told that ND fans can make a NIL donation for a specific sport with a wire transfer. No clue why ND has to make everything hard for themselves.

Brice is full of shit then. Its been consistently reported that RL got 2 mil. You honestly think RL got 30% of the entire rosters (85 plus athletes) NIL money?

 

[GrangerIrish24]

He was a recruiting guy that was put into a position he shouldn’t have been in. I’ll share some things I’ve actually heard.
-the position he was asked to hold was a bad move given Chads demeanor. He’s a recruiter. The GM position should be more professional, which wasn’t him.
-his personality really rubbed prople the wrong way due to the simple fact that he lacked the ability to “read the room”. He was very much a what you see is what you get.
-he did work very hard. He was excellent “salesman” as a recruiter

 

[Rockin’Irish]

I’ll venture out onto a limb and say that in a short time we’ll have a better all around person in the position that Chad Bowden has vacated.

 

[NDPhilly]

Considering we haven’t lost any starters to the portal and we locked down Devonta Smith, Malachi Fields, Jared Dawson, and Jalen Stroman without them even publicly entering the portal, I have a hard time believing our NIL is in bad shape for existing payers and transfers.

I get being annoyed with admissions + us not ponying up for big time high schoolers. I personally think paying Bryce underwood $13M is fucking insane, but if all our peers are doing it, then we need to adjust.

 

[IrishFanForever23]

He was a recruiting guy that was put into a position he shouldn’t have been in. I’ll share some things I’ve actually heard.
-the position he was asked to hold was a bad move given Chads demeanor. He’s a recruiter. The GM position should be more professional, which wasn’t him.
-his personality really rubbed prople the wrong way due to the simple fact that he lacked the ability to “read the room”. He was very much a what you see is what you get.
-he did work very hard. He was excellent “salesman” as a recruiter

And I’ve seen a few other insiders say he’s the reason ND had to come out and say they weren’t getting a portal quarterback. Sounds like Carr was not happy when he found out and the tension was created by Bowden. He handled it very poorly from what I’ve read.

 

[irishff1014]

LAX has always had info so I will take his info and he said he believes that 20% of that is true.

We all knew we weren’t going to spend on high students the way others were. Our money was going to be in transfers and keeping our stars here.

I did read somewhere else today that Bowden did sign a starter to NIL so they didn’t leave yesterday before the news broke but they didn’t say who.

Also said he tried to take a starter with him.

Bowden imo was good but I am not sure if he was great. He tried to take more money to go to Michigan last year and now this year to USC. If we met his demands this year it would only delay it again for next year.

 

[LifelongFan]

My main thoughts on this is that I am incapable of believing this is a general manager as it's known in sports and not a combo of marketing exec and recruiting liason. I don't like to think of a guy named Chad as making football decisions.

 

[IrishLax]

Brice is full of shit then. It’s been consistently reported that RL got 2 mil. You honestly think RL got 30% of the entire rosters (85 plus athletes) NIL money?

I’m not sure who people think was making big money last year… or phrased better, who would we have been paying and at what market rate? There were only a couple “NFL” guys we would be paying to retain. Ohio State was paying tons to come back AND brought in multiple elite transfers AND paid big for Jeremiah Smith out of HS, etc. and their number was $20M.

Only thing we know for certain is that FUND brought in $20M in 2023 and only paid out $5M. I would guess that expenditures for ND went up over the course of the year — especially considering that anyone with a brain would put something lucrative together for Love and guys who burst onto the scene like Moore — and Brice’s number could’ve been accurate towards the start of the season but the final numbers could be way different.

 

[stlnd01]

Bowden imo was good but I am not sure if he was great. He tried to take more money to go to Michigan last year and now this year to USC. If we met his demands this year it would only delay it again for next year.

This is where I’m at too. Bowden was great as a recruiter but not clear about his demeanor/experience for this sort of GM job (which, fair, it’s a very new thing in college football that everyone is kind of sorting out). We can likely get someone better suited for that role.
And if he indeed leveraged Michigan interest for a raise last year, then USC this year, you let him walk. Only so many times a guy can play that card. (Not to mention playing it with our two biggest rivals)

 

[NDPhilly]

I also will add that now that Freeman has some real juice as an elite / ascending coach, a cheerleader like Chad is less necessary. Let’s get a real professional player personnel guy in there who is actually suited for the role.

 

[IrishLax]

He was a recruiting guy that was put into a position he shouldn’t have been in. I’ll share some things I’ve actually heard.
-the position he was asked to hold was a bad move given Chads demeanor. He’s a recruiter. The GM position should be more professional, which wasn’t him.
-his personality really rubbed prople the wrong way due to the simple fact that he lacked the ability to “read the room”. He was very much a what you see is what you get.
-he did work very hard. He was excellent “salesman” as a recruiter

I think this is a good take. In retrospect, it was probably a miscalculation to give him the large pay bump and title bump to retain him. And USC may be making an even greater miscalculation. I’m not sure what on his resume suggests that he can be an ace personnel with tons of unchecked responsibility.

 

[slick7410]

It’s a funny feeling when you say - “Hey, I got an awesome offer x, what can you do? “

Reply- “Wow really, yea you should definitely take that.”


Good for Bowden though.

 

[Hautian Domer]

Here is what I heard from the USC side of things, one my friends from HS was president of their San Fran alumni club and is in general quite plugged in to stuff. I don't know how much of this is true or may have changed over the past two days but this is what he texted me:

-Bowden's only reservation in taking the job was Lincoln Riley. Apparently he has a very low opinion of his competence as a coach / culture guy and this is a belief shared by a lot of people at USC (and also coaches at ND and throughout the Big Ten). Basically everyone who knows anything about Riley or has seen him first hand thinks he sucks but USC is not going to cut bait on that big contract until they absolutely have to.

-Accordingly, it was important to Bowen that he not report to Riley and his position be independent of whoever the HC is. I don't know if that's how the org chart is ultimately structured but apparently even if Riley gets canned next year that wouldn't affect Bowden. He had no other reservations in taking the USC job and is confident that he can get the team turned around is ~1-2 years regardless of the coach.

-The big money spent on Bowden is because they want to task him 100% with both funding and roster construction ... like a true professional sports GM ... and that's somewhat unique. It's also a far cry from the level of control he had at ND. And one ND guy I know said that he has a family connection to the USC AD and it tracks that he'd be given this kind of sweetheart deal if the AD wants to hedge against Riley failing.

-According to him, Bowden has a ton of friction with ND and was sick of feeling hamstrung by lackluster NIL, annoying admissions/transfer restrictions, etc. USC has promised him they will get anyone into school he wants at any time and he will have "unlimited" NIL. The AD wants to compete directly with Oregon in terms of aggressive pay-for-play because there is bad blood with that school and donors at USC are sick of Oregon taking some many California players simply because they pay more. My note -- if you look at the guys over the past two years that they had "locked up" and then lost out because of not being able to commit the $$ of other schools, it is quite understandable why he might feel that way.

Overall, I think this is a big loss for ND, but I also think the more alarming thing is that ND is clearly not all in on pay-for-play like Ohio State, Oregon, Miami, Michigan, etc. It seems like they are positioning to pay full freight with the upcoming "revenue sharing" and are not going to push the envelope with NIL to HS players from 3rd party sources to go above and beyond the revenue sharing. I would be very concerned if I was an ND fan about us not being "with the times"... with that being said, there was a 0.0% chance we would pay Bowden what USC is and I also think while he may be the next Vinny Cerato there is equal chance that this whole thing combusts. Everything that I have heard about Bowden from ND people is that he was very well liked, a great recruiter, brought a ton of energy but was not very professional at times.

Great. So Kelly was right in terms of ND’s lack of resources …

 

[FWIrish4]

He was a recruiting guy that was put into a position he shouldn’t have been in. I’ll share some things I’ve actually heard.
-the position he was asked to hold was a bad move given Chads demeanor. He’s a recruiter. The GM position should be more professional, which wasn’t him.
-his personality really rubbed prople the wrong way due to the simple fact that he lacked the ability to “read the room”. He was very much a what you see is what you get.
-he did work very hard. He was excellent “salesman” as a recruiter

Freeman has been very consistent declaring challenges are viewed as opportunities and the team has already taken on this persona.

Another challenge, another opportunity to better the program as a whole.

 

[IrishLax]

Great. So Kelly was right in terms of ND’s lack of resources …

I wouldn’t say that, I would say we should pay attention to the next couple years and see what kind of recruits ND is landing. Because IMO there is no doubt that someone like Freeman would be CRUSHING recruiting in a non-NIL era and if we aren’t the only rationale would be that we are getting out financed or there is some other obstacle. The fundraising numbers we know suggest ND has plenty of cash on hand to be competitive, but we’ll see.