USC is closing in on hiring its new athletic director. According to multiple reports, the Trojans will hire Cincinnati AD Mike Bohn to the same position. Bohn has served as Cincinnati's AD since 2014. USC has been without a permanent AD since Sept. 9 when Lynn Swann resigned from his post.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that senior associate athletic director Maggie McKinley will serve as Cincinnati's interim AD until a replacement is named. Stadium's Brett McMurphy also notes that USC considered Clemson's Dan Radakovich, Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione, Northwestern's Jim Phillips, Texas' Chris Del Conte and Virginia Tech's Whit Babcock for the position.
USC released a statement on the reports on Friday.
#USC statement on AD news: “Our search for a new athletic director is progressing well. When details become available, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, we are excited about Trojan Family Weekend and our big football game at the Coliseum on Saturday against Oregon. Fight On!” https://t.co/0zonKp9hwK
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) November 1, 2019
Bohn has been instrumental in the success of Cincinnati. He hired Luke Fickell to run the football program prior to the 2017 season, which has elevated the Bearcats to the forefront of the Group of Five pecking order. Fickell posted an 11-2 record last season and the Bearcats currently sit at 6-1 and ranked No. 17 in the AP Top 25 poll.
Bohn does have previous experience in the Pac-12. He served as the athletic director at Colorado from 2005-13, and oversaw its move from the Big 12 to the Pac-12. He was the athletic director at San Diego State (2003-05) and Idaho (1998-2003) prior to his time in Boulder.
Bohn will be the first athletic director without ties to the school as a student athlete since 1993. Former athletic directors Mike Garrett (1993-2010), Pat Haden (2010-16) and Swann (2016-19) are all former Trojan football players.
Bohn will take over an athletic department at USC that has had all sorts of problems over the last few seasons. Football coach Clay Helton was retained after a 5-7 season in 2018 despite reports that the previous administration was considering making a change. The current Trojans are 5-3 and 4-1 in the Pac-12 with legitimate hopes of winning the Pac-12 South, but any national championship aspirations disappeared long ago.
The program has also been the subject of intense scrutiny off of the field. Assistant athletic director Donna Heinel was fired as a result of "Operation Varsity Blues" -- the federal investigation that included wealthy donors using athletic department standards and fake recruiting profiles for their children to gain admission to the school. Men's water polo head coach Jovan Vavic, former women's head soccer coach Ali Khosroshahin and former assistant soccer coach Laura Janke were all indicted in the admissions scandal.
