Chad Bowden

Biography

Chad Bowden, a nationally renowned college football administrator with proven success constructing championship-caliber rosters, enters his first season as general manager at USC. Bowden arrives at Troy from Notre Dame, where he served as the program's first general manager, overseeing all the Fighting Irish's personnel and recruiting strategies. Earlier this month, Bowden was named the 2024 FootballScoop Player Personnel Director of the Year for his outstanding roster construction and exceptional utilization of the transfer portal. Throughout his four seasons in South Bend, Ind. (2021-24), Bowden rose up the personnel ranks, beginning as a defensive recruiting coordinator. He was quickly promoted to defensive director of recruiting before being named Notre Dame's director of recruiting in February 2022. Bowden held this role during the 2022 and 2023 seasons before earning the promotion to general manager in March 2024. During his time at Notre Dame, Bowden helped construct four unanimously ranked Top 12 recruiting classes from 2022-2025. At the conclusion of the 2023 season, Bowden's transfer portal efforts helped Notre Dame land the No. 15 class in the On3 2024 College Football Team Transfer Portal Rankings. When Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman accepted the Fighting Irish defensive coordinator position in 2021, he brought Bowden with him. Bowden worked previously as Cincinnati's director of recruiting under head coach Luke Fickell. Prior to his promotion, Bowden was a