Lincoln Riley releases statement on USC AD Mike Bohn's resignation
Some major news dropped Friday afternoon when the Los Angeles Times first reported Mike Bohn would resign as USC athletic director, effective immediately. One of Bohn’s biggest hires in Southern California was football coach Lincoln Riley, who tweeted a statement Saturday in response to his resignation.
“I will always be appreciative of Mike Bohn for his role in bringing us to USC & certainly wish both he and his family all the best,” Riley tweeted. “With the current state of the programs in our Athletic Department, there is a really special opportunity ahead for all of us Trojans. I have full confidence that our university leadership will continue to do everything possible to support us. I truly believe that the best days of USC Athletics are right in front of us and I continue to be totally invested & excited to be a part of it. Lets stick together and always Fight On.”
Riley arrived at USC from Oklahoma prior to the 2022 season and saw immediate success, taking the Trojans to the verge of a College Football Playoff appearance and turning Caleb Williams into a Heisman Trophy winner right away. USC went 11-3 last year, including a loss to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship to miss out on the CFP.
More details came out Friday night about Mike Bohn’s resignation
The timing of Bohn’s resignation raised some eyebrows, especially considering USC is more than a year away from making the major move from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten. He was also absent from the Big Ten meetings this week in Rosemont, Illinois, The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach said on The Paul Finebaum Show Friday.
However, more details emerged about the circumstances that might have led to Bohn’s resignation. The Los Angeles Times’ Ryan Kartje reported there has been “internal criticism of his management of the athletics department.”
Kartje — who initially broke the news of Bohn’s resignation, effective immediately — said four current and former employees voiced concerns about him. They shared those concerns with a law firm that reviewed the “operation, culture and strategy” of the athletics department, as USC president Carol Folt said in an email about Bohn’s resignation.
The Times also reported people raised concerns about Bohn while he was at Cincinnati, where he served as athletic director from 2014-19. Robb Williams, a former athletic trainer at UC, said he saw Bohn “make unwanted physical contact with women on several occasions, including touching their shoulders or backs in a way that made them visibly uncomfortable,” according to The Times.
More on Mike Bohn’s career, the state of athletics at USC
Bohn worked at Idaho, San Diego State, Colorado and Cincinnati during his career before arriving at USC in 2019. His decision to step down comes just over a year before the Trojans are set to join the Big Ten, opting to leave the Pac-12 along with UCLA.
In addition to Riley’s hiring, USC basketball has also made some big moves under Bohn’s watch. The Trojans recently landed a commitment from Bronny James — the son of LeBron James and one of the highest-profile recruits in the nation. James is a four-star recruit, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, but On3 rates him as a five-star, which is higher than other services.
He joins a recruiting class headlined by Isaiah Collier, who’s the No. 1 player in the nation from the 2023 cycle, per the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighed average that utilizes all four major recruiting companies.
USC is also a big player in the NIL space with three operating NIL Collectives. A fourth, BLVD LLC, stopped day-to-day operations in February after it became the first step toward becoming a major player in the landscape.
House of Victory is one of the biggest USC-focused collectives and merged with the 3400 Club earlier this month. It has struck a deal with Boogie Ellis and recently announced a partnership with Baker Tilly.