new energy

A dozen years before he charted a bold, new path for the USC football program, Chad Bowden was living on the pull-out couch of a cramped studio apartment in Hollywood with no clue where his life was headed.

Bowden couldn’t have dreamed up the role he’d one day occupy a few miles down the street at USC, where as the Trojans football general manager, Bowden has infused the program with new energy while putting together the top recruiting class in America.

So how did Bowden rise from that couch to being held up as one of the most consequential arrivals at USC since Pete Carroll himself?

Bowden thought that he might play college football. A few small schools had offered him opportunities to play linebacker coming out of high school in Cincinnati. But Bowden’s father, former baseball general manager Jim Bowden, didn’t think it was the right move. He worried about how his son would handle the rest of the college experience.

“He felt like it was best for me, from a maturity standpoint, to go right into working,” Bowden says.

USC football general manager Chad Bowden looks across the field during preseason camp.

(William Liang/For The Times)

Which is what led him to the tiny apartment off Highland Avenue. He split the place with Jac Collinsworth, his close high school friend, the two of them packed like sardines into a single room that doubled as the kitchen and dining space. Neither seemed to mind the close quarters. Everything became a competition, with each of them pushing the other.

“Both of us were highly motivated guys,” says Collinsworth, whose father is the famed commentator, Cris Collinsworth. “Plus we had [Chad’s] dad in our ear.”

So every morning, they would wake before sunrise to race each other to L.A. Fitness. After, they’d race back up the hill to devour the usual breakfast of egg whites — sometimes mashing in bananas for sweetness. Some days, they’d throw in a motivational video on YouTube to get the blood pumping again, before racing off to try to be the first in the office.

They were both staying up late, getting up early, grinding all day in between. But after a while, it felt to Bowden like he was running in place. He’d tried an internship with a sports agency, only to realize the agency life wasn’t for him. Then he sold Google ads for a company called Linktech, whiling away his days cold-calling strangers who weren’t exactly happy to hear from him. It gave him perspective, he says. But not much else.

It was important to Bowden to find his path as soon as possible. He’d always planned for success at a young age, Jac Collinsworth says. His father, after all, was hired by the Cincinnati Reds as the youngest GM in baseball history back in 1992, and Bowden had practically grown up in that Reds clubhouse. He rode in Ken Griffey Jr’s Lamborghini. He was in the draft rooms, the trade talks, the contract negotiations. Once, he even called out a Reds player’s lack of hustle on the basepaths — and ended up stuffed in a garbage can.

His childhood was intertwined with the game. Even dinnertime could turn on a night’s result. When the Reds won a game, father and son would go out to a local steakhouse for dinner. When they lost, Chad says, they would only eat Triscuits and cheese.

“[Chad] knew that he was going to have to work twice as hard to get that respect from his dad,” Collinsworth says.

As hard as he was working, Bowden didn’t seem to be getting any closer to finding his way in L.A. Evan Dreyer was worried about him.

Dreyer had coached Bowden as a freshman football player at Anderson High in Cincinnati, and they’d stayed in touch since. So when Dreyer was out in L.A., he checked in on his favorite former player.

“Chad needed somebody to look him in the eye and say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” Dreyer says.

He called Bowden back soon after and offered him a job as his defensive coordinator at Western Brown High, back in Ohio.

Bowden was just 20 years old. He had no coaching experience, aside from filling in for a few weeks as an assistant baseball coach for Dreyer at 14. But Dreyer knew how much Bowden loved football. And he had no doubt that Bowden was bound for great things. He saw it in Bowden even before high school, as early as the fifth grade, when all of the kid’s energy was zeroed in on being the best possible water boy he could be. He sprinted full speed down the sideline to retrieve a loose ball. He didn’t care for school, but memorized the stats of opposing players. It was clear he took pride in the job.

USC general manager Chad Bowden, center, attends a team practice.

(USC Athletics)

But that was when football first swept Bowden up. Now, years later, Dreyer was offering him a chance to get his foot in the door.

“He called me and was like, ‘What are you doing with your life? Football is everything to you.’” Bowden says. “I just kind of sat there and said, ‘What am I doing?”

So took Dreyer up on the offer. The only problem? He had no idea what he was doing as a defensive coordinator.

The team went 1-9. The next year, he followed Dreyer to another high school, and it didn’t get much better. He dialed up blitz after blitz, just hoping for the best. One night, his defense gave up almost 80 points, and a frustrated Bowden was ejected from the game.

Still, he wasn’t one to sit idly by, waiting on a problem to solve itself. Even if there was no obvious — or rational — solution. One week, when his defense gave up over 400 rushing yards, he responded by buying huge tubs of peanut butter, convinced more sandwiches could be the key to bulking up his defensive front.

Once, he babysat for Dreyer’s 3-year old daughter and upon finding out she loved school buses, set out to stop one in the street in order to give her a ride.

There were no half-measures with Bowden, on or off the football field. He preferred to take matters into his own hands if he had to.

“That’s the best way to understand Chad,” Collinsworth said. “He will move a mountain to make something happen.”

He seemed to be in constant motion, attending school at the University of Cincinnati in addition to coaching.

After two seasons coaching high school football, Bowden decided to try a new direction. A friend of his father helped hook him up with an opportunity to shadow the senior vice president of the Miami Dolphins, who eventually helped connect him with Brian Mason, the new recruiting coordinator at Cincinnati.

Mason hired Bowden as a student intern, helping out with Cincinnati’s recruiting. It didn’t take long for him to make an impression on the rest of the staff.

Some staffers, Mason says, were admittedly “thrown off a little bit by his energy” when they first met him. But there was no doubting Bowden’s work ethic as an intern. When Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell gave him a task, coaches remember Bowden sprinting down the hallway to complete it.

“We had to tell him to leave the office, even as a student intern,” Mason said. “He’d go 100 miles per hour to get things done.”

Mason played a critical role helping Bowden focus that energy. He surrounded him with structure and taught Bowden how to be better organized without tamping down his enthusiasm.

“I owe a lot of what happened in my life to Brian Mason,” Bowden says. “Brian did such a great job of understanding that I was crazy. But he also saw the good in me.”

Mason connected Bowden with Marcus Freeman, who at the time was Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator. Bowden asked if he could sit in on meetings with Freeman and Fickell to absorb as much knowledge as he could.

Bowden didn’t stay quiet in those meetings for long. “I never shut up after that,” he says.

It was out of that back-and-forth banter that Bowden and Freeman formed a close bond. Both, according to their fellow coaches, seemed uniquely suited for keeping the other in balance. Where Freeman was the more measured and thoughtful of the two, Bowden was bold and daring. He would push the envelope, and Freeman would rein him back in if need be.

“Like yin and yang,” said Mason, who also worked with both at Notre Dame.

Bowden quickly rose through the ranks at Cincinnati, from defensive quality control assistant to recruiting director. Along the way, there was “tough love” from Freeman that, Bowden says, was exactly what he needed to hear.

Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman and his team line up to enter the field against USC at the Coliseum on Nov. 30.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

“He gave me what I needed to be the best version of me,” he said. “‘If this is what you want to be, this is what you need to do.’”

When Freeman left in 2021 to be Notre Dame’s defensive coordinator, he brought along Bowden, who took a lesser role in South Bend. A year later, Freeman was promoted to head coach and Bowden became his recruiting director and right-hand man.

The recruiting operation quickly took on Bowden’s personality.

“We were flying fast,” says Chris O’Leary, who coached safeties at Notre Dame. “Whether it was offers, calling kids, it was rapid fire all the time. Every day was life or death.”

When it came to talking to recruits, Gerad Parker, who coached tight ends at Notre Dame, likened Bowden to “the crazy uncle at the birthday party.” During official visits, he orchestrated NBA style entrances for recruits and their families. Sometimes he showed up in costume. He memorably dressed up as a leprechaun, another time as an FBI agent.

A leprechaun costume at Notre Dame might seem silly, but Parker said Bowden owned it.

“It’s like going into character when you’re working at Disney,” Parker said. “Those people don’t roll their eyes because they’re in a Cinderella costume. They are Cinderella.”

Of course, not all of his ideas got past the cutting room floor. For one, Freeman refused Bowden’s request to jump out of a helicopter to impress recruits.

“He might bring a list of five ideas, right? And four of them are crazy,” Mason said. “He brought up helicopters on multiple occasions.”

Whatever others thought of his methods, Bowden’s approach was working. He was relentless in building relationships. Recruits raved about his impact. Notre Dame pulled in a trio of top-12 classes that would serve as the bedrock of a run to the national title game.

Michigan had already pursued Bowden to be its general manager before that 2024 run. He turned it down, in order to continue on with Freeman.

By the following January, Bowden decided to change directions. Four days after Notre Dame lost to Ohio State in the national championship, he was named USC’s new football general manager.

At the time, Bowden called the decision “a no-brainer.” While talking with reporters in March, he said “some things that were out of my control” at Notre Dame.

But to those who once worked with both Freeman and Bowden, it was unexpected..

“That had to weigh heavy on Chad,” said Parker, the Irish tight ends coach.

“[They were] like brothers,” said O’Leary, the safeties coach. “I know there’s a lot of layers behind it. But yeah, I was surprised to see him leave Notre Dame.”

By choosing USC, Bowden was once again striking out on his own, walking away from the world he knew best for the promise of building something bigger and better. Fittingly, it would bring him back to the city where his search for a career began.

In seven months at USC, he has completely revamped the front office operation with his hand-picked staff, repaired relationships with local coaches and power brokers and reinvigorated USC’s entire recruiting strategy. The Trojans’ 2026 class has soared to the top of the national recruiting rankings, with 32 commitments and climbing. And boosters are buying in, once again crowding the sidelines of football practices.

Staff members will tell you that Bowden’s impact in that short time at USC runs deeper. That his energy and his willingness to test limits and challenge norms has set a tone for the entire department.

When USC athletic director Jennifer Cohen approached Bowden during a recent football practice, she found him busy scribbling down notes.

“He had 15 things from that practice that he noticed or ideas that he had,” she said.

“He’s the eyes and ears of a program in a way that really takes the pressure off of everyone. He’s just been great within the university community, within the athletic department, with donors, with former players. We could not be more pleased with the progress that he’s made and his team has made and the impact that he’s having on USC football.”

No detail, down to the team’s toilet paper, is too small.

“His mind is always going,” said USC secondary coach Doug Belk. “I don’t know if he sleeps at night.”

Bowden has no trouble seeing the path ahead of him and shows no signs of slowing down.

“If I could be here for forever, I would,” Bowden said. “That’s how much this means to me. I think about it every day.”

It wasn’t any other night, not in the story of this season, not in the history of this franchise.

Before Luka Doncic played his first second as a Laker, his name and number were on a T-shirt draped over every seat in the building. His aura was inescapable, from the Serbian pregame music to the buzz in the building each time his face appeared on the scoreboard.

It’d been more than a week since the Lakers shocked everyone by dealing for Doncic, a move that secured the organization its future. This was what people wanted to see.

And among those people? LeBron James.

Someday, this will be Doncic’s franchise, but Monday’s Lakers debut was as much about the partnership between their two best players, No. 23 and No. 77 turning the building’s energy all the way to 100.

Before the Lakers’ 132-113 win against Utah, James and Doncic gathered in the team’s huddle after introductions. Notably, Doncic, instead of James, heard his name last. And if Doncic needed another reminder of how he was being embraced, James gave it to him.

“Don’t fit in,” James told Doncic while addressing the team. “Fit the f— out. Be yourself.”

“Chills,” Doncic said of the moment.

Lakers guard Luka Doncic scores on a layup in front of Utah Jazz guard Keyonte George in the first half Monday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

James’ enthusiasm for this was obvious. Pregame, he warmed up in one of the Doncic No. 77 giveaway shirts. On the court, he didn’t shoot for nearly the first six minutes, setting the stage for the kind of team basketball the Lakers want to play despite having two of the game’s best individual scorers now in the same uniform.

In totality, Doncic’s individual debut went predictably — moments of brilliance like the stepback three for his first bucket, the full-court laser to James for the pair’s first connection and the lockdown defensive possession on Jordan Clarkson. Others were signs of accumulated rust, Doncic missing six threes and nine field goals in his first game since Christmas because of a calf strain. Before the game, coach JJ Redick said Doncic would be on a minutes limit as the Lakers “ease” him back into NBA action. Monday in the blowout, he logged just 23 minutes.

“Special,” Doncic said of the moment. “The way they received me, everybody, it was amazing to see. I was a little bit nervous before. I don’t remember the last time I was nervous before the game. But once I stepped on the court, it was fun. And just being out there again felt amazing.”

He finished with 14 points, five rebounds and four assists — well below his season averages.

“I think he handled it well,” Redick said. “And, you know, knowing Luka, whether he will admit this or not, like there was probably a little bit of nerves playing for the Lakers for the first time. And the anticipation that our fans have, this building had, his teammates had, our coaching staff had. He kinda gets that, he sees that.

“And I thought he’s handled it really well and he played really well tonight. He could not make a three outside of the first one, but he just, again, it goes back to all our guys, they just played agenda-free basketball. What tonight was not, he didn’t make it about Luka. He made it about playing good basketball and playing Laker basketball.”

Around him, the Lakers (32-19) were the kind of excellent they’ve been for the last 14 games. During that stretch the Lakers have won 12 times, losing only to the Clippers and the 76ers, discovering a toughness on both sides of the ball that’s pushed them 13 games over .500.

Monday, James was again terrific on both sides, scoring 24 but playing with incredible defensive energy. Austin Reaves, fresh off a 45-point game Saturday, scored 22 on only 10 shots while grabbing nine rebounds. Jaxson Hayes, the Lakers’ new starting center after Mark Williams failed his physical, scored 12 points on perfect six-of-six shooting. And Rui Hachimura had 21 points and six rebounds in a game the Lakers led by as many as 34.

Reserve guard Jordan Goodwin, playing in just his second game since signing a two-way contract with the Lakers, scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds while playing terrific defense — a real need on the perimeter after the team dealt Max Christie.

“He knows what we’re trying to do,” Redick said. “And frankly, he’s kind of the prototypical guy that we want in one of those spots because he plays hard, he crashes the offensive glass, he has a toughness about him, he has a team-first attitude. I just think it speaks volumes to the type of person that he is, that he was prepared and is willing to go to battle with these guys.”

Battle is a good word for the way the Lakers have played, showing more fight and toughness in their final home game before the All-Star break. Doncic, who has been watching the team win all three of its games since he joined the team, saw the template. Fit in, fit out, whatever.

The real takeaway Monday was that with the NBA’s hottest team, the No. 77 gold jersey looked like a big part of it all.

“Since I came here, I just wanted to play with them,” Doncic said. “So every game I saw, they played amazing, very connected, and for me, it was just I want to be there with them.”

The wait is over; Doncic is here. He’s a Laker.

“It was awesome,” Reaves said. “I thought the energy from that point forward was great. His introduction in the starting lineup was one of the loudest I’ve heard since I’ve been here.

“Lakers nation, continue to do that because he deserves it.”