mike bohn – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Mike Bohn leaves USC as a complicated and contradictory figure

The man who hired elite coaches and helped make #USC football more relevant also left behind a lot of questions about his behavior.

People, like life itself, are complicated. Public image and private reality are often different. What outsiders see on the surface is often quite different from internal realities in workplaces and departments. To a certain undeniable extent, this split between front-stage and back-stage identities has existed at USC.

On the surface, Mike Bohn seemed to be the consummate professional. Athletic directors are paid big money to do a few things really well. One of them is to hire the right coaches for sports programs, especially in the high-profile revenue sports.

Mike Bohn did that part of his job really well. That is very clear.

Bohn is also leaving USC under a cloud of disappointment. USC President Carol Folt accepted Bohn’s resignation and very briefly thanked Bohn for his service to USC in a manner which was (appropriately) subdued. Bohn, as L.A. Times reporting has noted, was asked about his management of the USC athletic department one day before he resigned. The Times gathered numerous complaints from several different sources about Bohn’s behavior and his management practices.

Translated: This is not a happy retirement or withdrawal from the scene. This is an unwelcomed, unwanted exit which had to occur due to unprofessional behavior. The contradictions and complications of Mike Bohn’s tenure at USC have been laid bare. Let’s tackle the most important points:

Troubling details emerge about Mike Bohn’s management of USC athletics

.@Ryan_Kartje of @LATimesSports produced detailed reporting on the deeper story inside #USC athletics.

What has happened inside the walls of the USC athletic department under former athletic director Mike Bohn’s leadership? Speculation flew across the internet and the USC community when the explosive news of Bohn’s abrupt resignation hit the wires on Friday afternoon. Just exactly what was going on, and why?

We don’t have all the answers, and more details are probably going to be revealed in the coming days and weeks, but we at least know what the fundamental issue was and is.

Ryan Kartje of the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that according to multiple sources inside the USC athletic department, Bohn made inappropriate remarks about the physical appearance of female colleagues. Additional sources told Kartje that Bohn did not attend meetings he was supposed to attend.

Kartje pointed out that on Thursday, Bohn and USC were asked by the L.A. Times about internal department criticisms of Bohn’s management and leadership practices. The fact that Bohn submitted his resignation on Friday, one day later, is notable.

Let’s go through a number of the details raised by the Times’ reporting on this story:

Twitter reaction to Mike Bohn resigning as USC Athletic Director

This was — and is — a stunner. See how people initially reacted to this bombshell at #USC.

The man who hired Lincoln Riley as USC’s head football coach has abruptly resigned. Mike Bohn stepped down from his position on Friday, citing health reasons. Does that mean this development is the result of health concerns? Some people aren’t so sure. For one thing, why would Bohn move USC to the Big Ten and then step down before the Trojans begin to play in their new conference? Also, why would Bohn step down when USC baseball is trying to secure its first NCAA Baseball Tournament berth since 2015? Isn’t the timing a little odd? Couldn’t that sort of thing have waited for mid-June? That will lead people to speculate about something being “off” and not entirely in order within the USC athletic department. While all of that speculation unfolds, let’s get a snippet of the initial social media reaction to Bohn’s resignation at USC:

USC Athletic Director Mike Bohn, who hired Lincoln Riley, resigns

Bohn, who hired Riley and was part of #USC’s earth-shaking move to the #B1G, steps down in a seismic development.

This came out of nowhere, much as the Lincoln Riley hire came out of nowhere. Say this much for Mike Bohn: He doesn’t leak details and he keeps things quiet. No one saw this coming, much as no one saw the Lincoln Riley hire coming until the morning when it happened: Bohn, the director of athletics at USC who hired Riley and other elite coaches, resigned on Friday.

While USC, the Pac-12, and everyone else associated with college sports tries to digest this highly important and completely unanticipated development, we will start by simply noting what Bohn himself has said, followed by noting his central accomplishments at USC:

USC football would love to leverage its position in the Big Ten when scheduling is arranged

We talked to @MarkRogersTV at the @VoiceOfCFB about ideas Mike Bohn can explore if he has any negotiating leverage with the Big Ten.

As we have written before — and as we will keep saying in the coming months — the year 2023 will be unique for USC fans and commentators, because the Trojans will exist in one conference but prepare for another. We will be covering the Pac-12 but will have one eye on the Big Ten, preparing both ourselves and you, as readers, for life in USC’s next conference.

One obvious and fascinating question for USC football heading into the Big Ten is how the Trojans will be able to arrange their schedule. Will they be constrained by larger forces, or will they have any elbow room and leverage to make strategic tweaks to their schedule? There are so many interesting dimensions to all of this.

Without diving really deep into the weeds here, let’s make this basic overall point: If USC does have any leverage in the room in its negotiations with the Big Ten, and in its ability to craft a nonconference schedule which serves its interests, what should the overall schedule — noncon and Big Ten — look like?

We talked to Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football about these various items in a segment which lasted nearly 20 minutes. There’s a lot to think about here:

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Charles White USC tribute ceremony should be held before Utah game on October 21

Mike Bohn has said #USC will honor Charles White during the 2023 football season. It only makes sense to have a big ceremony before a huge game watched by many.

No official word has come from USC on when it plans to honor legendary Trojan Charles White this upcoming football season. Mike Bohn has said that the school will honor White — who died at age 64 earlier this month — at some point during the 2023 season. Naturally, fans and alumni will wonder when that will happen.

Our view: USC ought to do this on October 21, when the Utah Utes visit the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Let’s be clear about one thing: Every USC home game should have a pregame tribute to White, just on a smaller scale. A video presentation, an announcement, something.

The first game of the season on Aug. 26 versus San Jose State should have a moment of silence before kickoff. However, a full ceremony on a day which is likely to be hot and miserable — in front of a non-maruqee opponent — would be untimely. Why have a ceremony in front of a Coliseum which won’t be fully filled?

Neither of the first two games of the season should have a lavish ceremony. If USC wants to consider a ceremony early in the season, the earliest possible date would be Sept. 9, when the Trojans begin their Pac-12 season versus longtime conference foe Stanford. Yet, even then, the opponent and the time of year are likely to produce a less-than-capacity crowd.

The Utah game will fill the stadium. The game will almost certainly be on national television, probably in prime time. That is the occasion to conduct a longer, fuller ceremony honoring Charles White.

Yes, USC should do other things as well: a No. 12 patch on every USC jersey, a No. 12 logo painted on the Coliseum field, and 1979 throwback uniforms. In terms of a ceremony, though, the Utah game clearly makes the most sense, with the UCLA game on Nov. 18 being another option.

If USC wanted to have big ceremonies before both the Utah and UCLA games, that’s fine, too.

We’re just trying to get things in order here and plan ahead.

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Charles White felt very close to USC in his later years, and Mike Bohn reached out to him

In his final years, Charles White’s eyes lit up whenever anyone gave him the two-finger “Fight On!” gesture. Sports are culturally powerful, and they kept White connected to USC.

The USC Trojans got some unfortunate news with the passing of legendary running back and Heisman Trophy winner Charles White on Wednesday evening.

The stories of White will surely circulate for some time, and there are a lot of details to discuss when evaluating his storied football career.

Over the summer, Bill Plaschke of The Los Angeles Times wrote a deep feature about White, and there are quite a few things to examine from that piece.

Here’s one of them from the perspective of Mike Bohn:

“White’s one big trip a year is an escorted flight to Chicago to sign autographs and supplement his income. He could handle a day trip to USC. And it turns out, he just might get one,” Plaschke wrote.

“When Trojans athletic director Mike Bohn was contacted about this column, the door swung wide open. Bohn immediately requested contact information and welcomed a reconnection.”

Mike Bohn spoke about Charles White in Plaschke’s story:

“Charles White’s Heisman Trophy is prominently displayed on our campus, and I know that the memories and thrills he provided live on in Trojans around the world,” Bohn said. “I look forward to learning more about the challenges in his life. The opportunity to understand our former athletes and grow with them is very important to us.”

Plaschke concluded his piece with a quote from White about the “Fight On” gesture, and how instantly it not only gave happiness to White in his later years, but how it enabled him to remain connected to both USC and to the memories he forged on the football field:

“There it is!” the Heisman Trophy winner says, strongly sticking out both fingers on both hands, waving them in the air, the glorious memories seemingly flooding back. “All you have to do is do that, they know who you are.”

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The relationship between Mike Bohn and Lincoln Riley will be tested if USC defense doesn’t improve

If Alex Grinch improves the USC defense in 2023, all will be well. If he doesn’t, we’ll see what kind of leaders Mike Bohn and Lincoln Riley truly are.

You know the news by now: Alex Grinch has been retained by Lincoln Riley as USC’s defensive coordinator for the 2023 season, in spite of a terrible second half of the 2022 season. That second-half nosedive was punctuated by brutal performances in the Pac-12 Championship Game and the Cotton Bowl in which the Trojans allowed 46 or more points and were physically dominated.

It isn’t easy to be confident in USC’s defense for 2023, but Lincoln Riley has doubled down on his belief and trust in Alex Grinch. Riley has also doubled down on not hiring a special teams coordinator and making significant changes to his coaching staff.

If you ask most USC fans, you’ll get widespread agreement that Alex Grinch is not the best the Trojans can do at defensive coordinator. You’ll get a much more divided reaction on the topic of hiring a special teams coordinator at the expense of releasing a strong recruiter who is currently on the staff of on-field assistant coaches.

Whatever your opinion might be on these matters, let’s ask one question: What is Mike Bohn’s role in all of this? We need to pay attention to how the boss is managing the head coach and the football program.

Let’s examine Bohn’s role and how he is handling both Riley and USC football:

Mike Bohn, Lincoln Riley need to make a run at Jim Leonhard for USC defensive coordinator

Key nuance here: This is less about firing Alex Grinch, more about making a run at an elite DC. If no elite DC will come to L.A., then Grinch should stay. #USC

We need to be very clear and precise in recommending a certain course of action for USC football after Monday’s disastrous Cotton Bowl ending against Tulane: The idea of firing Alex Grinch as defensive coordinator, something USC fans obviously support right now, can’t exist on an island, in isolation.

If Mike Bohn and Lincoln Riley take that step, it has to be done as part of a connected series of actions with certain knowledge that other steps can be taken concurrently or are already lined up and secured.

“Fire Alex Grinch” is easy, but the easy thing isn’t what good leaders do.

“Fire Alex Grinch if you know you can get a much better replacement and are already doing the work behind the scenes”? That’s an actual plan and a legitimate course of action. Let’s explain that nuance as we try to map out a path for the Trojans, Mike Bohn and Lincoln Riley:

Lincoln Riley should not worry about being ‘disloyal’ to Alex Grinch; it’s okay to fire him now

If Alex Grinch is fired, it’s not as though he can say Lincoln Riley is being unfair to him. If accountability matters at #USC, Grinch’s employment should be a real question.

Let’s be very, very clear here: If Lincoln Riley and USC decide to retain Alex Grinch as defensive coordinator for the 2023 college football season, it’s not a terrible, unforgivable move.

We knew this defense wasn’t going to be good heading into the season. USC needed dudes on defense, and it largely did not have them. We also can say — something even the fiercest Grinch critic would agree with — that the Trojans need to get major reinforcements on defense in the transfer portal. If that doesn’t happen, any conversation about a coaching change is secondary (or linebacker, or defensive line — ha, ha!).

Getting better talent is the first priority for USC. We can be fair to Alex Grinch and acknowledge that the Trojans didn’t have nearly enough talent on that side of the ball.

However, after this Cotton Bowl disaster against Tulane, even the Grinch apologists or those (like myself, full disclosure) who felt it was fine if he got the 2023 season have to admit this much: If four weeks of bowl practice and preparation couldn’t generate any improvement whatsoever — USC’s defense truly regressed in this game — Alex Grinch has clearly lost a significant degree of leverage.

Even Alex Grinch would acknowledge he has plainly failed.

Let’s go deeper into a very important conversation: