According to Football Scoop, which named Bowden its player personnel director of the year, the struggling Trojans poached coach Marcus Freeman’s longtime recruiting ace with a multiyear deal paying more than $1 million per season.

That would represent a significant pay increase for Bowden, with the trade publication reporting Bowden was making close to $300,000 after being promoted last winter from recruiting director to assistant athletic director for player personnel.

The son of former Major League Baseball executive Jim Bowden, Chad Bowden also worked with Freeman at the University of Cincinnati. Bowden followed Freeman to South Bend in January 2021 as recruiting coordinator for the Freeman-led defense.

Notre Dame football GM Chad Bowden on charisma of QB signee Blake Hebert

Notre Dame football general manager Chad Bowden notes the way QB signee Blake Hebert’s Brunswick School teammates light up when he’s around

Notre Dame signed just one player from California in its 2025 recruiting class, but it was heralded linebacker Madden Faraimo, who spurned nearby USC to head to the Midwest.

Bowden, who followed Freeman to the podium at Notre Dame’s signing day news conference on Dec. 4, described a frenzied reaction in the football building to Faraimo’s 11^th-hour decision.

Chad Bowden: How Chad Bowden and the Notre Dame football recruiting machine keep making connections

“We were fired up,” Bowden said. “The whole staff came out; everyone was hugging each other. It was a really special moment, a moment I’ll never forget.”

After losing to Notre Dame on the field the past two seasons, USC coach Lincoln Riley has now handed Freeman and Co., a setback in its recruiting infrastructure.

“Everyone is having to adapt, everyone is having to determine where they place value on certain positions, on certain people,” Riley said on Dec. 18. “You’re still building a ‘best team,’ but now the means of how you’re doing it have shifted completely. …

“I don’t think any of us could have predicted how quickly it’s changed, how fundamentally it’s changed. The whole college football world is trying to adapt right now.”

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune and NDInsider.com. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.