USC names Washington’s Jennifer Cohen as athletic director: Why the hire makes sense

By Nicole Auerbach, Antonio Morales and Bruce Feldman

USC has hired Washington athletic director Jennifer Cohen to the same position, the school announced Monday. Here’s what you need to know:

• Cohen replaces former USC AD Mike Bohn, who resigned from the role in May.
• She has helmed the Huskies athletic department since 2016 and hired football coach Kalen DeBoer, who led Washington to an 11-2 mark and a top-10 finish in his first season last year. In March, Cohen was named to the College Football Playoff selection committee.
• USC — along with UCLA, Oregon and Washington —is set to join the Big Ten in August 2024.

Welcome to the Trojan Family, Jennifer Cohen!

Cohen becomes USC’s 10th athletic director after serving in the same post at Washington the last seven years.

— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) August 21, 2023

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

What does this mean for USC?

Cohen is the first female athletic director in USC’s history. USC now has a female president with Carol Folt and a female athletic director. She’ll be tasked with guiding USC as it transitions to the Big Ten next year. She’ll inherit Lincoln Riley as her football coach and obviously maintaining that relationship will be of the utmost importance. Navigating the NIL landscape will be important for her tenure as well.

Advertisement

USC’s athletic department has dealt with several controversies over the past decade-plus so keeping the department out of the news cycles will likely be a point of emphasis. This is Folt’s second AD hire as USC’s president and the second time she has gone out of the Trojan family, so it’s clear she wants an outside perspective. — Morales

GO DEEPER

4 tasks on new USC AD Jen Cohen's to-do list: Managing NIL, Lincoln Riley and more

Why this hire makes sense for both sides

USC gets a proven leader who has overseen success in many different sports over her tenure at Washington. Cohen is a member of the CFP’s selection committee and is already one of the most visible female leaders in college athletics. Now, she will be given the keys to drive one of college sports’ most iconic brands and run its athletic department as it transitions into the Big Ten.

Meanwhile, for Cohen, timing is everything. She just got Washington into the Big Ten (at a partial share) and has football in a really good place under DeBoer, a fantastic hire she made in November 2021. Cohen has spent more than two decades at Washington and is ready for something new, especially with the younger of her two sons now off to college. — Auerbach

What they’re saying

The Athletic spoke to a Washington source who raved about Cohen. “USC is lucky to have her,” the source said Monday morning. “A lot of places can’t get out of their own way. If they let her do her thing, she’ll kill it there.

“She is as smooth as she could be. She just gets it. She knows how to solve issues. She reads people so well. She’s tough, has guts, and she’ll do the right thing.”

A prime example of the latter was her hire of Jimmy Lake — promoted to head coach after Chris Petersen stepped down — that wasn’t working out and had the program spiraling down. Cohen recognized the issues, was able to pivot quickly and turned around and hired DeBoer who got Washington back into the top 10 in his debut season in 2022. — Feldman

Required reading

(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)