USC is losing chief of staff Brandon Sosna to a senior director of football administration position with the Detroit Lions, Pete Thamel reported for ESPN on Thursday.
Sosna is a key lieutenant of AD Mike Bohn. Though his official title is executive senior associate AD, Sosna functions as Bohn's right-hand man, a role he was first hired to at Cincinnati in 2015 -- at the age of 23.
The Penn graduate has been on "__ Under __" lists by Forbes, Sports Business Journal, Front Office Sports and Cincinnati Refined. He was profiled by The Athletic in 2020, when he was 27.
The Cincinnati native worked for the Bearcats from 2015-17 before taking a job with the Cleveland Browns, where he was eventually promoted to be the club's salary cap and contract analyst.
He left the Browns to join Bohn at USC in 2019. He was instrumental in hiring defensive coordinator Todd Orlando for then-head coach Clay Helton.
Sosna was also part of the executive team that brought Lincoln Riley to Los Angeles. From The Athletic:
Bohn, Sosna and USC director of player personnel Spencer Harris flew to Oklahoma City that Sunday night to escort those four plus Riley’s wife, Caitlin, and daughters Sloan and Stella to Southern California early the next morning.
Sosna brought some reading material with him. He and assistant AD for football Joseph Wood had compiled thick binders of information to get the new staff up to speed on the state of USC: scholarship breakdowns; detailed evaluations from the personnel team; weight-room measurables and academic reports for every player on the roster; pending NFL decisions; latest injury reports; committed recruits and where they stood in the admissions process; suggested top-priority targets; official visit schedules; and basic talking points about USC when pitching the program.
“We basically had a three-hour personnel meeting (on the plane),” said Sosna. “It was the fastest flight I’ve ever been on.”
Sosna's role with the Lions is anticipated to be similar to the ones he held in Cincinnati and USC. And if his career trajectory continues apace, his next move will likely be to an NFL GM or a Power 5 AD.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.