Chapter 53

Drew Langford
It had officially been announced that Drew Langford was USC’s new athletic director. He’d previously been the AD for Baylor and had seen them through a scandal. The Baylor basketball and football teams were now both highly ranked, making him the best possible candidate outside of the Alabamas, Ohio States, and Clemsons of the world.

His initial introduction had gone predictably. Drew had said all the right words and promised to put USC back on the map.

Once back in his new office, he received a call from Chip Wagner, the sports reporter from Channel 10 who covered USC.

“Chip, I didn’t expect a call so soon.”

“I have an open slot on my afternoon sportscast. I thought you might want to come on the show and set the narrative before the FBI stuff drowns you out,” Chip offered.

“When do you want me?”

Drew knew Chip was right. During the hiring process, he’d been advised that he was expected to be decisive and reset the course of USC athletics. Unlike what had happened at Baylor, this was national news affecting universities across the country.

The subtext was that Coach Clayton was something he needed to deal with immediately. The administration hadn’t told him to fire or keep the head coach; they were leaving that up to him.

He quickly told his assistant to send a message to all athletic department staff, coaches, and student-athletes to let them know about the interview.

Drew arrived at the Channel 10 studios and was escorted in to meet with Chip.

“Welcome and thank you for giving me the first exclusive interview,” Chip said in greeting.

“Just be kind. I’ve only been on the job for half a day,” Drew said.

“I’ll try,” was the weak assurance Chip provided.

Drew fully expected that Chip was about to ambush him.

Chip looked at his watch.

“Shall we? It’s time,” he said and proceeded to introduce his show and his guest.

Chip: Let’s talk about your new opportunity and the challenges you face with coming into one of the most storied programs, Southern Cal. USC is currently under a cloud of uncertainty, to say the least. What intrigued you to take the position, and what’s the first item on your agenda?

Drew: This is my dream opportunity. Running a world-class organization like USC is something I’ve always wanted to tackle.

Chip: I’m going to put you on the spot. Does the FBI investigation touch the football team, and if so, what does that mean for Coach Clayton?

Drew: You know, at this point, we’re still unraveling what all happened. Quite frankly, I haven’t even had a chance to sit down with Coach Clayton.

I also know that the state of the football program is a topic of a lot of discussion and questions right now. I look forward to meeting with him and getting to know Dylan.

I’m excited about his leadership in taking USC to an eleven-win season last year. USC has been up and down for the past few years, and we need to get back to the USC of old, where we were consistently mentioned as a top-five program.

Chip: How many teams do you have at USC?

Drew: Twenty-three.

Chip: And you are responsible for all of them?

Drew: That’s the rumor.

Chip: Would it be fair to say that two of them will take up the majority of your time? Men’s basketball and football?

Drew: That’s a fair assessment. I’m sure everyone understands that those two sports are the engines that make the rest of it go. But I’ll say that while they may take the majority of the time, we don’t want to lose sight of the other sports. We’re having incredible success in our Olympic sports. Our student-athletes are doing great things, and that is an essential part of USC.

Chip: What do you see as your greatest challenge?

Drew: In California, people have many options as to who to support as the flagship school for the state. What we want to do is to make USC the one they want to follow and root for, the one that’s emblematic of California as the preeminent athletic institution, one that symbolizes the state. And that doesn’t start when they’re 17 or 18 and trying to decide what university to go to. It begins when they are 7 or 8. That’s why we need to communicate what our brand is, and we want people across the state to feel connected to USC.

It’s our state, it’s our team, and we want people to connect to that from an early age. For me, it’s about raising Trojan fans. That way, they grow up dreaming about playing for the Cardinal and Gold. If we can do that, we’ll build a culture where year in and year out, USC is the go-to destination for in-state talent. And when we begin to bring in our own people, the rest of the country will be put on notice. USC will be champions not only in football and basketball but in the other 21 sports.

Chip: That’s a long play, but you know as well as anyone that fans want winners right now.

Drew: It is a long play, but the problem most programs have is they try to take shortcuts in their build. We might sacrifice some wins early on, but our teams will do it right so we don’t have up-and-down seasons; we become consistent winners. Now, don’t get me wrong, we want to win, and I expect us to win. I’m saying that we’ll not skip steps in creating the world-class athletic programs that USC deserves.

Chip: I’ve always said that USC, particularly football, should be in the national conversation each year.

Drew: I agree. In 2007, ESPN named USC the number-one team of the decade. As recently as 2008, we were ranked number two at the end of the season. We’ve been national champions eleven times; the most recent was in 2004. Since then, we’ve played winning football, but we have not raised our level to what it was. We need to start going twelve and oh, not eight and four. Getting there will take time.

His first full day on the job would be interesting. Drew was scheduled to talk to the FBI in the morning and to Coach Clayton in the afternoon. He still wasn’t sure what to do about the coach but hoped he could come to a decision by the end of the day.

He was disappointed that Jaxson Pettis, his predecessor, hadn’t agreed to meet with him and do a handoff. But Drew couldn’t really fault him because he hadn’t offered to help the new Baylor AD, either. It might be better to have a clean slate and bring his own ideas about how to handle his job.

At ten a.m. on the nose, his assistant buzzed his office phone.

“Your ten o’clock is here.”

“Send them in.”

His office door opened, and a severe-looking woman in her late fifties entered. He stood up and went around his desk to greet her.

“Drew Langford.”

She introduced herself as Susan—not Sue—Vargas. Susan was the Assistant Director in Charge, Los Angeles Field Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Drew hadn’t expected the head of the Los Angeles FBI to be standing in his office. They took their seats, and Susan took charge of the meeting.

“Before I say anything, I’m unable to comment on an ongoing investigation. As such, I cannot give you names or what they might have done regarding what we are calling Operation Varsity Blues. As I’m sure you’re aware, some information has leaked, which we are looking into.

“Because of those leaks, the Director asked me to meet with you personally since Jaxson Pettis had been most cooperative in providing us with information. It’s our hope that you’ll continue doing the same.”

“I guess that depends on what you need and what I’m at liberty to provide,” Drew said to show that he wasn’t about to be taken advantage of.

The FBI wasn’t beyond taking advantage of transitions. They counted on new people in positions like his to gain access or an edge that someone experienced would have put the brakes on. It sounded like Jaxson had pulled his pants down and bent over to give the FBI whatever they wanted.

She simply stared at him, which became unnerving after a few minutes, but Drew held his ground.

“If that’s the case, I would suggest you bring counsel to our next meeting,” Ms. Vargas pressed.

“Thanks for the advice,” Drew said. “May I ask if any information on our football team was leaked?”

“It might be possible a kicker was enrolled with aid from an outside source, but I’m not comfortable saying more. If you do an Internet search, you might discover a sister who was helped with her acceptance at another school.”

“Was there a list of the files you looked at?” Drew tried.