The Detroit Lions have hired Southern California’s Brandon Sosna as the team’s senior director of football administration, Lions coach Dan Campbell confirmed Thursday.
Sosna served as chief of staff for athletics for USC and oversaw the football operations. He previously worked for the Cleveland Browns in 2017-18, under Lions senior personnel executive John Dorsey, where his duties included salary-cap and contract analysis.
ESPN, which first reported the news, said Sosna informed his USC co-workers of his decision earlier this week.
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USC athletic director Mike Bohn credited Sosna, hired as senior associate athletic director and chief of staff in December 2019, of playing a pivotal role in USC’s hiring of Lincoln Riley.
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Riley was named the Trojans’ head coach in November after spending five seasons at Oklahoma, where he produced two Heisman Trophy winners, won five Big 12 conference championships and led the Sooners to three College Football Playoff appearances.
Prior to his stint at USC, Sosna served as a member of the University of Cincinnati’s athletic department from 2015-17 before spending the 2017 and 2018 NFL seasons in Cleveland. He then returned to the Bearcats’ front office as their chief revenue officer in early 2019.
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Sosna was named to the Sports Business Journal’s “New Voices Under 30” list in 2019 and Forbes’ “30 under 30 Sports” list in 2020.
Campbell said he would go into details about Sosna’s role at a later date.
Let’s go Brandon!