Report: Cincinnati AD Mike Bohn reconsiders Southern Cal job

Fletcher Page | Cincinnati Enquirer

Show Caption Hide Caption UC football's Luke Fickell talks Bearcats' 46-43 win at East Carolina Cincinnati football coach Luke Fickell talks Bearcats' 46-43 win at East Carolina on Saturday.

There appears to be a snag in University of Cincinnati athletics director Mike Bohn's departure for Southern Cal.

Bohn was expected to be announced as the Trojans' athletics director Monday after news reports stated last week the two parties were close to a contract agreement.

But according to longtime Trojans' beat writer Scott Wolf, USC president Carol Folt told Bohn he would not be permitted to hire Urban Meyer as the next football coach. Parameters on a potential coaching hire, according to Wolf's sources, is considered a dealbreaker for Bohn.

"Mike is still a UC employee," a school spokesperson told The Enquirer Tuesday morning. "Anything beyond that is speculation."

UC began the process of forming a search committee last week and agents for potential candidates reached out to school representatives to express interest, two sources with direct knowledge of the athletics department told The Enquirer. And, according to sources, university president Neville G. Pinto made a call to Bearcats' football coach Luke Fickell Friday to reassure that the future of UC athletics would be placed in good hands.

Fickell said Bohn's expected departure wasn't a distraction following the No. 17 Bearcats' comeback 46-43 victory Saturday at East Carolina.

"I don't pay any attention to the outside," he said. "I kind of lock myself in. I can do that. There's a lot of things I don't do well. Things I do well are to not listen to anybody else or look at Twitter or worry about about a lot of those other things. Hopefully maybe they'll tell me something in the next day or so, but it has no bearing on what we do or on these seniors with four guaranteed college football games left for them."

Faced with Bohn's exit, UC planned to name an interim athletics director and aimed to make the full-time hire within "a couple months ... to keep keep our recent success moving," said a source with direct knowledge of the search process. UC executive senior associate director Maggie McKinley was a likely candidate for interim AD, according to multiple sources. McKinley, who joined the University of Cincinnati staff in 2001 and serves as the department's senior woman administrator, watched the Cincinnati-East Carolina gamer Saturday from the visiting AD room in the press box.