Lynn Swann might have been just as surprised by this as we all were:
"There are a lot of things in my life that I think I planned for this was not necessarily one of them, but it is one of those great unexpected outcomes that I'm looking forward to and I think I've been building to for a long period of time."
There also appeared to be a groundswell of grassroots support for Swann to be the Athletic Director:
"There was several people that called and said 'you outta be the athletic director' [. . .] there were people that tweeted about it and so fourth. I was just at Augusta Georgia at the Masters and coincidentally Gene Washington the great receiver for the San Francisco 49ers and Stanford grad walked right by me, waved, I waved to him, he stopped in his tracks, ran back to where I was standing and he looked me straight in the eye and said 'you ought to be the next athletic director at USC.' I think many cases people see things in you that they admire and that they want to have as part of a program. You may not be looking for it at that particular moment, but if you keep your eyes open and you're willing to explore, if you don't say no right away, and you listen to people maybe there is an opportunity. Listening to Max talking with Nick Brill (the head of the search firm tasked with finding the new AD) having him come visit me in my home, talking with several other people, this become more than another opportunity."
Maintaining the status quo?
"I am not here to clean house or to make overwhelming changes on the coaching staff or the staff here. I think there's a great team in place and we're going to move it forward."
Swann has 3 goals for the student athletes at USC:
"I have three goals for the student athletes here. One is to graduate. certainly when Pat as athletic director here he raised those standards and raised the graduation rates and we'll continue to do that. Two, is to win. I believe it is important to win. I believe you practice, you play, you work to win, to be number one, not to be number two or three. If you're working to be number one you're going to get the most out of yourself and the most out of your program. Anyone who is working to be less than number one is going to get less than what they are capable of. So, we will push these teams to be national champions and to be the best that they can be. The third thing is for them to experience. What I mean by that is, college and the four or five years you are at a university should be about your personal experiences, should be about growth and development. Yes it is education, but it is education beyond the classroom and beyond the walls. It is about meeting people from all over the world. When I came here to USC I'd never travelled, but we had an international campus and you could be in a different country just by walking 30 yards and meeting a new student on campus at USC."
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