As Notre Dame propelled its way to the College Football Playoff in two of the last three years, its strength and conditioning staff was routinely singled out by players and coaches as the driving force behind the program’s turnaround.
That success was not lost on one of its most bitter rivals. On Saturday, USC hired Robert Stiner, Notre Dame’s assistant director of strength and conditioning, to take over the same program, which it believed wasn’t up to par over the last two seasons.
USC chose this month not to renew the contract of Aaron Ausmus, who spent the last two seasons at the helm of the Trojans’ strength and conditioning program.