Retracting an offer made by another manager

Looking for some opinions about how to approach this situation. I was just given a special assignment where I will hire about 70 summer staff members. The manager who had the assignment before me was lined up to do it again next year, but was hired outside of our organization just over a week ago. The previous manager had verbally committed to one of the employees that they were hired as the head seasonal employee. However, six people applied for the position on their applications for next summer. Additionally, I have some personal contacts that I feel might fit the role better than any of the current applicants. I wanted to see if anyone had run into similar situations before. How did to handle the situation? My plan is to contact all of the applicants including the one who had verbally been hired and ask them to re-interview. What would be the best way to break the news to the first candidate if I decide to go with someone else? Is there a more graceful way to approach this?