The trend by college football teams to hire general managers to handle programs in an era of NIL, the transfer portal, and the effects of the House vs. NCAA settlement continues, as one of the sport’s most historic programs has made an important addition.

Nebraska has hired New England Patriots staffer Patrick Stewart as the football program’s general manager, according to multiple reports.

Stewart previously served the Patriots organization over the last 13 years in multiple stints, most recently as the team’s director of player personnel during the 2024 football season.

Sean Padden, the current Nebraska football general manager, will move to a new position as assistant athletic director for strategic intelligence, according to the report.

Padden will oversee salary cap questions as programs prepare revenue-sharing schemes with players, contract negotiations, and analytics.

Stewart is slated to run Nebraska’s football personnel department.

Stewart and Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule have a working relationship, when the two worked together during the latter’s turn as Carolina Panthers coach from 2020-22.

Stewart joined the Panthers franchise as director of player personnel before being promoted to vice president of player personnel in the organization.

Stewart began his career at Ohio State, his alma mater, from 2000-04 and has other collegiate experience working inside the Western Carolina and Temple programs.

He first joined the Patriots in 2007 as a scouting assistant and held various positions with the franchise through 2018, when he became a national scout for the Philadelphia Eagles.

General manager is becoming a more prominent position inside college football programs as the sport embarks on a new era where tight organization around compliance and talent recruitment and retention becomes all the more important.

Bill Belichick helped boost the trend by bringing on Michael Lombardi, a veteran NFL general manager and personnel director, to serve in the same role inside the North Carolina program.

Oklahoma recently announced it hired former Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy to serve as the general manager of its football program.

(ESPN)

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