Luke Fickell will be replacing important staff position at the worst time

Luke Fickell hired a fast-rising and up-and-coming director of player personnel back in March, Ethan Russo. He came to the Badgers out of North Texas, where he made a name for himself under head coach Eric Morris. It was a great hire at the time, but then Morris was hired recently to be the head coach at Oklahoma State, and who does Morris chase after for his director of player personnel? You guessed it, Ethan Russo.

Now, Luke Fickell is trying to hire a new director of player personnel at one of the worst times to do it. One of the main roles of this position is evaluating and working with players in the transfer portal. A huge need for Wisconsin this offseason, but now they will need to be fast about getting in a new director and hope that doesn't mess up their transfer portal plans too much.

Oklahoma State has hired Wisconsin's director of player personnel, Ethan Russo

Related: Wisconsin football transfer portal tracker: Who's out, in, and the speculation

Russo has quite a fast-rising career. He started at TCU as a student manager but quickly was able to move to a new position in the NFL and work for the Cleveland Browns as a "Game Charter." This position involves reviewing game film and preparing teams for the NFL Draft. In this role, he helped evaluate a ton of college talent.

He then was part of the Colts staff in a slightly upgraded position, but didn't wait long before he took a job at Rice University doing player personnel work. In 2019, he went over to the University of Utah to once again take a step forward in his position. After a quick stop at UNLV, he joined the North Texas staff in 2023. Russo then came to Wisconsin, but didn't make it a year.

He clearly has a history of moving around as he advances his career. However, it couldn't have happened at a worse time for Luke Fickell.