Stewart Joins Nebraska Football as General Manager
The University of Nebraska has hired Pat Stewart as the General Manager for the Husker football program. Stewart joins Coach Matt Rhule’s staff after spending the past two seasons as the director of pro personnel for the New England Patriots.
Stewart has a long history in personnel and scouting in the National Football League, including working with the Carolina Panthers from 2020 to 2022, while Rhule served as head coach. The majority of Stewart’s time in the NFL has been spent in the Patriots organization, where he was a part of two Super Bowl Championship teams.
In his role at Nebraska, Stewart will lead the Huskers’ roster management and player acquisition, including high school and transfer portal recruiting, evaluation, and retention.
“We are moving into an era in college football where roster management and retention more closely resembles the National Football League model,” Rhule said. “Pat Stewart will help us manage our roster and operate in a way that will help give Nebraska the opportunity to compete as one of the elite programs in the country. Pat and I have experience working together in the past, and I look forward to him joining our Nebraska Football family.”
In addition to his experience at the professional level, Stewart also worked in college football early in his career working on the same staff as Rhule at both Western Carolina and Temple.
“There are few, if any, institutions as capable of transitioning to this new era of roster construction as Nebraska,” Stewart said. “That is a testament to Director of Athletics Troy Dannen, Coach Rhule and the rest of the administration for their commitment to continuing the build on the proud and storied legacy of Nebraska Football. I’m honored to work with Coach again, as well as the staff he has assembled, and offer my experience in personnel as we build and maintain a roster that the Greatest Fans in College Football will be proud of. The energy and culture of the program has been evident in the short time I have been here, and this is an exciting time for my family and I to join the Nebraska Football Family.”
In his time with the Panthers, Stewart served as the Director of Player Personnel in 2020 before being elevated to Vice President of Player Personnel for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Stewart was a national scout for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2018 and 2019.
Prior to joining the Eagles scouting staff, Stewart held multiple positions with the Patriots from 2007-17. He was originally hired by New England as a scouting assistant in 2007 and went on to serve as both an area scout (2009, 2013-17) and pro scout (2010-12).
Before entering the NFL, Stewart worked as an assistant director of football operations at Temple University (2006) under head coach Al Golden and was a graduate assistant coach at Western Carolina in 2005.
From 2000-04, he worked for Jim Tressel at Ohio State as a student manager while earning his bachelor’s degree in political science, which he received in 2005.
The hiring of Stewart as general manager is a key part of a re-organization of the Huskers’ front office staff. As part of that process, Sean Padden will move into the role of Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Intelligence. His focus will be on cap analysis and compensation trends, stakeholder engagement, contract negotiations, data analytics leadership, collaboration and implementations and project management.