Wisconsin to hire Alabama recruiting specialist Brandon Rose as assistant director of player personnel

Wisconsin has hired Alabama recruiting specialist Brandon Rose as an assistant director of player personnel, On3’s Pete Nakos reports. He’s been with the Crimson Tide since 2021.

This comes after the Badgers promoted player personnel director Max Steinecker to general manager. Steinecker was entering his second season as the director of player personnel under head coach Luke Fickell.

Before Alabama, Rose spent time with the Buffalo Bills, according to his LinkedIn page.

The Badgers will now enter the second full year of the Luke Fickell era beginning on Friday, Aug. 30 against Western Michigan.

This follows a 7-6 season for the Badgers last year, which saw Wisconsin finish with a winning record (5-4) in Big Ten play and saw them ranked as high as No. 19 in the AP Top 25 poll. While they finished with a 35-31 loss to LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl, expectations are high in Madison heading into the 2024 season.

Looking ahead to the 2024 regular season — there’s one matchup that stands out above the rest. Sure, they play new Big Ten foes in USC and Oregon, among others, but a Week 3 home game against the Alabama Crimson Tide has been circled since the game was announced. Of course, that will be quite the interesting matchup for Rose.

“As a coach, it’s daunting, right?” Fickell said during Big Ten Media Days, via On3’s Sam Gillenwater. “I mean I don’t want to look at the schedule. I didn’t look at it until about six weeks ago. Everybody asked – I knew Alabama was on it.

“As I go to these next 39 days, it’s very motivating. It’s put in front of our guys to understand there’s a reason that we’re practicing the way we are. There’s a reason we did some of the OTAs we were doing. There’s a reason we’re attacking the way we’re doing.”

Luke Fickell talks unique approach when recruiting QB Tyler Van Dyke

Tyler Van Dyke is the second straight transfer quarterback for Wisconsin after Tanner Mordecai in 2023.

Luke Fickell thinks it’s a unique situation for his football team going into 2024. The recruiting process is certainly different when you know you’re only bringing in a guy for one or two years.

It’s almost like Van Dyke went through a job interview rather than a recruiting process. Or perhaps, it was a little bit of both, according to Fickell.

“I do think it’s unique that you have a really short amount of time to try to make sure you’re feeling like it’s the right one,” Fickell said on Big Ten Network. “What’s his arm strength, you can watch all these games … but do you really know the right one …

“Our matrix when trying to take a one year or two year guy even when we were at Cincinnati, it had a lot to do with what’s your history with them? What do you really know about and do you really know the family? Have you been in that home? With these quarterbacks, you don’t have that opportunity.”

Overall, Fickell is very pleased about Van Dyke’s transition from Miami to Wisconsin for his final college football season.

On3’s Nick Kosko contributed to this report.