Who is new Wisconsin football GM Marcus Sedberry, and what does he bring to Badgers?

MADISON, Wis.

The lights were off, and the overhead projection screen illuminated by a whirring tan-and-gray reel of film that 9-year-old Marcus Sedberry handled while standing in the back of the classroom.

The football coaching staff at Greenville High School in Texas, led by coach and athletic director Marvin Sedberry Sr., was busy breaking down matchups and dissecting plays up front.

The younger Sedberry, meanwhile, was observing, listening and absorbing everything his dad said and did.

Advertisement Sedberry was born into a football life in a state where the sport carried particular significance, and to spend time with his dad meant helping to cut up film, wash practice jerseys and serve as a ballboy on game nights.

Thats how he learned about running the option and the difference between a Cover 1 and a Cover 3 defense.

But he didnt just grasp the game at a young age.

He understood what it meant to approach problems and find solutions through the lens of a head coach.

Case in point: Greenville had produced 10 consecutive losing seasons when Marvin took over the job in 1992.

He finished 1-9 in his first season there.

Then came six straight playoff appearances before Marvin left in 2000 for a one-year stint at Dallas Carter.

The message ingrained in Sedberry from a man who spent 42 years as a high school head coach or assistant: Leave a place better than when you found it.

He found great value in that, Sedberry said.

Thats something that I think has a big impact on how I see the world, too.

Like, Im always up for the challenge.

I dont think theres any challenge thats too big.

Fortunately, I feel blessed that in most places Ive been, weve found a way to rise to the challenge.

Sedberry, 41, has been tasked with perhaps his most significant challenge yet that he expects will blend his experiences in football at multiple levels.

He was announced on Monday as the general manager for the Wisconsin football program, part of a new frontier in college football that will have him overseeing roster management, contracts, revenue-sharing plans and general operations for the Badgers.

It is without question one of the most important off-field roles for a program attempting to climb its way up entering the third season under coach Luke Fickell.

Sedberry replaces Max Stienecker, who initially followed Fickell from Cincinnati to Wisconsin as the Badgers director of player personnel.

He was elevated to general manager before last season and, at 24 years old, was the youngest GM in the Power 4.

Stienecker recently left to become executive director of personnel at USC.

In Sedberry, Fickell found someone whose knowledge of the administrative and executive side within college and professional sports made him an appealing candidate.

But even more valuable to Fickell was Sedberrys specific knowledge of Wisconsin.

He was hired by athletic director Chris McIntosh in February 2022 nine months before Fickell arrived to serve as deputy athletic director and chief operating officer while working as sport administrator for football.

Advertisement The most important thing is someone that you trust and believe in that is going to be able to help you continue to go in the right direction, Fickell said.

Even though hes been an AD, hes worked side by side, hand in hand, and especially through this offseason, on the things we had to be able to do.

This gives us a huge advantage in a guy thats a hell of a lot more qualified in ways of whatever the GM position is going to be, of growing it.

The hard thing was youre going to take him away from your boss.

It had as much to do with Chris McIntosh recognizing that this is not only the best thing for the football program, its probably the best thing for Marcus if he wants to continue to grow in the future.

But it had more to do with the relationship than it even does the experience of what a GM is supposed to be.

Fickell said the plan is to fill the staff with another member of the recruiting department to assist director of recruiting Pat Lambert, who will continue in his role leading high school recruiting efforts.

The new hire will serve as a buffer between recruiting and the GM and occupy a player personnel/assistant general manager type of job, Fickell said.

Wisconsin has a robust recruiting department that includes three assistant directors of player personnel, a college scouting coordinator, a coordinator of recruiting operations and a director of on-campus recruiting.

Sedberrys job responsibilities are numerous.

He wont be focused on talent evaluation, though he said he wouldnt be opposed to watching prospects to better understand who Wisconsin is thinking about offering.

Rather, his job will be about organization of the player personnel side and how those players fit into the potential budgets and long-term plans of the program, based in part on conversations with Fickell, assistant coaches and recruiting staffers.

That includes examining scholarship numbers by position group and how best to move forward.

He cited the running back group as an example because it features three second-year players and is much younger than it was a year ago.

Anticipating what Wisconsins needs could be through high school recruiting or the transfer portal will be part of the decision-making process.

Advertisement Its one thing to evaluate players, Sedberry said.

Its another thing to truly know what you need to develop a roster.

Its another thing to be able to then translate to multiple years out, to have a plan of how youre going to do it not just this year but in future years.

And now were also saying some of these student-athletes are going to have some revenue share associated with them.

We dont have unlimited resources.

So we have to come up with a strategy to be able to maximize the resources we have with the people that we have.

Ill be responsible for helping us figure out that.

Judge Claudia Wilken will preside over the final hearing on the NCAA revenue-sharing settlement on April 7.

Wisconsin would be in position to utilize the maximum-allowable revenue sharing amount next school year of $20.5 million to directly pay its student-athletes across all sports.

Sedberry declined to share what percentage of that number will be earmarked for football, but the expectation is that the sum will be significant.

Sedberry said he had been deeply involved in helping Wisconsin develop a revenue-sharing strategy during the past six months.

That strategy includes potential dollar figures and who else to involve in the process of negotiating with players and their agents.

Theres some people who go high on some positions, Sedberry said.

Theres some people who have like a more moneyball approach.

And theres everything in between.

Every schools responsibility is to try to figure out what strategy best fits who they are and what theyre trying to do.

Given that general managers within college football fill a fairly new role, as well as the continued evolution of the sport, Sedberry said there is flexibility to define the specifics of his job.

But other responsibilities in addition to roster and cap management are expected to include a player relations aspect that focuses on communication with current players for community events and alumni, representing the university at events with donors relating to potential name, image and likeness or facilities project contributions and continuing to work with coaches and their agents on their contracts, which he did in his previous role at Wisconsin.

Sedberry said he believed his relationship with Fickell allowed the two of them to trust and challenge each other.

He has been a constant around the program, on the sidelines at games and attending Fickells news conferences.

He said that he understood what excited Fickell and what he had been challenged with during his first two seasons, as the Badgers went 12-13 overall.

Sedberry noted alignment from Fickell and McIntosh was important for the vision of the program and compared it to a coach, a GM and an owner in the NFL.

Sedberry played quarterback for his dad until his junior year of high school when he moved to slot receiver and lined up at cornerback.

But he was an outstanding sprinter and accepted a track scholarship from Nebraska.

Sedberry said he sustained four stress fractures in his lower back as a freshman that forced him to step away from the sport after his junior season.

He then spent his senior season as a student coach at Nebraska.

His initial plan was to coach before moving into a role as a college administrator, and he said he had a contract in hand to be a track graduate assistant at Texas A&M.

But during a student-athlete event, he met Richard Lapchick, who ran the sports business management program at UCF.

Sedberry was set to introduce Lapchick as the guest speaker, and as the two talked beforehand, Sedberry instead found a path that he thought would lead him toward becoming an athletic director.

He went to graduate school at UCF for sports management and upon graduation started a student services department at 24 years old to help student-athletes battling challenges like he faced while enduring injuries at Nebraska.

Advertisement He then worked for two stints at Arkansas under coach Bret Bielema and with the Philadelphia Eagles in between.

When he was with the Eagles, he helped coaches build better relationships with players.

He communicated with and learned about rookies and potential free agents.

He recalled talking on the phone during the fifth round of the NFL draft with potential free agents explaining what the Eagles could offer and why it would be a good fit for the players.

Sedberry compared those types of talks to dealing with transfer portal players now in college.

Sedberry spent nearly five years at Baylor as a senior associate athletics director before coming to Wisconsin three years ago.

Although he aimed to become an athletic director, he said he did have aspirations to return to pro sports to one day serve as a GM.

So when he was first approached about the possibility of transitioning to Wisconsins GM, he was intrigued.

Sedberry talks frequently with his dad and brother, Marvin Sedberry Jr., about football.

Marvin Jr.

is the football coach and athletic director for Terrell High School in Texas.

When the three of them gather for Thanksgiving, they still draw up plays on napkins.

But through the years, their conversations have shifted more toward philosophies on culture and managing teams.

Now, Marcus has an opportunity to take what he has learned and implement those strategies in a different role at Wisconsin.

The goal, as always, is to make a place better.

I wouldnt be embracing an opportunity like this if I didnt think that Wisconsin can compete with the best of them, Sedberry said.

As elements of the settlement become more real and what comes out of that, were going to be even better positioned.

And to me, theres a bright future ahead for us to be able to thrive in this new world.

I firmly believe that.

(Top photo: Courtesy of Wisconsin Athletics).

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