Matt Rhule is reportedly set to add an important piece to the Nebraska football support staff.

TCU general manager Anthony Crespino is "expected" to join Rhule in Lincoln, per a report by Matt Zenitz.

Crespino, a graduate of Pittsburg State which competes at the Division II level in football, began his career as the assistant director of football operations and recruiting coordinator at Texas State in 2012 under head coach Dennis Franchione (who had previously been a head coach at TCU).

Crespino left to become the director of operations at Western Michigan during head coach P.J. Fleck's first year guiding the program in 2013. He then joined James Franklin's staff as the director of player development at Penn State in the spring of 2014 in Franklin's first year as the head coach in Happy Valley.

After returning to Franchione and Texas State for a two-season stint (2014-15) as the director of football operations and director of player personnel, Crespino returned to the Big Ten as Northwestern's assistant director of operations for two seasons (2016-17) under Pat Fitzgerald.

Crespino continued his rise through the ranks when he was hired as the chief of staff by Sonny Dykes at SMU to oversee football operations and creative media. He served in that role for four seasons (2018-21) before following Dykes to TCU.

After serving as the general manager of the Horned Frogs' football program, Crespino will be taking another leap by jumping up to the Big Ten for the third time in his career to join Rhule's staff.

What Crespino's position will be is unknown as of now. The Husker football program already has a general manager in place, Sean Padden, who has worked with Rhule in nine of his 11 seasons as a head coach with Padden a member of his staffs at Temple, Baylor and the Carolina Panthers.

Nebraska also has a football chief of staff who is highly unlikely to be making any moves in Dr. Susan Elza, Rhule's biggest confidant on his support staff.

Given that the two positions that Crespino has previously held are both already filled at Nebraska (general manager, chief of staff) and given his background, the indication is that Crespino will be joining Nebraska to fill one of the program's recently vacated positions on the support staff: director of player personnel, director of football operations, director of football relations. Or, perhaps a combination of those roles will be in order for Crespino.

On Jan. 3, Rhule fired Nebraska's director of player personnel (Omar Hales) and director of football relations (CJ Cavazos) after just one season with the Huskers, telling both of them that he wanted to "go in a different direction," sources told Inside Nebraska. The Huskers' director of football operations (Gordon Thomas) is also out after one season under Rhule.

The Huskers' head coach is looking to replace all three, so one of those roles (or, again, perhaps a combination of those three) seems like the most probably role for Crespino.

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Update (4:45 p.m.)

The Huskers are reportedly hiring Crespino as the director of football operations to replace Cavazos. Nebraska is also reportedly set to promote Keith Williams to director of player personnel to replace Hales after Williams had previously served as an assistant DPP for two years.

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