How Will GM Morocco Brown Work With Luke Fickell and Wisconsin?

CHICAGO — For the first time, Wisconsin will have a full-time, hands-on general manager for their football program. In late May, head coach Luke Fickell hired Morocco Brown, who comes with 25 years of front office experience in the NFL. According to the release sent out by UW, Brown “will oversee all roster management, player personnel and operations for Wisconsin Football.” However, it appears Brown may not have full decision-making control, but rather be a strong voice in the room who can help guide the Badgers in the right direction. “As we looked into some of this GM stuff, I don’t know that there’s a definition that says, well GM — in the NFL there is. The GM does this, makes this decision. The biggest thing, walking in the door and talking to Morocco or anybody else was, look, this is a family business,” Fickell told Badger Blitz. “I don’t want to change the way we do things. We do things together.” Brown’s biggest impact on UW may come during contract negotiations. Last season, the Badgers saw 20 scholarship players enter the portal, including seven starters. Brown, who spent the last eight seasons with the Indianapolis Colts as Chief Personnel Executive (2023-25) and Director of College Scouting (2017-22), should be in determining player value, but not necessarily overall roster management, which will still be left up to the assistant coaches. “Eventually, I know, somebody has to make a decision. And to be honest with you, you’re going to have to make some decisions of an end-all be-all of a dollar amount, but when it comes to who we want to coach and who we want to take — because we (Fickell and Brown) don’t get to pick,” Fickell continued. “If we aren’t lockstep with the coach who’s in that room, then we’ve got a problem. And I know there’s different ways in the NFL. ‘Hey, we just drafted so and so, and he’s gonna be in your room.’ That doesn’t happen in college football, because if the coach isn’t on board 100 percent, he’s the one who’s gotta coach him. He’s the one who’s got to develop a relationship. “I said, ‘Look. If it has to come down to it and I have to make a decision, then we probably aren’t doing things the right way.’ Your relationship with every coach within this building, your ability to sit with them, your ability to have some tough, hard conversations…if you two guys can’t go in your room and have some tough, hard conversations and be honest with each other, walk out and be on the same page like we expect all of our coaches to do, then we probably aren’t doing this thing in the right way. “It might look a little like an NFL GM does in some ways. I don’t know what an NFL GM does. I know what I expect and what we expect from our coaching staff, our GM, and everybody within our building. We have to have a relationship well enough that we know that we’re all in this together, and we’ve got to make the best decisions for the whole.” In the high school ranks, Wisconsin has a top 30 recruiting class, according to Rivals, featuring 23 new additions set to sign in December. The Badgers also own a pair of commitments in the 2028 class as well. At least early, Brown has taken a back seat and watched the magic unfold. “The best thing he’s done is kind of just step back, listen, and learn,” said Fickell. “And I think that’s where the uniqueness of someone coming in that position can make a lot of mistakes. They can walk in and say, ‘I’ve got ‘X’ amount of years of NFL experience, and this is how we’re going to do it.’ “His ability to kind of step back, listen, learn, get as much information from people as he possibly can about what has done on and what continues to go on, not just in college football, but here, I think has given him an opportunity as we get into fall camp as we get some of these opportunities nd things into place that he envisons we can do.” Brown also worked with the Washington Commanders, Chicago Bears, and Cleveland Browns during his tenure in the NFL. In the last portal cycle, UW signed 33 scholarship players, a group that ranked No. 14 nationally, according to On3. With Brown’s help, Fickell aims to see those numbers begin to drop in the future. “His focus is on our team. Not high school, not the portal. Our team,” said Fickell. “We’ve got a makeup — I think we can be in a really good position — obviously we know what we have to do this year, but if done the right way and we can retain this football team, the growth is really in a good place. “If we were looking for 8 to 10 to 12 starters this year, if done the right way, we’re looking for one or two starters tops.”