Sean Padden is in his second season as Nebraska’s General Manager in 2024. Padden has worked with Matt Rhule in 10 of Rhule’s 12 seasons as a head coach.
Padden served on Rhule’s Carolina Panthers’ staff as Vice President of Football Operations for a year and a half from 2020 to 2021. Before that, Padden was the Associate Athletic Director for Football Operations at Baylor for Rhule’s three seasons as the Bears’ head coach from 2017 to 2019.
Padden spent four seasons with Rhule at Temple. Padden was the Owls’ Director of Football Operations for the 2013 and 2014 seasons before being elevated to the role of Associate Athletics Director/Chief of Staff for the 2015 and 2016 seasons.
Padden’s previous stops in college football include serving as the defensive line coach at Fordham for two seasons (2002-03), where he worked with Nebraska special teams coordinator Ed Foley. Padden coached the outside linebackers at Columbia for one season (2001), and he was at Albany for two seasons (1999-2000), coaching the defensive tackles in his first season and wide receivers in his final season.
Padden began his coaching career as the defensive line coach at Albright College in 1997 and 1998. In his second season on staff, Padden worked with Rhule, who was Albright’s linebackers coach.
Padden has also worked in the private sector. Before joining Nebraska, he was employed at Kitman Labs, where he was market development manager for the NFL and NCAA markets. Prior to joining Rhule’s Temple staff, Padden was a corporate account manager at Bentley Systems for three years and an institutional representative for Forest Pharmaceuticals for nearly six years. During which time he volunteered with the West Philly Tarheels and Monsignor Bonner football programs.
A Pennsylvania native, Padden earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Catholic University in 1997 and his master’s degree in higher education administration from Albany in 2005. At Catholic University, Padden was a three-year letterwinner who was the Scout Team Player of the Year in 1995.