The Dallas Cowboys have said goodbye to an important longtime staff member who traded the NFL for the college game.
In May, it was reported that Cowboys national scout Drew Fabianich was departing Dallas after 18 seasons with the team. Fabianich had led the team’s scouting efforts since 2004.
Now, NFL insider Ian Rapoport is reporting where Fabianich is heading next: the Auburn Tigers. Rapoport wrote that Fabianich is taking a senior role with the SEC school’s football program.
“Long-time #Cowboys National Scout Drew Fabianich is making a move to big-time college football,” Rapoport tweeted on July 11. “He accepted the job of General Manager and Director of Football Scouting and Development for Auburn Football, source said. With several NFL opportunities, Fabianich opts for college.”
It’s a major departure for the Cowboys and a major addition for Auburn. A growing pipeline of scouts, coaches and other staff is leaving the NFL for gigs in high-level college football, and Fabianich is the latest example.
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More Context on Fabianich’s Departure to Auburn
After reporting the initial news about Fabianich’s switch to Auburn, Rapoport also gave Cowboys and NFL fans additional context on the movement of NFL staff to the college game.
“With major college programs using more of an NFL model, Fabianich, who spent nearly two decades with Dallas, won’t be the last to make this leap,” Rapoport wrote.
Auburn is coming off a turbulent offseason in which head coach Bryan Harsin was investigated by the school and nearly fired, according to a USA Today story in February. The school also just hired a new university president, and the current athletic director, Allen Greene, is contracted only until January 2023.
However, Fabianich said that he was confident about the move. In a July 11 story in Sports Illustrated, the former scout said he wanted to turn heads as Auburn football’s GM.
“It’s going to be fun making a splash — and to try to make a difference — with one of the biggest and best programs in the sport at Auburn,” Fabianich said.
There’s no question that change is coming for the Tigers and that Fabianich will play a role in the change, but it appears to be a situation where the former Cowboys scout is working uphill.
Cowboys Have Replacement Scout
Interestingly, Dallas has seemingly figured out its replacement for Fabianich as national scout, but the team has not announced it yet. According to his LinkedIn profile, former West region scout Ross Wuensche appears to have filled Fabianich’s shoes.
The Cowboys’ official website page for Wuensche still states that he is the Midwest area scout, which was his first job with the team, starting in 2015, before being promoted to the team’s West region scout position in 2019.
Wuensche has worked his way up through the team’s scouting department, first starting as an intern in 2012. The Cowboys then hired him as an assistant, which he parlayed into the Midwest position. Now, the Texas A&M alum is leading the team’s scouting efforts in the national position.
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Cowboys Key Staff Member Quits After Nearly 20 Years, Joins Major SEC Program