Patrick Embleton is in his 14th season on the staff at Illinois in 2026 and his third as General Manager. He spent three seasons as Executive Director of Personnel and Recruiting under Bret Bielema from 2021-23 before being promoted to General Manager prior to the 2024 season.
Embleton oversees all personnel efforts for the Fighting Illini, including high school and collegiate transfer recruiting. He manages Illinois’ personnel team, which scouts, identifies, recruits, and signs all incoming players, alongside head coach Bret Bielema and the coaching staff. Embelton's staff evaluates potential student-athletes, manages all official and unofficial visits for football recruits, and coordinates all admissions for incoming freshmen and transfers.The personnel department serves as football admissions coordinators and works closely with the academics staff in that pursuit, and also works with the compliance staff regarding the recruitability of prospective student-athletes.
Embleton has helped elevate Illinois to new expectations since Bielema's arrival in 2021. Illinois had its winningest two-year run in program history from 2024-25, which included a program-record 19 wins, 15 Power-4 wins — the fourth-most in the Big Ten — six ranked wins, and two bowl victories over SEC opponents in the 2024 Citrus Bowl (#14 South Carolina) and 2025 Music City Bowl (#23 Tennessee). The Illini have 37 wins and 23 Big Ten victories since 2021, highlighted by back-to-back 9+-win seasons in 2024 and 2025 for the first time in program history and a program-record 10 wins in 2024.
Embleton has helped bring the Fighting Illini program back to national relevance with continued appearances in the AP Top 25 and College Football Playoff rankings, three bowl games, three national award finalists, 14 All-Americans, and 12 NFL Draft picks since 2021. Illinois has had three national award finalists and seven top-100 draft picks since Bielema's arrival. Jer'Zhan Newton (2023, Nagurski), Chase Brown (2022, Doak), and Devon Witherspoon (2022, Thorpe) gave Illinois three finalists in National College Football Awards Association awards over a two-year span for the first time since 1994-95, while Illinois is one of five schools with three or more players drafted in the first three rounds in the 2023 and 2024 NFL Drafts, along with Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Penn State.
Illinois has seen huge improvements in recruiting results under Embleton's direction, including signing the top-rated class in program history. The Illini's 2206 class was ranked #21 in the nation by 247Sports, eclipsing the previous high of #22 in 2007 and 2008. Illinois' rise in recruiting continued by signing the program's fifth-straight top-50 recruiting class in 2026. Prior to Bielema's arrival in 2021, Illinois had signed only three top-50 classes in the previous 10 years combined. Embleton and Bielema have now signed four of the five highest-ranked Illini recruiting classes of the past 15 years, according to 247Sports.
Illinois has also continued its strong commitment to recruiting the state of Illinois by signing eight players from the state in 2026, including two of the top six and all eight within the top 40 according to 247Sports.The Illini also signed back-to-back Illinois Gatorade Players of the Year (WR Hank Beatty, RB Kaden Feagin) for the first time in program history in 2022 and 2023.
Embleton served as Director of Recruiting at Illinois from 2015-20 following a stint as a player personnel/football operations graduate assistant from 2013-14. In that role, he assisted with on-campus recruiting, including scheduling visits and itineraries, scheduling meetings with academic professors, and arranging campus tours. He also coordinated recruiting travel for coaches and served as the program’s liaison for NFL scouts. During his time as a graduate assistant, Embleton helped the Fighting Illini bring in the No. 6 recruiting class in the Big Ten in 2014.
Prior to coming to Illinois, Embleton was the wide receivers coach and assistant academic coordinator at Division III Ohio Wesleyan University. He earned a bachelor of arts in health and human kinetics from Ohio Wesleyan in 2012 and was a four-year starter at tight end for the Battling Bishops from 2008-11, earning All-NCAC honors and serving as team captain in 2011.
Embleton and his wife, Jessica, have three children, Isabella, Gibson, and Lenora.
