MADISON, Wis. -- Walking into the office that Max Stienecker, the director of player personnel, and Pat Lambert, the director of recruiting, share at Wisconsin, the roles quickly reversed.

Lambert invited me to make myself comfortable and have a seat at the roundtable that’s between their desks.

“Actually, we’re interviewing you today,” Stienecker quipped.

In between working out lunch plans with an assistant coach who was in the office, the two introduced themselves and asked if I was the Rivals.com writer, let me know about the coverage at Cincinnati and asked how long I had been in Madison.

“We’re rooting for you,” Stienecker said when I let him know I was still working my way through school. “Pat and I wouldn’t have gotten into school here.

"It’s too hard,” he jokingly added.

And just like that, a little over two minutes had gone by before even asking a question from the prepared list.

That excitement is how Stienecker and Lambert are day in and day out. With the two leading the way, it's what the recruiting department has come to embody in the three months since the coaching change was made at Wisconsin.