Northwestern's football coaching staff shakeup isn't over quite yet.

Cornerbacks coach Ryan Smith is leaving Northwestern to take the same job with the Arizona Cardinals, according to a tweet from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler on Wednesday.

Smith spent just one year at Northwestern, coming over from Virginia Tech after the 2021 season. Now, he's on his way to the NFL, where he'll work on the staff of new Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon.

The job opening means that Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald will have to hire his fourth new assistant coach since the end of the 2022 season. This one, however, comes as a surprise; the other three replacements were the result of their predecessors getting fired.

Defensive coordinator Jim O'Neil, defensive line coach Marty Long and wide receivers coach Dennis Springer were all relieved of their duties after a bitterly disappointing 1-11 2022 season that ended with an 11-game losing streak.

Fitzgerald replaced them with David Braun from North Dakota State, Christian Smith from South Dakota State and Armon Binns from Youngstown State, respectively.

Now, Fitzgerald will have to hire a new cornerbacks coach, too. The timing isn't great, with spring practice right around the corner.

Smith was hired in January of 2022 to fill the spot created by the retirement of tight ends coach Bob Heffner. Smith has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the coaching ranks -- he was coaching at the FCS level as recently as 2019 before spending two seasons at Virginia Tech and one at Northwestern. Now he’s at the sport’s highest level.

It will be interesting to see if Fitzgerald and Braun again go to the FCS ranks to find Smith's replacement. All three newcomers to NU's staff -- Braun, Smith and Binns -- came from that level.