INDIANAPOLIS -- Until January, the day Pat Fitzgerald called to ask if he might be interested in becoming the new defensive coordinator for Northwestern’s struggling program, the closest David Braun had gotten to Big Ten football was sitting in the stands at Camp Randall Stadium “and cheering on the Badgers,” he admitted Wednesday morning, just 109 days before he’ll coach against them on that field.
Braun dreamed of playing in the Big Ten. Instead, he was a Division II defensive lineman at Winona State, a State that’s not a state, as Jim Valvano would have said. Through 15 years in Division II, NAIA, and the NCAA FCS level, he dreamed of coaching in the Big Ten. And now he is.
And it’s so hard to call this a dream come true.
He became a Power 5 head coach in one of the few ways that do not involve a celebratory press conference. Braun was placed in charge of Northwestern football on an interim basis July 14, after Fitzgerald was fired because a hazing scandal inside the program had been revealed. It doesn’t seem at all unfair to suggest Braun was chosen because he’d only been in the program six months.
MORE: Northwestern finds its scapegoat in Pat Fitzgerald
He now must deal with some odd dichotomies and contradictions. The Wildcats will report to training camp next week, not even a month after seeing their head coach dismissed. “I can say with conviction there are many individuals that wish that Coach Fitz was still their head coach,” Braun said.
He expressed, on multiple occasions, a passionate belief in the character of his players. When asked about the best way to repair the national reputation of Northwestern football, he answered that the best way is to “put our players on full display. Anyone that has had the opportunity to meet the young men that are part of Northwestern football would know they are men of character, integrity, toughness, grit, highly intellectual, selfless individuals that are awesome.”
And yet it’s possible that some among them were involved in the hazing that has been alleged.
And, above even this, Braun has had to navigate the delicate balance between allowing players to process their anger or disappointment over any hazing that might have occurred and the subsequent dismissal of Fitzgerald with preparation for a season that opens Sept. 3 at Rutgers.
“I’m open to suggestions,” Braun told the Sporting News. “I think first off and foremost, our guys just need to know that they’re supported. Yes, it is absolutely critical that we prepare ourselves to go beat Rutgers. But we have no chance of doing that if our guys just don’t feel supported right now.
“And at some point over the course of fall camp, whether that be report date or Aug. 15 or Aug. 24, at some point there needs to be a very clear line of: Guys, we’ve been through a lot, but it’s time to put it in the rearview mirror, and it’s time to go win football games.”
Transitioning from chaos to football
In something as chaotic as this scandal, in which abhorrent behaviors have been alleged but few if any perpetrators identified, the attempt to stage a football season might seem inconsequential. There are players in that program, though, who might have been among the victims or were not involved.
And there appears to be a strong motivation among them to move forward as Northwestern Wildcats, because every one has the capacity to transfer and play immediately at another Division I institution because their head coach was dismissed. That gives them an exemption from the closure of the transfer portal. And only two players to date have left.
“The first thing I told them was my responsibility moving forward is to give them clarity and direction,” Braun said. “My intent was to be there to support them and serve them moving forward.
“I challenged the group. A lot of people have been impacted by decisions that have been made over the course of the last couple weeks, and our guys right now in that facility are going through a lot.
“We have an opportunity to either run from that or an opportunity to truly stare that adversity in the face, stare it down and go attack this opportunity to make this fall an incredible story that truly embodies what this team is all about.”
Braun said the players have responded in an “inspiring fashion.” That does not make this one of those Hollywood sports movies, where the action inevitably starts operating in slow motion, the winner gets carried off the field and the opponent reluctantly acknowledges they’ve become fans of their conquerors.
What is reported to have happened is indefensible, and entirely unnecessary. Joshua Perry was a linebacker at Ohio State when the Buckeyes won the 2014 College Football Playoff and said that the closest thing to hazing was to “tell a guy to bring your pads in after practice.” And that’s why he was stunned to hear the allegations that emerged from Northwestern.
“I didn’t think those things existed anymore in locker rooms,” Perry, now a college football analyst for NBC Sports, told TSN. “One thing that has happened in locker rooms, and you understand why, a lot of coaches want to give their players space. But you have to go ahead and assure that the space that’s given, they’re doing the right thing with it.
“I think that’s why a lot of people were taken aback, because there’s been such an emphasis on hazing. You sit in compliance meetings, and they talk about it. And I think as a younger generation, too, there are a lot of people that are more conscious about how their behaviors affect other people. So obviously this is a really difficult situation for a lot of people that were involved in many different ways, and I hope everybody’s able to reconcile in the way that’s best for them.”
Big Ten celebrates; Northwestern does not
The atmosphere at the opening Big Ten Media Day was celebratory for most everyone, with television analysts Joel Klatt of Fox Sports, Gary Danielson of CBS and Todd Blackledge of NBC introducing themselves from the podium at the start of the day’s events and driving home what had seemed impressive on paper when the conference announced its new media rights deal a little less than a year ago: Folks, there’s going to be Big Ten football on TV from noon to midnight and everywhere in between, with prime games on those three channels as well as the Big Ten Network, FS1 and streaming on Peacock.
It is not that way with Northwestern. The players selected a while back to represent the Wildcats at Lucas Oil Stadium – Bryce Gallagher, Rod Heard II and Bryce Kirtz – posted a statement to social media Tuesday announcing they would not attend. “This was very difficult, since we were excited about the opportunity to participate in this great Big Ten tradition, and to talk about the game we love and the season ahead.” They rightly guessed they would be discussing hazing more than the Tampa-2 defense.
Braun spoke with the media for 45 minutes and fielded very few actual football questions in that time. He was not empowered to talk about the allegations; the presence of several active lawsuits prohibited that, even if he’d been so inclined.
There was much to discuss, obviously, about what comes next after becoming a big-time college football coach in the worst way.
He declared, emphatically, that “hazing has no place” in the sport. He has had one-on-one conversations with the vast majority of current Northwestern players since accepting the promotion. He has sought advice from his former boss, two-time FCS champion coach Matt Entz. He has leaned on the counsel of his wife, Kristin, who is due to give birth to the couple’s third child in the next couple weeks.
Braun joked that prior to arriving at Lucas Oil for Wednesday’s event he was thinking it might be ideal “if Kristin could go into labor at 8 a.m.” He was not so lucky.
He insists Northwestern’s team goals will remain the same: winning the Big Ten West division and returning here, to Lucas Oil, for the Big Ten Championship game. His most emphatic message, though, was he wants the players in the program to find “the student-athlete experience” beneficial.
“I hope when I look back on this 20 years from now,” Braun said, “I’m proud of the way that we went about this.”
