David Braun, the interim head football coach at Northwestern, knows and understands that there is an uphill battle for his program this season. Complicating matters is that Braun, who has never been a head coach, opens the season in five weeks at Rutgers football.
Speaking at Big Ten Media Days on Wednesday, neither Rutgers or the season opener was mentioned by Braun or the media during his press conference. Northwestern, embroiled in the fallout of a hazing scandal that took down head coach Pat Fitzgerald, was picked to finish last by the media in the Big Ten’s West division.
Braun has had to address the team, doing so against the backdrop of what is a huge scandal in college football. Asked about his message to the team in the wake of the firing of Fitzgerald, the message from Braun has been one of unity.
Braun was hired two weeks ago to be Northwestern’s head coach.
“The first thing I told them was my responsibility moving forward to give them clarity and direction. My intent was to be there to support and serve them moving forward,” Braun told reporters.
“I challenged the group. A lot of people have been impacted by decisions made, by the 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. I’ve challenged them with that, and I can say that they have responded to that challenge in an absolutely inspiring fashion.”
Last season, Northwestern went 1-11, a rare down year for a program that had been overall consistent under Fitzgerald. In 17 seasons under their previous head coach, the Wildcats had 10 bowl game appearances and won five of them.
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Braun was hired by Northwestern in January to be their defensive coordinator. Prior to that, he was the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State.
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