Head coach David Braun wasn’t sugarcoating anything when he took the podium for the first time this fall at the Walter Athletics Center on Wednesday.
“You can’t spray perfume on a 4-8 season,” Braun said, reflecting on 2024. “It just stinks.”
Braun has his share of cliches, like any football coach, but he’s at his best behind the mic when he’s blunt. He’s been open and accountable all offseason about the disappointment of last season and the aggressive goals for the future.
“Everything that does or does not happen in this program ultimately comes back to me…” he said. “My natural personality is to motivate, lift up and pat people on the back, tell them they’re doing a great job.
“But if that’s not the truth, that’s not serving our team well. I think I’ve done a much better job of holding the entire program accountable. If we want to talk about Big Ten championships, the CFP, we have to evaluate daily if the way we’re operating aligns with that.”
Braun compliments quarterback, depth on offensive line
Braun was impressed by his staff’s work in identifying, acquiring, and now integrating a record number of 14 transfers into the program.
“It’s easy to evaluate the skillset, the holes in your roster, but our staff hit a home run in terms of character evaluation,” he said. “That entire group has done a great job of buying into what Northwestern is all about.”
He continued to laud transfer quarterback Preston Stone and his ability to process a new offense and make decisions, and highlighted the increased depth on the offensive line.
Though Braun would only confirm Caleb Tiernan as the starting left tackle, it was evident how much more confident he feels about the team up front than he did last season. The unit is bolstered this year by incoming guard Evan Beerntsen from South Dakota State, tackle Xavior Gray from Liberty and a healthy Jack Bailey.
“The fun part about this team right now, specifically O-line, there’s open competition…” Braun said. “That starting five, every practice, is changing. There’s truly competitive depth in that room…when you can walk off the practice field and start to feel like you have eight guys that can play a full game in the Big Ten? Then you can start to ask yourself, how do we get that to nine? Or to 10?
“There are plenty of guys in that room right now that have no clue whether or not they’ll be the first one running out against Tulane. Competition is good for everybody.”
Challenge has been extended to unproven wide receivers
In equal measure, Braun continued to challenge his inexperienced wide receivers room. He even defined Griffin Wilde, the team’s prohibitive WR1 who racked up 1,154 yards and nine touchdowns for South Dakota State in 2024, as a player with something to prove as he makes the jump from FCS to the Power Four.
“I’m excited about that room but we are unproven,” Braun said. “Griffin was extremely productive at the FCS level but is unproven in the Big Ten, at this level.”
Other than Wilde, the top returning receiver is Frank Covey IV, with 10 catches for 98 yards last season.
“The thing I love about that group is they know that,” Braun said. “They wear that, they go play with a chip on their shoulder and compete.”
Braun lauds new coaches Thompson, Olson
Northwestern retained most of its key coaching staff, save for one departure: running backs coach Chris Foster to Duke. Braun was very complimentary of Foster’s time at Northwestern but embraced the challenge of finding his replacement.
Based on early reviews of Aristotle Thompson, who was hired away from Cal, Braun thinks he turned adversity into an upgrade.
“When Chris made a decision to leave for Duke, and we supported him in that, he was a coach that was beloved by this team and in that [running backs] room,” Braun said. “I told the running backs, the challenge I’m putting myself to is that…Chris set the bar really, really high, but can we find someone better?
“From the feedback in our room and my observations, Coach Thompson is delivering on that, which is high praise considering the light I hold Chris Foster in.”
The Wildcats, like many teams across the Big Ten and Power Four have hired a legion of assistants as the NCAA has relaxed rules on how many coaches can be on the sideline during games. One of their key hires in that group is Ryan Olson, the offensive coordinator for South Dakota State last season, to come in as assistant offensive line coach and run-game specialist. Olson works closely with existing offensive line coach Bill O’Boyle.
“They work together really, really well…” Braun said. “I felt convicted we needed to move to more of an NFL model in how we coached that [offensive line] room. The old model was an O-line coach and then a GA that’s a younger guy trying to figure out the profession…
“Bill O’Boyle is our expert in fundamentals, technique, film review…Ryan is our run-game specialist. He works with scheme, X’s and O’s, leverages, trade-shift-motions that we can use to create advantage box structure for run game.”
Braun added that Olson can give the team depth off the field, too, getting out on the recruiting trail while O’Boyle is coaching players during spring ball.
“[That two-coach model] is new here at Northwestern,” Braun said. “Ryan and Bill’s willingness to just check their ego at the door and get to work, I’ve been really impressed.”
