MORE ON LAUSCH: Jack Lausch to start at quarterback vs. Eastern Illinois
EVANSTON-If we learned one thing about Northwestern head coach David Braun on Monday, it’s that he’s open to change. And once he makes his mind up, he moves quickly.
About 60 hours after Northwestern’s offense stumbled through a 26-20 double-overtime loss to Duke on Friday night, and 59 hours after he gave his quarterback a vote of confidence after the game, Braun announced at his weekly press conference that he was replacing starting quarterback Mike Wright with Jack Lausch.
After watching film, evaluating Wright's play and discussing it with offensive coordinator Zach Lujan, Braun made the decision to bench the grad transfer quarterback with 16 career starts in favor of the redshirt sophomore who will make his first.
According to Braun, the stunningly swift swap was all about protecting the football.
"For us to be at our best, we need to win the turnover margin...,” he said. “At the quarterback position, you have the ball in your hand every play, your responsibility is to protect and value the football.”
Wright won the quarterback battle over Lausch in camp in what Braun described as a very close competition. But the former Mississippi State and Vanderbilt QB struggled with turnovers and negative plays in the first two weeks. He threw an interception against Duke that turned into the Blue Devils’ only touchdown during regulation, and he lost two fumbled snaps against Miami (Ohio) in a season-opening win, including one on the goal line.
Yet, after the Duke game on Friday night, Braun defended Wright’s play.
"Mike did some good things tonight but he needs to improve," he said. "When we made our decision, we knew we were going to ride with Mike. We're constantly evaluating everyone on this team but we're rolling with Mike right now."
That roll didn’t turn out to be very long. With the weekend to assess game film and an FCS opponent in Eastern Illinois up next, Braun chose to make a change, sooner rather than later.
He walked the media through why his mindset changed so drastically.
"Let me boldly state this: I am highly competitive and emotionally intense," he said. "I know that and those can be great qualities but also need to guard yourself against that. I do not like making decisions when I'm in an emotional state so the statements I made on Friday night, I stand behind in that moment.
"I wasn't going to speak to those types of decisions when I hadn't had the chance to look at the film and evaluate where we are. I think the decision that we're going with is in the best interest of our football team.”
Wright and Lausch have similar skill sets as dual-threats that trend towards the run. Wright is by far the more experienced signal caller, with more than four times as many passing yards through the first two weeks of this season as Lausch has in his career.
So what is Braun looking for from Lausch that Wright hasn't been able to bring to the table?
"Be assignment-sound, executing the offense and valuing the football," Braun said. "That's going to be the ultimate charge for Jack to lead this group."
Wright had three turnovers in his first two starts at Northwestern. In addition to the interception he threw against Duke, errant passes on a few other plays hit Blue Devil defenders in the hands and could easily have been picked off, too.
The Wildcats’ struggles on offense, however, go beyond just quarterback play as the unit gets accustomed to Lujan and his system. There have been some play calls that have drawn fans’ criticism too.
Northwestern made a change at offensive coordinator after four years of Mike Bajakian's low-scoring attacks. The Wildcats averaged 22 points per game to finish 106th nationally in his final season in 2023.
So far, Lujan’s results have been disappointing. The Wildcats average just 16.5 points per game, ranking 119th in college football, and that's with an overtime touchdown. In regulation, the Wildcats' 13 points per game would be 127th. They are one of just five teams in the country who have yet to throw a touchdown pass.
Still, Braun is confident in his new partnership with his 29-year-old coordinator. The decision to start Lausch was not a unilateral one from Braun, but rather a product of a “collaborative conversation.” The two of them, he says, are in “complete alignment.”
"I'm incredibly confident in the direction that we're going [offensively]," Braun said. "It's the same conversation I had with our team this morning.
“As competitors, we get so tied into the performance, the result and you ride this wave where when things are going well it's sunshine and roses, and when things aren't, you hit the panic button...”
Braun said areas where he's seen tangible improvement have been in the running game, where Northwestern is averaging nearly 40 more yards per game than they did last year with a nearly identical backfield and four returning players across the offensive line. He credited Wright for getting the ball out on time, and the combination of his speed and pass protection has led to zero sacks so far, a huge improvement from last season, when NU allowed 51 sacks, third-most in the nation.
Braun added that all three coordinators – Lujan on offense, Tim McGarigle on defense and Paul Creighton on special teams – have a “low-ego, high-output” style that he wants to embrace.
"[They] take ownership and evaluate everything," he said. "I'm excited about the foundation and the trend… At the end of the day, need to execute at a higher level. We need to turn moving the ball into points and eliminate self-inflicted wounds that put us behind the chains."
Northwestern's success with grad transfer quarterbacks in the past, like Peyton Ramsey or Ben Bryant, has been one-and-done; both played one year and then moved on. Braun was clear he is making this decision to try and give his team the best chance to win right now, but it's hard not to look down the road at the possibilities if Lausch pans out.
As a redshirt sophomore, this may be earlier than Lausch projected to get his first starting shot, but the upside is real. The local fan favorite was a late addition to the 2022 recruiting class from Chicago (Ill.) Brother Rice, turning down a preferred walkon opportunity to play both football and baseball at Notre Dame to play football on scholarship at Northwestern. His only other football scholarship offer was from Indiana State.
He has carved out a role for himself as a run-first quarterback the last two years, appearing in nine games last season. For his career, he is just 6-for-11 for 78 yards passing, with one interception, but he also has 24 carries for 76 yards and a 46-yard touchdown run on the ground.
"The growth I've seen out of Jack Lausch throughout last fall, but specifically from January on, has been something that leads us to have a lot of optimism for not only this week, but for our future," Braun said.
If Lausch puts all his tools together, in the best-case scenario, he could start the next 30-plus games for the Wildcats and provide the stability Northwestern has been desperately searching for after starting a transfer for their season opener the past six seasons.
"He's a smart kid who is creative and competitive with the physical tools to be successful," Lujan said in fall camp. "His ceiling is as high as he takes it...I'm excited to keep working with him not just this fall, but the next few years moving forward."
