Northwestern fans are just getting to know David Braun.
The new interim head coach has been thrust into perhaps the most difficult job in all of college football this season. He takes the helm of a team that went 1-11 last season, fired its beloved head coach and is mired in a very public and messy hazing scandal that just keeps generating headlines.
But according to Tom Sawyer, the man who recruited, coached and eventually gave Braun his first job in college football, Braun has the mentality to handle everything thrown at him this season. He says that Braun is a likable and easygoing personality, someone who had the demeanor of a coach when he was a player.
“The David Braun you talk to at a Northwestern football practice is the same David Braun I talked to when he was 16 years old,” Sawyer said.
Sawyer spent more than two decades turning Winona (Minn.) State into a Division II powerhouse on the banks of the Mississippi River (seriously, the Mark Twain parallels are everywhere). Before he retired in 2021, Sawyer ranked second among active DII coaches with 197 career wins.
Sawyer gave Braun his first job in college football as a graduate assistant at Winona State in 2008, just after he graduated as a team captain.
Braun said last spring that Sawyer taught him what it means to be a coach and mentor.
“Tom cared about winning and the development of his football team, but more importantly he cared about the young men in his locker room,” said Braun. “For him to be my first boss was an opportunity for me to see what that kind of leadership was all about.”
Braun was never supposed to be in this position. He was hired to be Northwestern’s defensive coordinator with the goal of helping the Wildcats rediscover the defense that flustered Justin Fields and Ohio State in the Big Ten title game, and was the foundation of wins over Utah and Auburn in bowl games.
But, to put it lightly, things have changed.
Sawyer’s perspective inspires confidence that Braun can help Northwestern move forward after a hazing scandal consumed the football program and cost head coach Pat Fitzgerald his job.
“There are a lot of people who put on a hat and a whistle and think they’re a coach,” Sawyer said. “David was never that way.”
Braun first appeared on the radar for most people when he took the job in January. He was a rare example of an outside-the-box coaching hire by Northwestern, and was someone few fans were familiar with.
The highlight of Braun’s resume was his work as the defensive coordinator at North Dakota State, where he helped the Bison win a pair of FCS national championships in 2019 and 2021.
Dig a little deeper into Braun’s success with NDSU - he was named the 2021 FCS Coordinator of the Year – and you start to find that all roads lead back to a 3,000-seat stadium in Winona, Minn. That’s where Braun played for Sawyer and another football coach who would change his life.
North Dakota State head coach Matt Entz spent eight seasons as the defensive coordinator at Winona State.
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“Something Coach Sawyer and Coach Entz modeled for me was that we were going to push our guys, hold them accountable and be hard on them,” Braun said. “But at the end of the day we were also going to get to know them, know their story and find ways to pour into them.”
The successful partnership between Braun and Entz was about more than just football, according to Sawyer.
“Matt can be intense, but Dave has this internal competitiveness even though he’s a little softer on the outside. It was a really good mix,” Sawyer said. “That was also Matt’s first full-time job, and now he had this guy in David Braun who was like another coach on the field.”
During his press conference at Big Ten Football Media Days, Braun pointed out that, as a student-athlete, playing football in the Big Ten “never became a reality” for him. But as a two-time all-conference defensive lineman, he certainly made an impact at Winona State. Braun helped the Warriors win the Northern Sun Conference in 2004, 2005 and 2007.
“I don't know if Dave has an enemy. He's just one of those guys that’s likable,” said Sawyer. “He was Matt’s right-hand man as a player, so the transition to coaching didn’t feel any different. Dave probably just didn’t hurt as much after practice."
Ultimately, it was that connection with Entz that landed Braun his first FCS coordinator role. When Chris Klieman left North Dakota State for the Kansas State job in 2019, Entz was promoted from his role as defensive coordinator to become the program’s next head coach.
Entz needed someone to fill his old role, so he called Braun, who was coaching special teams and outside linebackers at Missouri Valley Conference-rival Northern Iowa.
Entz wasn’t just asking him to become his defensive coordinator, but to help North Dakota State defend back-to-back FCS national championships and the nation’s longest winning streak. During Braun’s first season in Fargo, the Bison didn’t lose a game.
“The level of expectation that existed there was incredibly challenging,” Braun said. “But it was also an opportunity for me to sit in a room and ask how we’re doing things, while keeping things as consistent for our players as we could.”
The circumstances in Evanston could not be more different for a program that has lost 20 of its last 24 games over the last two years.
The expectations on the field are drastically different, and in the wake of a program scandal, they are just as different off the field. The media scrutiny that Braun and Northwestern finds themselves under has generated more coverage in a matter of days than Braun had in five years with the Bison.
Northwestern's first open fall practice on Wednesday drew throngs of media. While Braun and his players handled reporters’ questions well, the story of the day became the T-shirts worn by some Northwestern staff members, with “Cats Against the World” printed above the number “51,” Fitzgerald’s old jersey number.
Braun defended it as free speech. His boss, athletic director Derrick Gragg, called it "inappropriate, offensive and tone deaf." Social media had a field day.
It became the latest example in a string of controversies that have dogged the program over the last month, and that Braun will have to deal with as he tries to prepare the team for the season opener at Rutgers on Sept. 3.
But Sawyer thinks that Northwestern might have found exactly the right football coach to help the program navigate the challenging season ahead.
“Of course, it's bigger pressure when Ohio State comes rolling into town. But the X's and O's, the work week and the daily grind, that doesn't matter. Whether you're 0-10 or 10-0, I think Dave is going to put the same pressure on himself,” Sawyer said. “No matter what they're writing about him...he's going to give it everything he's got.”
