Braun shakes up staff with MacPherson dismissal and TE, OL coaching hires
In a flurry of long-awaited coaching staff moves, head coach David Braun is reported to have hired two coaches and parted ways with another within a half hour on Thursday evening. The end result is a staff with only one coach who has been in Evanston for more than one year.
The most momentous news came last: that associate head coach and safeties coach Matt MacPherson would not return to Evanston after 18 years on the the staff, reported Matt Fortuna of Inside Zone.
MacPherson, who served as associate head coach since 2018, was named in a hazing lawsuit prior to the season, the only assistant to be publicly identified. While Northwestern's safeties group was one of its strongest units in recent years, producing players like Brandon Joseph, Coco Azema, Rod Heard II and rising star Devin Turner, it is notable that the past two staffs have also included cornerbacks coaches Ryan Smith and LaMarcus Hicks working under MacPherson's role.
With MacPherson's removal, Tim McGarigle, who was promoted to defensive coordinator earlier this week, is the longest tenured coach in Evanston currently, having been on staff since 2018. There are no other position coaches on staff who have been at Northwestern before 2023.
Braun also hired Washington's Paul Creighton to serve as the Wildcats' new tight ends coach and special teams coordinator, replacing Jeff Genyk; and San Diego State's Bill O'Boyle as offensive line coach, replacing Kurt Anderson.
Creighton will be taking his first gig east of the Mississippi this spring, coming to Evanston from Washington, where he spent the last two seasons. He worked there for Kalen DeBoer, for whom he also coached tight ends at Fresno State in 2020 and 2021.
Before he was part of DeBoer's staff, he crossed paths with Braun during his tenure at UC-Davis from 2013-19. Braun was the defensive line coach there from 2015-16.
Creighton also served as the recruiting coordinator at UC-Davis his first three seasons, and then as the special teams coordinator the last three. While at Davis, Creighton recruited and coached Wes Preece, who was voted All-Big Sky for three years and set a school record for touchdowns as a tight end.
Creighton's hire was first reported by 247Sports' Matt Zenitz.
O'Boyle comes to Northwestern by way of San Diego State, where he was hired as offensive line coach and run game coordinator but has yet to coach a game for new head coach Sean Lewis. He was previously at Colorado, where he had served as offensive line coach for head coach Deion Sanders this past season.
O'Boyle followed Lewis, who was the offensive coordinator at Colorado in 2023, in both of those instances. O'Boyle also coached for Lewis at Kent State from 2018-22, so this will be his first role apart from Lewis since 2017.
O'Boyle has a long history in the Midwest, having coached for the Flashes for five seasons, at Southern Illinois from 2013-15 and at Western Illinois from 1990-93. He's a seasoned operator with more than 30 years of coaching the offensive line under his belt.
He didn't share a staff with Braun like Creighton did, but their paths crossed in the Missouri Valley Conference in 2017, when O'Boyle coached South Dakota's offensive line and Braun coached Northern Iowa's defensive line.
After the flurry of changes, Northwestern's staff has taken two steps forward and one step back in terms of reaching its full compliment.
With the promotion of McGarigle to defensive coordinator and the dismissal of MacPherson, the Wildcats now have openings at linebackers and safeties coach. Braun also has the opportunity to add an associate head coach moniker to one of his assistant's titles.
DJ Vokolek, who served as a floating defensive assistant this season, will be on Braun's staff, according to Adam Rittenberg. He will likely take McGarigle's former linebackers job.
Braun said during his Bear Bryant Coach of the Year Finalist press conference on Wednesday that he expects his staff to have taken shape within the next week, with one decision "may extend a little bit further than that."