Inside the hiring of David Braun

Stewart Mandel, The Athletic's Editor in Chief, gave Northwestern a C+ grade for the hiring of David Braun in a recent article, writing that the hire was "an indictment of AD Derrick Gragg that he couldn't convince an established Power 5 head coach to go to a Big Ten program with deep pockets and modest expectations." It was "shortsighted," wrote the NU alum, and based on accomplishments Braun achieved "with someone else's roster and staff."

That story, the latest assessment to use a similar narrative, seemed to strike a nerve within the inner circle surrounding Northwestern Athletics. It prompted a source close to the coaching search to share intel and defend the process used to hire Braun.

The process outlined by the source was corroborated by a second person close to the hiring process. Both parties wished to remain anonymous.

The source paints a very different picture.

The Wildcats were in the midst of an extensive search with 12 candidates identified when Braun's extraordinary success on the field expedited his interview, said the source. Then, the coach's performance in the interview made him the obvious choice.

Northwestern organized a coaching search committee and hired a consulting firm back in September to select the coach who would take over for 17-year head coach Pat Fitzgerald, who was fired on July 10 as the result of a hazing scandal. Braun was named the interim head coach on July 14, four days after Fitzgerald was fired, but the committee intended to conduct an exhaustive search to make a permanent hire.

The committee established a timeline that called for a blitz of interviews starting on Nov. 13 and an announced hire on Nov. 27 -- or on Dec. 4, if the selected coach was involved in a conference championship game. The timeline was still being followed in late October and into early November, as the committee presented a lengthy list of candidates to athletic director Dr. Derrick Gragg.

Braun, meanwhile, was far exceeding expectations with a team that finished 1-11 the year before and suffered 11 player defections (six decommitments and five transfers). By the end of October, after a surprising 33-27 upset of Maryland, the Wildcats were 4-4 and in bowl contention. He was a serious candidate for the job from the start, said the source, but his candidacy was picking up steam with every win.

Gragg had several meetings with the team shortly after on October 31, asking questions and gathering information from members of each class, and the players lobbied heavily for Braun. They made it clear that they wanted the former North Dakota State defensive coordinator as their coach, even though this was his first FBS experience, his first head coaching job at any level, and he had been in Evanston for less than a year.

The following week, Northwestern took the eventual Big Ten West-champion Iowa Hawkeyes to the wire in a 10-7 loss at Wrigley Field, despite playing without starting quarterback Ben Bryant. The Wildcats played with an intensity the source said struck the committee as the team's best level of play since the 2020 season, when the Wildcats won the West and finished 10th in the final AP poll.

Then, Northwestern went into Madison and dominated Wisconsin, 24-10, on Nov. 11. The committee realized Braun was in the midst of a Big Ten Coach of the Year campaign. Not only was he excelling on the field, with the team at 5-5, but he had "done so while displaying the qualities and character that are foundational to anyone leading our program," said the source.

Braun was originally scheduled for an interview the week of Thanksgiving to give him time to play out as much of the season as possible. But the team's performance on the field put the process into hyperdrive and he was interviewed after the win at Wisconsin.

"The 'We want Braun!' chant in the locker room after Wisconsin was deafening," Gragg said in the press conference for Braun's promotion. "We want Braun, also."

Braun, said the source, "blew everyone away with his insights, as well as his strategy and plans for the program. It was clear that he was our guy."

Contrary to Mandel's take on the situation, the source said that the Wildcats did not hire Braun without strong competition for the job. Northwestern had identified 12 candidates at the time with interest in the role, several of whom had success at the Power Five level. While all 12 had not scheduled an interview, there had been no rejections from that group before Braun's hire, as was reported in the media. Jim O'Donnell of the Daily Herald claimed that "a long football line" of coaches had turned the Wildcats down.

In the press conference after Braun's hiring, Gragg credited Glenn Sugiyama, a senior partner at DHR International Search, for assembling those candidates.

"He scoured the country to bring us some of the best candidates for this position," Gragg said before introducing Braun as the new coach. "A lot of people were interested, but we landed in the right spot."

Even with its high academic standards, Northwestern had a very strong pitch to incoming coaches with a $270-million, state-of-the-art lakeside practice facility, a new $800 million stadium on the way and status as a charter member of the Big Ten, one of the two premier conferences in the nation.

Northwestern officially announced Braun's hiring on Nov. 15. The search committee was rewarded by its accelerated process, as the Wildcats won their final three games, including the Las Vegas Bowl, and Braun was named the conference's coach of the year.

Mandel's other criticism was that Braun won with Fitzgerald's staff and roster, despite the fact that a substantial chunk of the same roster and staff had gone 1-11 the season before. The source said that there are frustrations about the lack of credit given to Braun for his success last season, as other parties pushed the same narrative that Mandel espoused.

It's true that Fitzgerald made some key moves that helped the team last season. He recruited Bryant out of the portal, and the quarterback piloted the Wildcats to a 6-3 record when healthy, including a season-ending four-game winning streak once he returned from a shoulder injury. Fitzgerald also hired Braun, who transformed the defense, as well as four other assistant coaches who were successful in their first seasons and are still on the staff.

It's telling, however, that Braun parted ways with four holdovers from Fitzgerald's staff after the season: offensive coordinator Mike Bajakian, offensive line coach Kurt Anderson, assistant head coach/safeties coach Matt MacPherson and tight ends/special teams coach Jeff Genyk. Strength and conditioning director Jay Hooten was also dismissed.

Currently, defensive coordinator Tim McGarigle is the only assistant on Braun's staff who coached a game with Fitzgerald.

Braun's inherited roster was also without four NFL players, including first-round pick OL Peter Skoronski, who all played on the 2022 team and were selected in the 2023 NFL Draft.

Mandel responded on X, saying that had Northwestern hired Dave Clawson, a veteran coach from Wake Forest, and retained Braun as defensive coordinator, it would have earned an A+ grade, instead of a C+.

Not only would a DC offer have been an insult to Braun after the work he did with the team, but Clawson went 4-8 last season, winning half of the number of games that Braun did, and in a lesser league. In effect, the Wildcats would have pushed a reigning coach of the year out the door in a search for stability, when the program is already set to be playing its next two seasons without a home stadium.

There are still questions about Braun's ability to recruit and build a staff, but he's earned the right to develop on the job and is off to a strong start in both fields.

Northwestern's Class of 2025, Braun's first true effort from scratch, currently has three commitments and ranks 36th in the nation, reflecting a recruiting operation that, per the first source, has been "reimagined." New hires have come in from other programs, like Ean Deno, the director of scouting, from North Dakota State; and Luke Walerius, the general manager for roster development and retention, from Memphis.

Braun also pulled off a coup when he hired Harlon Barnett, a 20-year coaching veteran, part of Nick Saban and Mark Dantonio's coaching trees, and the interim coach at Michigan State last season, to be the assistant head coach and defensive backs coach. Zach Lujan is a promising young offensive coordinator from South Dakota State, where he foiled Braun's North Dakota State team twice on the way to a 2022 FCS national championship and went back-to-back with a 2023 title while Braun was at Northwestern.

These are the right steps toward a rebuild, though the road ahead is daunting. The Wildcats still haven't announced where they will play their home games the next two seasons, making them de facto road warriors. They also will play an increasingly difficult conference schedule as the Big Ten expands to add USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington, and divisional play is eliminated.

Braun doesn't have a lifetime deal. The contract reportedly runs for the next four seasons at an affordable figure. If he can't replicate the success he found in his inaugural season in Evanston, Northwestern could buy him out at a reasonable price, with one or two years remaining, and relaunch a similar search with a new stadium set to come online.

But, for now, those conversations are far away. Braun has passed the test of his first season with flying colors and the program's future is bright for the first time since the end of the 2020 season.