Six thoughts on David Braun as Northwestern's new interim head coach

Three days after firing head coach Pat Fitzgerald on Monday, Northwestern named an interim head coach to take over its beleaguered football program.

Defensive coordinator David Braun, who came to Northwestern from North Dakota State in January, will lead the program for the 2023 season. He was appointed the "liaison" of the program on Monday, when Fitzgerald was fired, but now will take the top job.

At least Braun will have a staff: the program announced on Tuesday that all of the team's assistant coaches would be retained for the season. He’ll have to add just one.

If you aren't very familiar with Braun, you're not alone. He's only been in Evanston for six months and has yet to coach his first game at Northwestern, or in the FBS.

Here is some background on the man who was picked to fill the extra-large shoes of Fitzgerald:

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MORE ON NORTHWESTERN'S NEW INTERIM HEAD COACH:

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The following are six thoughts on the naming of Braun to be the Cats' interim head coach:

1. It was the right move. Northwestern briefly considered going outside of the program to find an experienced interim coach, but eventually they came back and hired someone within the building.

President Dr. Michael Schill and athletic director Dr. Derrick Gragg had to move quickly. After getting their world turned upside down with the firing of the iconic Fitzgerald on Monday, the players will be comforted to know they at least know their new boss.

Promoting Braun from inside the program was the correct move. Normally, a team would just promote the associate head coach in a situation like this, and the Wildcats have one in safeties coach Matt MacPherson. But the fact that MacPherson was an assistant during the entire of Fitzgerald's tenure made that just about impossible; they couldn't hire a product of the same culture that they are trying to overturn.

Going outside to pick up an unemployed coach with some experience never felt right, either. Former Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst was floated as a possibility, but it's hard to believe he'd jump at the chance to coach as an interim in place of his buddy Fitz, with a new staff, the odor of scandal still in the air and the season starting in less than two months. Not to mention the fact that Fitzgerald is now suing the school for wrongful termination.

2. Players like him. We've heard nothing but positive things about Braun since his arrival from players. It's important to at least be likable when you're replacing the most beloved sports figure in school history.

I interviewed Braun for the first time in March, after a spring practice. He's an easygoing, personable and engaging guy. He's young and energetic, and he patiently stayed after practice for quite a while answer a barrage of questions. He seemed to enjoy it -- and that's important because he's going to be in the media's zoom lens from now on.

Braun has a chance to bring together a team that just had its heart ripped out. He's like an uncle taking over for a dad. It will take some getting used to, but at least there will be a familiar face in charge.

He doesn't have to be another dynamic personality like Fitzgerald. He just needs to be himself.

3. He'll bring a sense of normalcy again. The last five days has been a tumultuous rollercoaster ride for this Wildcat team. Their head coach went from a two-week suspension to terminated in three days. They found out that Fitzgerald was let go by the media, along with everybody else, due to poor communication from the administration.

Then, for the last three days, they didn't have a head coach at all, just a liaison -- and no one was sure exactly what that meant.

Sources say the players were hoping that Braun would get the interim job. The long-term future, after the 2023 season, is still up in the air. But at least the short-term feels secure.

Now, they can get back to preparing for fall camp. And with Braun in charge, they know what that will look like and feel like. They know the coach and the coach knows them.

Things won't be completely normal until they put on pads again, but at least now they know who their leader is.

4. He'd better be a quick study. Put yourself in Braun's shoes for a moment. He just got to NU six months ago, hired to be the new defensive coordinator. It's his first job in FBS football, let alone the Power Five. He's never been a head coach before.

Now he's leading a Big Ten program.

Braun is going to be drinking out of a firehose this season. The Xs-and-Os will be easy; he knows those. But now he'll have to be the CEO, lead staff meetings, lead team meetings, give team speeches, meet with the media, all on a daily basis. He'll have to learn the rest of the Big Ten and the myriad political aspects of being a major college football coach on the fly.

It's a dream come true for Braun. The pay is much better, too. He's been preparing for it his whole life. But it's all coming far quicker than he thought it would.

His first major event as Northwestern's head coach will be Big Ten Media Days, where, on July 26 in Indianapolis, the media will be all over him like he's Taylor Swift. His goal: survival.

5. The bar is low. One advantage that Braun has here is that expectations for the Wildcats are as low as they've been in decades.

Lost in the drama of Fitzgerald's firing is that he went 4-20 over the last two years. Last season, the Cats finished 1-11, their worst season in 33 years, and own an 11-game losing streak, the longest in the nation. The media is sure to pick Northwestern to finish last in the Big Ten West.

Braun can use that to his advantage. Historically, Northwestern teams don't like anything more than being the underdog. They'll be exactly that for all but maybe two games this season, against UTEP and Howard.

So the pressure to win won't be there. Maybe he can bring the team together with an us-against-the-world mentality and pull off a surprise. And let's be honest here: all he has to do is win two games to improve on last season.

6. This reminds us of when Fitz got the job. Obviously, we're glad that it's not a direct comparison to how Fitzgerald took over the program, but it is a very similar situation to when Fitzgerald, who was just a linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator, suddenly shouldered the program's mantle in 2006, after Walker's tragic passing.

Fitz took over on July 7, Braun on July 13. They were both in their 30s and following in the footsteps of popular coaches after a stunning turn of events.

Braun, who is in his late 30's, is older and more experienced than Fitzgerald was when he took over at age 31, and he at least has been a coordinator for four years. Fitzgerald, though, had the advantage of familiarity with the school at which he played and spent five years as an assistant.

Braun has to face the additional challenge of rapidly learning the ropes in a ferocious conference landscape and becoming the leader of the program he was supposed to be learning about himself in his first season.

Fitzgerald had a bumpy first year, going 4-8. If Braun is able to win four games, the season would probably be considered a success.