N’western’s Braun chosen for school’s ‘wellbeing’
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Adam Rittenberg, ESPN Senior Writer
EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern promoted David Braun to its permanent football head coach in large part because of how he supported players after a tumultuous summer that put the team’s culture under intense scrutiny.
Braun, 38, was introduced as coach Thursday at the school’s indoor practice field, before many current players who applauded the man who has helped them to a 5-5 record as interim coach. Northwestern selected Braun, who joined the staff as defensive coordinator under former coach Pat Fitzgerald in January, and was named interim coach July 14, four days after the school fired Fitzgerald in the wake of hazing allegations within the program.
“I have been very clear that at Northwestern the well-being of our students comes first,” university president Michael Schill said. “It is only by prioritizing our students’ health, safety and well-being that we can enable excellence on the field, excellence in the classroom, that we can encourage the personal and intellectual growth that is fundamental to our mission as one of the greatest universities in the world. Anyone who has heard or talked with Coach Braun knows that he embodies these principles in just a short time since arriving at Northwestern.”
Schill said he met with Braun several times during the past few months and came away impressed with the coach’s commitment to the athletes. Northwestern is facing lawsuits from more than a dozen former football players, alleging hazing and other mistreatment while in the program. The university commissioned former U.S Attorney General Loretta Lynch to conduct reviews of the athletic department’s culture and its accountability mechanisms, which likely won’t be complete until 2024. After firing Fitzgerald, Schill said the football program’s culture, “while incredible in some ways, was broken in others” by hazing activities. No current or former players have been identified in any of the lawsuits filed.
Braun had quickly gained popularity among the players, many of whom took to social media after last week’s win at Wisconsin and used the hashtag #removethetag, referring to the interim tag. Northwestern has more victories this season than in the past two combined, and needs to win one of its last two games to get bowl-eligible for the first time since finishing No. 10 nationally in 2020.
After connecting well with North Dakota State’s players as defensive coordinator from 2019 to 2022, Braun said he didn’t know what type of locker room he would enter at Northwestern.
“I immediately was blown away with the quality of young men that make up this program,” Braun said. “The relationships that you know you’ve allowed us to build is something that that I absolutely cherish. I’ll be very clear: The opportunity that exists for our family only exists because of you guys. Your willingness to buy in and galvanize and come together in really embody what this football program is all about.”
Braun, who had never worked at a power conference program before Northwestern, thanked those who led the school’s coaching search for their “willingness to see beyond maybe what a résumé says.” He wants Northwestern to “double-down” on becoming one of the nation’s top developmental programs, and emphasized the need to retain players, amid a landscape where the transfer portal and name, image and likeness carry increased importance.
Although Braun was eager to resume his preparation for Saturday’s game against Purdue, he addressed his vision for Northwestern’s future.
“The Big Ten is evolving, college football is evolving, so you better know who you are,” Braun said. “You better know who you are as a university, you better know who you are as an athletic department, you better know who we are as a football program. We will prioritize the student-athlete experience. In every decision we make, the question will be asked: How does this affect the young men that are part of our program?”
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Pete Thamel
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Eli Lederman
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Eli Lederman
ESPN Staff Writer
- Eli Lederman covers college football and recruiting for ESPN.com. He joined ESPN in 2024 after covering the University of Oklahoma for Sellout Crowd and the Tulsa World.
Julian Lewis, the No. 2 player and quarterback in the 2025 class, decommitted from USC on Sunday, sources told ESPN, sealing a seismic development for one of the nation’s top prospects in the closing weeks of the recruiting cycle.
Lewis’ decommitment, which had been expected, comes the day after the 6-foot-1, 195-pound quarterback took an unofficial visit to Georgia for the game against Tennessee. He also visited Colorado on Oct. 26 and expressed interest in Indiana throughout his recruitment.
The plan remains for Lewis to commit in the upcoming weeks and enroll early in school, according to sources. He’s the top uncommitted player in the class of 2025 and his choice looms as one of the biggest stories of the early signing period with Colorado, Georgia and Indiana expected to contend for his signature before the signing period opens Dec. 4.
Sources also told ESPN on Sunday that four-star Texas A&M quarterback pledge Husan Longstreet, No. 47 in the 2025 ESPN 300, has flipped his pledge to USC in the wake of Lewis’ departure from the Trojans’ incoming class.
USC quarterbacks coach Luke Huard attended Longstreet’s playoff game at Corona Centennial High School in California on Friday night, and ESPN’s No. 4 pocket passer visited the Trojans during their game against Nebraska on Saturday.
Lewis had been verbally committed to the Trojans since Aug. 22, 2023. Yet questions had swirled over his recruitment from the summer into the fall and all the way through to his decommitment from USC on Sunday.
Lewis’ move marks the latest blow to a USC class that has now lost six commitments from the 2025 ESPN 300 in this cycle.
That list of high-profile departures from Lincoln Riley’s incoming class includes five-star defenders Justus Terry and Isaiah Gibson, and Lewis’ exit stands as USC’s third recruiting loss in the past seven days following the flips of defensive lineman Hayden Lowe (Miami) and cornerback Shamar Arnoux (Auburn).
The Trojans sat ninth in ESPN’s latest class rankings for the 2025 cycle prior to Lewis’ decommitment.
With the move, Lewis instantly regains status as the one of nation’s most sought-after uncommitted prospects. He first entered that realm in 2022 when he burst onto the national scene with 4,118 yards and 48 touchdowns while leading Carrollton to the Georgia 7A state title game in his freshman season.
That debut campaign earned Lewis a place as the No. 1 prospect in the 2026 class before he reclassified into the 2025 cycle earlier this year, several months after his commitment to USC last August.
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