Inside the hiring of David Braun

[mshelton33]

Inside the hiring of David Braun

A source close to Northwestern's search committee details how David Braun earned his promotion to permanent head coach.

northwestern.rivals.com

After commentary from The Athletic's Editor in Chief, Stewart Mandel, around the hiring of Northwestern head coach David Braun struck a nerve in the inner circle surrounding Northwestern Athletics, a source came forward with insight into the process of Northwestern's coaching search that ultimately ended with the promotion of Braun to full-time coach. A second source familiar with the hiring process was able to corroborate the process described by the first source close to the search.

This article takes you behind the scenes of the timeline of Braun's hiring in the context of the search, and evaluates the analysis by Mandel and others who have published similar narratives since Braun's promotion.

 

[NUChicago]

Maybe Glenn Sugiyama can start looking for a new AD.

 

[NUCat320]

Jim O’Donnell made stuff up? Shocking!

Thanks for the reporting for us freeloaders, @mshelton33.

 

[phatcat]

I like our guy.

 

[zeek55]

The biggest factor was performance.

He took a 1-11 team to 8-5.

Yes. It was a team put together by Fitz, but Braun had them playing hard for himself.

He was hired after 5 wins.

Either way the move was beyond obvious to give him a couple years at the helm and see what happens.

No reason to go out and find an outsider when you have a year of proof that that this guy can get the job done here.

Whether it works out, only time will tell..., but I have a hard time seeing this as a C+ hire unless you were just looking for the biggest name.

 

[Eurocat]

Excellent article. Thank you.

I am 100% for the Braun hire and said that many times as the season went on. So don't take what I am about to write too seriously,... I was and remain a big big "Hire Braun he's earned it" guy.

But damn it would have been incredible to snag Bob Stoops, what with him having a house on the North Shore of Chicago and all (from what I have read, pretty close to Evanston). LOL. Oh man that would have set the college football world on fire. ESPN would not have shut up for two weeks. It would have been nuts.

But as I said above, don't take my nonsense seriously, I'm just a dumb fan, we are lucky to have coach Braun.

Go coach Braun and go cats!

Thanks again, really good article!

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Jim O’Donnell made stuff up? Shocking!

Thanks for the reporting for us freeloaders, @mshelton33.

Not so sure about that. Read the comments on the Rock. A lot of semantics in these phrases.

 

[NUCat320]

@mshelton33 , your article reads as if someone in NU’s office proactively contacted you to get this story out. Is that a correct read?


I was definitely hesitant to see Braun get the nod, and I even now would have preferred an “offensive-minded veteran head coach with Braun as named successor” situation.

That said, a good coach is a good coach, and a good leader is a good leader. Just because Braun has never had “Dave Clawson success” or “Mike Elko success” makes sense, because he hasn’t had the opportunity. And, frankly, does anyone look at Wake effing Forest as something to aspire to? Fitz’s peak was better than either of those dudes, and I expect Braun’s to be as well.

The “remove the tag” night was pretty amazing, and speaks to his ability to rally and connect. Last season was a remarkable coaching job, and the future looks bright.

If only the program hadn’t neglected the quarterback position and the concept of fielding a good offense for a decade 🤷‍♂️😂

Thanks again, @mshelton33. Great work.

 

[CatManTrue]

Inside the hiring of David Braun

A source close to Northwestern's search committee details how David Braun earned his promotion to permanent head coach.

northwestern.rivals.com

After commentary from The Athletic's Editor in Chief, Stewart Mandel, around the hiring of Northwestern head coach David Braun struck a nerve in the inner circle surrounding Northwestern Athletics, a source came forward with insight into the process of Northwestern's coaching search that ultimately ended with the promotion of Braun to full-time coach. A second source familiar with the hiring process was able to corroborate the process described by the first source close to the search.

This article takes you behind the scenes of the timeline of Braun's hiring in the context of the search, and evaluates the analysis by Mandel and others who have published similar narratives since Braun's promotion.

Stewart Mandel gets an F- for his take.

Braun impressed from his opening press conference, rallied the team from a very difficult situation, and absolutely earned his B1G COTY award.

He was the obvious and correct choice. Gragg made the right call. And the team responded as such.

Now, if Nick Saban retired from Alabama to come to Evanston… I could have been talked into Braun as a DC.