I’m starting to feel it a little bit.
The Big Ten is hosting its media days this week in Las Vegas, and Inside NU is welcoming the three-day festivities like the first twinge of fall air signifying the start of football season.
Northwestern is slated to address the media on Wednesday, the second day of the event. Head coach David Braun will give his opening statement from 1:45 pm - 2:00pm CT, take questions on his own from 2:30 - 3:15 CT and join quarterback Preston Stone, running back Joseph Himon
II and edge Anto Saka at the podium from 4:15 - 4:45 CT. The press conference will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network, and Inside NU will publish a transcript of Braun’s comments on Wednesday afternoon.
Northwestern already made some (minor) news ahead of Wednesday with the announcement that Stone would be among the student-athletes representing the ‘Cats in Las Vegas. He is the first Northwestern quarterback to appear at Big Ten media days since Clayton Thorson back in 2018. Braun’s unwillingness to announce a starting quarterback at last year’s event was perhaps the biggest takeaway from his comments, and his decision to bring Stone along to Las Vegas is all but an official announcement that the SMU transfer will start Week One.
There should be a lot more stories to follow from Northwestern’s 90+ minutes at the podium on Wednesday — from open-to-interpretation quotes from Braun concerning ongoing position battles to the ever-evolving impacts of the House settlement.
Unfortunately, internship schedules are preventing Inside NU from covering media day in person, but we will still be posting coverage and analysis of the three press conferences throughout the week.
Here’s what we’re looking out for ahead of Big Ten media days:
What’s the deal with Jack Lausch?
Lausch’s future with the team as he spends his summer playing baseball for the Williamsport Crosscutters of the MLB Draft League has been perhaps the biggest unknown for Wildcat fans thus far in the offseason. Last year’s starting quarterback joined the Northwestern baseball team as a center fielder this spring, and while he still participated in some spring practices with the football team, his duties in the outfield were his first priority. Given that Braun brought in another quarterback in Gavin Frakes through the portal and Lausch appears to have spent more time with the Crosscutters than the Wildcats through June and July, it is not unreasonable to suspect that No. 12 will not be with the team in 2025.
He may not even be No. 12 anymore — true freshman quarterback Marcus Romain was sporting Lausch’s number in a clip posted by Northwestern football on X last Friday. Braun will undoubtedly be asked about his former QB1, and I suspect that his answer will provide a little more clarity on the 2025 Wildcat quarterback room.
The situation behind Stone does deserve some genuine attention. Virginia transfer quarterback Frakes looks like the next man up behind Lausch, but he hasn’t played a snap of collegiate football since transferring out of New Mexico State after his freshman season in 2022. Redshirt freshman Ryan Boe is an option as well after making his debut against Illinois last December. Yet however inconsistent Lausch was in his 10 games at the helm in 2024, Northwestern will be better off if he sticks around with the football team for at least one more season.
It also bears mentioning that the Dallas native does have an injury history, suffering a broken collarbone that ended his season after just one half in 2022 and a broken leg in game 12 of the 2023 season. Neither scream red flags — Stone was able to start in Week One for SMU last August even after suffering that leg injury in November — but it’s good business to run through the war games.
As an aside, I’ve been thinking of Braun’s move to play Boe alongside Lausch against Illinois in the light of Lausch’s apparent switch to baseball. Boe, a true freshman at the time, threw 13 passes against Illinois and was the man under center in a series of big moments, including a redzone possession with his ‘Cats looking to get within a score in the third quarter. Braun has a history deploying the two-quarterback strategy in the past, bringing in Ryan Hilinski for select possessions against Purdue in 2024 and UTEP in 2023, so it was easy to write off Boe’s snaps as a quirk in the the third-year head coach’s play calling. Now, I’m thinking he may have known that Lausch was trending towards the MLB Draft and wanted to see what he had with Boe in a game situation before the end of the year.
Position battles
I’m not expecting Braun to brandish a laminated depth chart in Las Vegas. He consistently does not like to give explicit information regarding summer competitions, even after they’ve been decided internally (see two years of starting quarterback announcements the morning of the season opener). Last year at media day, Braun gave an all-time coach-ism when asked about the current quarterback situation with the quote, “The best will play. If that’s Jack, it’s Jack. If it’s Mike [Wright], it’s Mike. If it’s Ryan [Hilinski], it’s Ryan.”
It was never going to be Ryan, though I do appreciate the commitment to the bit.
In addition to the non-answer at quarterback, Braun declined to name starters for open slots at nickel cornerback, Mike linebacker and center. However, he did name-drop the guys that had stood out, including Mac Uihlein and Brayden Brus at the Mike spot (UIhlein started Week One), Robert Fitzgerald and Braden Turner at nickel (both featured there throughout 2024) and Jackson Carsello and Jack Bailey at center (Bailey, then Carsello after he got hurt).
To list the position battles that immediately come to mind:
- Frank Covey IV, Ricky Ahumaraeze and Hayden Eligon II for the second wide receiver spot on the outside. Add in Chase Farrell and Drew Wagner competing for first-team reps in the slot, though one of that first group could nab work in there as well.
- Alex Lines, Hunter Welcing, Camp Magee and Chris Petrucci for what looks to be a wide-open competition for reps at tight end.
- Fred Davis II and Ore Adeyi duking it out for the second cornerback spot beside Josh Fussell.
- Transfer linebackers Jack Sadowsky V and Yanni Karlaftis sparring to be the second linebacker behind Mac Uihlein. Sadowsky and Karlaftis are both guys who can excel on the outside — Karlaftis has experience as an edge rusher, and Sadowsky featured in just about every role imaginable in his two years at Iowa State.
Revenue-sharing clarity
Back at spring practice in April, Braun derided the lack of clarity the Northwestern athletic department had received from the NCAA regarding the House settlement — specifically, roster limits that would force him to cut at least eleven players by the Tulane game. The settlement has been reworked since then to offer protections to any student-athletes who would lose roster spots due to the new guidelines, but the work is far from over.
I’m very curious what insights Braun can give on Northwestern’s revenue sharing strategy. I’m not expecting him to give too many details — I’d say there is a 0% chance we get exact percentages of how much football will be receiving of the rev-share pot — but any insights into Northwestern’s approach will be interesting. One question I hope is asked: is Northwestern committing to spending the entirety of the allocated $20.5 million cap? The answer should be an unequivocal yes — Northwestern would be an embarrassing outlier in Power Four athletics if it is not — and there is no reason to expect anything otherwise. Though you never know.
As we’ve covered this summer, House should be an advantage for the ‘Cats. Northwestern’s piece of the Big Ten TV deal gives it an immediate boost over any school outside of the Big Ten and the SEC. The Wildcat football program does not generate as much revenue on its own as its conference counterparts, but the hope for Northwestern fans has to be that a formal cap — and more regulation of third-party NIL deals — levels the playing field.
And as Fox Sports’ Colin Cowherd put it crassly yesterday, “Big Ten money is Hollywood, tech and financial centers. A lot of car dealerships in the SEC and car dealerships are running on razor-thin margins.”
I’d also like to hear Braun speak to the impact of roster limits on future recruiting. Northwestern had an estimated 116 guys on its roster in the spring, eleven over the limit of 105. Those last eleven names were undoubtedly submitted to the NCAA as Designated Student-Athletes (DSA) by the July 6 deadline in order to take advantage of the “grandfather” exception that prevents student-athletes from losing their scholarships due to the settlement. That DSA exemption will stay with those eleven athletes for the duration of their NU careers. However, that protected status doesn’t eliminate a roster cap in 2026 — it just raises the number from 105 to 116, assuming none of the DSA list graduate or transfer.
The cap is a headache for recruiting, especially since Braun can’t know the exact number of players who will transfer out at the conclusion of the 2025 season. My guess is that coaches will offer less scholarships than usual to high school recruits until the portal opens and they get a better sense of their roster situations. Again, would love to hear what Braun has to say about all of it.
“Scheduling strategically”
Northwestern’s non-conference schedule for the next two seasons is a good bit harder than many of its Big Ten peers. Tulane went 9-3 in 2024, and the Green Wave roster looks a whole lot more intimidating with the news that former BYU starting quarterback Jake Retzlaff will be joining the team as a walk-on. Retzlaff threw for 2,947 yards and 20 touchdowns with the Cougars last season, and he added 417 yards and six more scores on the ground. I’d say he beats out Brendan Sullivan for the starting job.
Wildcat Report’s Matthews Shelton has been trumpeting the strength of schedule point all summer, and he dug up the stat that the only other Big Ten squad traveling to play a Group of Five opponent who won nine or more games last season is UCLA, who is playing UNLV in Las Vegas in September.
Northwestern is also welcoming Deion Sanders and Colorado to Evanston to begin the 2026 season, and the ‘Cats scheduled FCS powerhouse South Dakota State a year from now as well. In case there are those out there unfamiliar with the Jackrabbit program, SDSU has won three of the last five FCS national championships. Eastern Illinois, Northwestern’s FCS opponent from last year, went 3-9 in 2024.
That Colorado game makes a troubling amount of sense. My worry here is that the Northwestern athletic department is prioritizing revenue over wins by inviting the nationally-relevant Buffaloes what should be the first game at the new Ryan Field. There appears to be little strategic value to schools like Northwestern in scheduling non-conference opponents like CU, who went 8-4 in 2024. Strength of schedule is not a consideration for bowl games, and the ‘Cats are likely not fighting for playoff spots in the near future.
And even if they are, look at Indiana. This jacked-up non-conference slate is not the norm as schools like IU work to cake-ify their schedules. The Hoosiers recently canceled home-and-home series against Louisville and Virginia in the name of, as athletic director Scott Dolson put it to the Indy Star, “scheduling strategically.” IU will face a gauntlet of Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State in 2025, which boast a combined record of 11-25 in 2024. Indiana State plays in the FCS.
Northwestern’s Big Ten schedule this season includes two playoff teams from a year ago in Penn State and Oregon, road games at USC and Nebraska and a home contest against Michigan. Per college football writer Phil Steele, that ranks as the 23rd-hardest schedule in all of college football.
There is no reason for that.
Braun is not scheduling games, and he doesn’t seem like the type of guy to run from the grind, per se. But the third-year head coach is a competitor. Northwestern’s non-conference schedule is not putting the ‘Cats in the best position to compete for bowl games and/or playoff spots, and I’m sure Braun has some strong feelings.
More from insidenu.com:
- Northwestern Undrafted Free Agent Tracker: Austin Carr agrees to deal with the New England Patriots
- Anthony Walker Jr. drafted in the fifth round by the Indianapolis Colts
- Ifeadi Odenigbo drafted in seventh round by the Minnesota Vikings
- Northwestern basketball lands Boston College transfer A.J. Turner
- Collins, Fitzgerald extensions signal lofty goals for Northwestern
- Pat Fitzgerald agrees to new contract, will stay at Northwestern through 2026
- Chris Collins, Northwestern agree to “lengthy” contract extension
