On Monday, ahead of Northwestern football’s contest against Louisiana-Monroe, head coach David Braun spoke to the media for his weekly availability. Here’s what he had to say.
Note: This transcript has
been edited for clarity and length.
Opening statement: “Excited to be back into prep. Opportunity for all of us to learn a lot from Saturday. You know, first thing that we learned is we still have a lot of work to do, learn that we still need to develop a mentality and understanding of what it looks like to put teams away when you have them on the ropes. We also learned that our football team has a certain level of resiliency and toughness that’s required to win close games in the Big Ten. For us to go through that and close out the game the way we did is something that we’re really proud of. But there’s a lot of work left to be done. Coming back and being in meetings this morning, we have a hungry group that’s ready to get back at it this evening for our first practice and prep for the University of Louisiana-Monroe. We’ve got a really good football team coming in here. Coach Vincent has done a tremendous job these last two years. He inherited a program that was struggling at the time. Won five games last year. They’re off to a 3-1 start. Big win over Arkansas State. They’re going to run the ball effectively. They’re going to challenge you on the perimeter. Their quarterback is slippery in the pocket. Can extend plays. Can go off script and force you to defend things that aren’t actually right in front of you, but are going to find ways to stress you in the quarterback run game. In their wins, they found ways to play really good defense. They’re stout up front, good personnel. It’s very clear with our football team this morning that our focus needs to be on respecting, understanding our opponent and focusing on daily improvement. We’re going to have to be at our best on Saturday. Excited for homecoming, excited for the opportunity for us. We talk a lot within the program of having a certain level of reverence for those who have come before us and the things that this program has accomplished — things that those who have been fortunate enough to hold my position have accomplished over the years. I think the players feel the same way about an opportunity to honor our alumni and celebrate with them. Excited for Wildside to be back in full activation. I thought they were awesome on Saturday, and look forward to continuing to create a home-field advantage here on the Lakefront.”
On the impact of Northwestern’s defense making late-game stops: “It’s huge. I mean, ultimately, we understand we’ve got to do a better job defensively in the middle eight, specifically in the first half closing out. [UCLA’s] field goal late was something that we’ve got to eliminate. Those are things specifically as a defense, specifically as a D-line, like you want a group of guys that want that opportunity, game on the line, to go close out a game. And for our guys to have two drives there at the end of the game where we need some critical stops — the field goal kicker from UCLA that had all sorts of range. Our backs were up against the wall a little bit. And for us to come out and perform in those last two drives, the way that we got after the quarterback, should be a huge confidence booster for those guys on the defensive side of the ball. One thing that I’m proud of is our guys wanted the opportunity to go finish the game, whether it was on offense and being frustrated we didn’t finish with the first down and a drive at the end of the game, or defense wanting their opportunity to close out the game. We’ve got a group of guys that are excited to step into the fire. And should the game have been as close as it was at them? No, but did we find a way to close it out the right way we did, and really excited to see the way that the defense did on Saturday.”
On wide receiver Griffin Wilde’s transition from FCS to FBS football: “I think it’s one of those things, like you clearly acknowledge that you’re playing in the best league in all college football, but also an understanding that it’s still football. The thing that I’ve seen out of Griffin that I really appreciate is just the way that he operates throughout the offseason, spring ball, fall camp, his routine, his preparation and he’s just not cocky at all, but very internally competitive and confident in his ability. The level of trust that he’s built up with his entire offense and all his teammates, and specifically Preston Stone, is something that stands out. I know he’s not surprised in the way that he’s performing. There’s no one on this staff that is either. I mean, we see it every day in practice.
On whether Northwestern’s decreased play counts from Oregon to UCLA was intentional: “I wouldn’t say that there’s any conscious effort to slow down the tempo. I think ultimately, offensivly, we’re excited to continue to have opportunities to create more explosive plays that lead to a little bit shorter drives. But ultimately, in our formula, to play winning football starts with running the football. And when you’re effectively running the football and efficiently running the football, that sometimes can lead to longer drives and limited possession games. I think it’s a reflection of the effectiveness that we’re running the football with. I told Zach [Lujan] this, I told our staff this. You can get yourself into trouble as a coach when you try to find the perfect play to create explosives. Hunter Welcing’s screen play against UCLA, like huge play, really well thought out scheme, well-timed in terms of its call. But if you start just chasing explosives, you’re going to eventually get yourself behind the sticks and then get out of rhythm. Where we need to continue to grow as an offense is, it’s one more broken tackle. It’s just a little bit more strain on the backside to get one more block. The opportunities are out there, but there’s not a calculated measure in slowing down the game, but ultimately, the result of effectively running the ball and since and some sustained drives is leading to limited possession games. Which ultimately can help our defense. The thing our defense has to continue to embrace is, if there are limited possession games and limited rep counts on defense, we need to be playing really, really stingy defense.”
On the status of Damon Walters and Josh Fussell: “We’re really excited about where not only those two, but the entire team, is trending. Other than our long-term, surgical guys, we feel like we have an opportunity this week to be be back to full health. We’ll know more later this week on those two specifically, but excited about where the health of our football team is trending right now.”
On whether Northwestern has any redshirt players intended to transfer: “No, and I’ll be really honest with you, there’s so much hanging in the balance. I don’t envy young people right now in the landscape of college football, but roster sizes are shrinking. I know there’s still a lot of litigation out there, but something that needs to happen in the next nine months. We need to make this just very clear and concise for our young people. You have five years to play. Five years. This model of redshirt, it just it makes zero sense. In the conversations I’ve had with a lot of people over the course of the last year, [we’re] very optimistic that that’s where it’s going to land. But for head coaches and young people, to navigate this idea of redshirt, especially with rosters shrinking, just isn’t fair to our young student athletes. We’ve got a team right now that’s committed. The amount of young guys that we have contributing on special teams right now. You look at our kickoff team right now, and the amount of young guys that are out there contributing, having a huge impact — it’s huge, but we need those guys to win games, and we’ve been very transparent with our football team in terms of how we’re navigating managing a roster on this new landscape. But ultimately, the powers that be need to take that option just out of the equation, especially with rosters shrinking down to 105.”
On how Northwestern dealt with a mobile quarterback like Nico Iamaleava: “In terms of the design quarterback run game, I thought we did an outstanding job against it. The scramble, I forget what quarter it was, but it was the third-and-long. We bring pressure, don’t build the pocket the way that we’re supposed to and gave Nico an escape. With back-to-the-ball defense and man coverage, he turned it into explosive play, which doesn’t really come down to defending the run necessarily. I know it goes down the stats as run game, but the opening play was designed quarterback run — we fit it up really well. I thought overall the design quarterback run gamewe did a nice job against. We need to continue to really understand, we we’ve got dynamic bass rushers on this defense. We need to do a better job defensively of building the pocket together and keeping quarterbacks bottom-up.”
On the reason for safety Robert Fitzgerald’s success: “Gosh, there’s a lot of reasons. It’s his consistency. It’s the way that he prepares. Ever since Fitz arrived here, he’s one of the first people in and one of the last people out, frequently in that defensive back meeting room watching extra tape for himself and teaching other guys. If y really want to master something, you have to get to the point where you can truly teach it to your teammates. And Fitz is like an extension of the coaching staff on the field. He’s playing with a clear mind. He’s playing fast. Coach Barnett has done an incredible job with that room. I think Coach Barnett would be the first to tell you he’s essentially got an assistant position coach in Robert Fitzgerald in that room with them. But just Fitz should be really proud of himself in terms of the demeanor that he’s playing with, the consistency that he’s playing with. There’s no one in this program that reflects our values more than that young man, especially.”
On the injury status of Migo Jackson and Dylan Roberts (the latter is out for the season): “I won’t get into specifics on that, but we’re optimistic about Migo. Migo did an exceptional job in his abbreviated time in the spring, had a great summer, was having great a fall camp [but] got dinged up. More long term than you would like it to be, but very optimistic that we’ll get Migo back.”
On why Jack Olsen and Luke Akers both kicked field goals against UCLA: “We’re excited to get Niki [Dugandzic] back here, hopefully in handling our kickoffs. Really was great competition between between Jack and Luke in terms of our place kicking duties throughout fall camp and even as the season progressed. But the second that Nikki went down and wasn’t able to handle the kickoffs, it was not, ‘Luke not handling place-kicking well,’ it was just simply not wanting to put all three of those things on Luke.”
On quarterback Preston Stone’s progress from the Oregon to the UCLA game: “Coming back to the bye week, I challenged our staff, like, ‘who are we?’ We have to clearly define that. And as you go through that list of who we are on offense, one of those bullet points in there is, ‘we’ve got a winner at quarterback.‘ And Preston should be really proud of himself. He played, winning football. Huge, fourth down play completion to Griff, third-and-long completion — hat was a big play in the game. As simple as that opening drive, it unfortunately turns into a third-and-long situation. UCLA has it covered really well and Preston ultimately ends up taking a sack. But that’s a smart decision. You’re trying to close something that wasn’t there. And ultimately, we walked away with three points. There was a progression there in the fourth quarter where we were inside the five. We watched all three of these clips today as a team, but it was infuriating to watch that progression in terms of like, credit to UCLA for bowing up, but we got in our own way in terms of execution. We’re running power, and we’ve got one person running counter. Just take a breath, focus and execute. We need to finish those drives. We’ve got to do a better job of selling the play-fake, limiting the pressure that can get in Preston’s face immediately. We do a poor job of that. There’s immediate pressure, both inside and outside, and Preston, it should be a walking touchdown for Joe [Himon], and Preston makes the right decision — he throws it to Joe. Kid makes a great play, but Preston immediately goes after the ball, goes to bat it down. That’s winning football, and I’m really excited about how that progression is going. That young man is a winner. He doesn’t need to worry about , shouldering the burden of ‘go win games for us.’ There’s times that he will. You put that guy in third down situations, you put him in two-minute scenarios, you put him in critical situations like that. You know, when he does his best, he’s a flat-out winner, flat-out competitor, and you can see it. He takes a couple hits when he’s scrambling, he’s getting up, he’s fired up, he’s leaning on the sideline. He’s leaning in the huddle. Really excited about the progress that we’re seeing out of Preston.”
On whether Martes Lewis will have the starting spot at right tackle over Deuce McGuire after Lewis played the position against UCLA: “It’s one of those things that’s a day by day evaluation. It’s fun to talk about who’s the starter and what the plan is. But if we’re going to talk about one of our core values being competition, then every day is an open competition. If guys want to continue to hold a spot, they they’ve got to continue to perform at a level that’s reflective of being a starter in the Big Ten. And I’m really excited about a lot of the things that [Martes] is doing. But if Deuce McGuire was standing right here, ‘I’d say, hey man, keep competing, keep pushing.‘ That applies not just to that position. It applies to our entire football team. You know, you earn opportunities, and you earn opportunities. And you know one thing I know about Deuce McGuire, he’s going to keep pushing to make sure he’s ready when his opportunity comes.”
On creating receiving options for Preston Stone outside of Griffin Wilde: “It starts with us running the football, which we’ve effectively done. Hayden Eligon continues to elevate. Drew Wagner continues to elevate. I know the question is about passing game. We’ll get back to that. But Frank Covey is like busting his tail out there, straining to make blocks, playing winning football, blocking on the perimeter when the ball is in Joe [Himon’s] hands. Some of these guys have been dinged up throughout fall camp — excited about the health of our football team. Some of the best timing that we see out of Preston is with Giff, and ultimately, Griff has been the most consistent participant in practice throughout spring, summer and fall camp and throughout the season. Now, with guys being back a little bit longer, with Drew and Hayden, you hope that that starts to show up. That timing, that rhythm, starts to show up, not just with a couple wide receivers, but the entire group. We knew going into this season that there is going to be a wide receiver group that was unproven, that was going to have to continue to ascend as the season went along. And I’m excited to see some breakthrough for some of those guys, because there’s more in the tank out of that room than what we’re seeing right now.”
On whether Braun is satisfied with a 2-2 record: “I would love to be 4-0. Ultimately you can’t look in the rearview mirror, but I’d be the first one to tell you that coming out of the first three games, we had a group that was pretty edged up and pretty frustrated with the start of our season. We were excited to get our first Big Ten win on the year against UCLA. Not to be cliche, but it’s just the truth of the matter of who we have to be. We have to continue to focus on daily improvement. And that wasleading to weekly improvement. I thought our football team, coming off a bye week in UCLA, showed some improvement and showed some inconsistency in the way that we performed in the second half, but lot of learning opportunities from Saturday. And what I will say with conviction, is last season, we were not playing our best football at the end of the year, like that was evident to anyone that was watching our games. And this group has to have a mentality, and we have to deliver on it, of just consistent improvement. If we do that in late November and December into January, we’re going to talk about a team that can be talked about in a way that this group, just continued to improve. Not satisfied with where we’re at, but excited about the progress that we’re making.”
On where running back Caleb Komolafe has improved within the last year: “I mean, Komo has always been someone that has the ability to really stand out in run game, not only with his consistency to fall forward and pick up positive yards, but his explosiveness carrying the football. That’s thing that really stands out to me, that it has made dramatic jumps. His level of execution, the physicality of the execution, and just the trust that we all have in him is his pass protection. There’s a couple of pickups on Saturday that are not only impressive, but they’re physical. He’s finishing that young man has turned himself into a very well rounded back.”
On linebacker Brayden Brus’s performance: “Excited about Brus. There’s some, still some inconsistencies in his play that, he’s busting his butt to get cleaned up. But Brus is dynamic. He can run, he can pressure. That two minute drill that we close out on. He ends up on the ground, but he’s blitzing with his hair on fire, gets to the feet of the quarterback and finds a way to finish, along with Anto. That’s a young man that just continues to improve. If Brus was standing right here, the biggest piece of advice I’d give him is, ‘who are we at Northwestern? we are a smart, decisive football team. We lean into our intelligence and our preparation, and when it’s time to go play, we’re going to play decisively.’ And as he continues to get more and more reps, you see that decisiveness and conviction come out in his play that needs to continue to show up.”
On why Caleb Komolafe was running the ball more often than Joe Himon in their respective snaps against UCLA: “If you had a chance to sit in the offensive staff ring, you know at times I wear our offensive staff out. In terms of, just continuing to self-scout, continuing to study where we’re at, continuing to make sure that we’re not tipping our hand and just asking questions that make sure that we have a certain level of awareness. There’s a balance in that, though. Sometimes it’s okay to say, ‘You know what? the tendency when this guy’s in the game is, we’re running the football and, yeah, let’s go.’ And Joe, naturally, when he’s on the field there’s going to be more balancing with what what we’re doing offensively, because his skill set is so dynamic in terms of the different things that he can do, and something that we have to do a good job of offensivley is continuing to put him in those positions, but also get him back to neutral and comfortable. We’re asking a lot out of Joe on special teams. We’re asking a lot out of Joe in the run game protection, pass game, and you’re seeing some uncharacteristic things out of Joe — the drop that we see in the fourth quarter. That’s a catch that Joe makes 99 out of 100 times, and continuing just get him back to neutral, take a breath and put him in a position to be explosive. The play that we in see the second quarter, on a perimeter run play, that’s Joe Himon at his best. The thing that’s really exciting out of Joe’s game that I love to see is his consistency running in between the tackles for a fish-and-run game, and lowering his pads and finishing is something that, again, coming back to Komo , being a well rounded back — Joe’s proven that too. We have to track on the numbers, make sure we’re balanced, but also identify there’s gonna be some certain numbers that sway a certain way, and that’s something that we’ve got to be good with. It’s just identifying what our guys’ strengths are.”
On the value of Preston Stone’s ability to grow and take accountability: “I think there’s countless lessons from that. He’s probably having a lot of those lessons along the way that I’m not even observing. Just in terms of the way that he operates in the facility, interacts with our guys, tuning out the noise, focusing on what he can control. The most important stat line of any quarterback is your win-loss total. I think as we’ve done a better job as a staff of identifying who our team is, and making sure that there’s alignment throughout our entire program of what that’s supposed to look like, Preston just continues to thrive. He saw adversity. That first game that was an outlier. That wasn’t the Preston Stone that we see every day in practice. There’s a lot of guys across the country that would not have handled that the way that Preston did. They would have pointed fingers. They would have found excuses. They would have felt bad for themselves. I wish you could have seen Preston Stone the first Monday practice after that, just the way that he operates and that consistency. We talk about toughness. It’s both mental and physical. Cheerfully withstanding and attacking adversity, that’s the way that guy attacks adversity, like, ‘Hey, let’s go.‘ And he loves his teammates. His teammates love him. There’s a lot of lessons, not just in the game of football, but life, that we all can learn.”
On defensive back Ore Aredyi’s return from injury: “It all started with Ore’s attitude, with injury that he sustained last year — a lot of guys that would have never found a way to get back on the football field after something like that. His attitude from day one is like, ‘I’ll be back. I’ll be back better than ever.’ That attitude fueled him throughout this entire process. To have him back is something that, we don’t take for granted. We’re thrilled that he’s back. In terms of the on-field performance, I think you see two things. I think you see a competitor. I think you see a young man that made some critical plays in the past, game on shots down the field and one down in the tight zone. And then also someone that you can tell is still knocking a little bit of rust off, you know. His ceiling is still, how good can Ore get? Pretty excited about where he’s trending right now.”
