Northwestern isn’t your typical powerhouse school.
Despite being one of the Big Ten’s original members, the football program has yet to make a national championship game and has only ended in the AP Poll Top 10 twice since 1950. But the Wildcats are building for more.
“Why can’t this program be achieving on the field while still staying true to our non-negotiables?” head coach David Braun said following the Wildcats’ win over Central Michigan in the GameAbove Sports Bowl.
Braun pointed to programs like
Indiana and Vanderbilt as examples of how success can be achieved on the football field while still not compromising values off the field, such as academics and, most importantly, culture.
Despite finishing things off in a satisfying way by beating the brakes off of Central Michigan, 34-7, for a win in the GameAbove Sports Bowl on Dec. 26, NU’s season was rarely a steady one. In fact, the ‘Cats began their year in despair after an intriguing matchup at Tulane to open the season turned into a bloodbath.
On a hot, humid August day in New Orleans, the Wildcats looked completely outmatched against the Green Wave. Four interceptions from transfer quarterback Preston Stone and 23 points given up by the defense were enough to quell any sense of hope from much of the fanbase about this “new-look Northwestern.”
Two weeks later, and the ‘Cats sat at 1-2 with only a win over FCS Western Illinois. But just like the 2023 Northwestern team that shocked the fanbase and mustered an eight-win season, Braun worked his magic. After a pair of wins over UCLA and Louisiana-Monroe, NU pulled off what then seemed impossible and snatched a win over Penn State in Happy Valley. And after another shutout win over Purdue in NU’s final true home game, the ‘Cats found themselves at 5-2 and in the top half of the Big Ten.
The entire season wasn’t perfect, of course. After riding the high of a four-game win streak, the Wildcats ran into another wall. Last-minute losses to Nebraska and Michigan sandwiched a tough road defeat against USC that could’ve easily gone the other way as well. But Northwestern persevered nonetheless, securing its bowl eligibility at last with a 15-point comeback win over Minnesota.
And on top of everything, for a team that few expected would make a bowl game at the start of the season, the ‘Cats had to navigate and overcome some devastating injuries. Just two games into the year, star running back and team captain Cam Porter was knocked out of the game with a leg injury and was ruled out for the season after the game. It was a huge blow to the morale of a team still searching for its identity.
But Northwestern was unfazed.
In the current era of NIL for college sports, roster turnover has been the biggest apparent change, with an influx of players entering the transfer portal every year, and as a result, opting out of bowl games for their former teams.
For a Northwestern team coming off a 6-6 year but with plenty of talent on both sides of the ball, it would have been unsurprising to see a few opt-outs from some big-profile names coming out of Evanston. But the ‘Cats had none.
“In the day and age that we’re in in college football, a lot of guys in that situation would’ve made a decision to opt out,” Braun said after the game, commending his players for staying with the team through bowl season. “It shows how much they care about their teammates. It shows how much this program means to them that they were fully committed to finishing this thing off, finishing what they started, and sending our seniors out on top.”
Ahead of the matchup against Central Michigan at Ford Field, Braun and Northwestern stressed the focus of the game being on sending the seniors off on a high note. Braun praised his veteran group, explaining that their legacy would “have ripple effects for years to come.”
For players and families alike, getting one final chance to play in purple and white trumped all, whether it was for that season or forever.
“There was never any talk of sitting out the bowl game for Caleb [Tiernan],” said Tiernan’s mother Annie, whose son is ranked among the top offensive tackles in the upcoming NFL Draft class. “He knew he wanted to finish this ride with all the guys.”
Across the locker room and among parents and family members, the sentiment appeared to be the same; the team loved playing with one another. And the spectacle of more upfront money or new opportunities wasn’t enough to tear this group apart.
“It’s an unbelievably special group. I’m very grateful to have played with them,“ said Stone.
In Braun’s third season, one thing has become abundantly clear: Northwestern football has formed a culture that prioritizes winning, of course. But it also doesn’t forget the importance of team chemistry, and thus values its players and team makeup just as much as the box score.
Northwestern has entered a brand-new era.
Athletic director Mark Jackson, Braun and the Wildcats have joined fronts and appear to be orchestrating an offensive overhaul. Just in the early days of this offseason, NU has already brought one big-name hire, Chip Kelly, as offensive coordinator. It also added Texas’ Tim Drevno as offensive line coach and UCLA’s Jerry Neuheisel as quarterbacks coach.
Throughout the ups and downs of Northwestern’s season this fall, Braun remained adamant that it was a team and program that he was confident could compete for a Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff spot. From his teary-eyed reaction following a last-second loss to Michigan to his jubilation following NU’s bowl game win, Braun was insistent that he had set his sights on something bigger.
“If we’re going to pursue winning Big Ten Championships, it’s my job to make sure the actions of our program align with that,” Braun said during a press conference following the official announcement of Kelly’s hire.
Still, Braun hasn’t opted for winning at the expense of the culture he had set out to build from the beginning of his tenure in Evanston. The head coach emphasized sticking to core values like maintaining high GPAs, alignment between coaches and players on and off the field and ultimately, fostering an environment under which his roster truly enjoys playing. So far, that initiative has been successful.
“This has been one of the best years of my life. I couldn’t be more grateful for the ways these guys have welcomed me,” Stone said postgame as he began to tear up. “I was only here for a year, but these are going to be my brothers for the rest of my life.”
Braun has embodied Northwestern’s adaptation to a brand-new landscape in the college football world, helping push forward with gutsy hires and searching to fast-track the Wildcats’ rebuild to contention by getting ahead of the NIL curve.
But Braun won’t do it at the cost of losing what has made his teams successful throughout his coaching career. College football might never be what it once was, but the constant drive to improve and be better will never go away for a coach like David Braun and the ‘Cats.
“You’re not out to prove other people wrong, but to prove yourself right,” Braun said.
