Sources: Wildcats DC Braun to be interim coach

Northwestern defensive coordinator David Braun has been tabbed as the college’s interim head coach for the 2023 season, sources advised ESPN.

Braun will function the interim coach within the aftermath of the firing of coach Pat Fitzgerald amid allegations of hazing within the Northwestern program.

Northwestern employed Braun to be the college’s defensive coordinator in January, which implies he arrived after the hazing investigation was already initiated. Braun got here from North Dakota State, the place he gained FCS Coordinator of the Yr in 2021. Throughout his 4 seasons at North Dakota State, Braun served because the coordinator and defensive playcaller on two nationwide championship staffs.

Braun’s first activity will likely be preserving the Northwestern roster, as many gamers and fogeys are upset on the dealing with of Fitzgerald’s departure. The Northwestern gamers have a window of practically 4 extra weeks wherein they will switch with out penalty.

In a crew assembly earlier this week, the Northwestern gamers expressed to president Michael Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg that they needed readability on this system’s future and continuity within the teaching workers.

Braun had been basically working as the top coach since Fitzgerald’s firing on Monday. Gamers had expressed within the crew assembly that naming him the interim coach would assist give them a few of the readability and continuity they had been in search of transferring ahead.

Braun arrived at Northwestern within the wake of Northwestern’s 1-11 season in 2022, as the college fired defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil as a part of a workers shake-up.

It will mark Braun’s first season in FBS soccer, as he has labored at NDSU, Northern Iowa, UC Davis, Winona State and Culver-Stockton.