Column: Last year, David Braun answered for Northwestern. Now, it's his program and all that comes with it

INDIANAPOLIS - My, how much difference does a year make?

Last year, David Braun was named the interim head coach after Pat Fitzgerald was fired. He stood at the podium in Indianapolis as the lone representative of a fractured football program that was hanging drearily from a broken athletic department.

Then, there was no support in a critical moment where he was the long representative the public eye answering questions and he spoke out of his depth, but that’s not too surprising. He was six months removed from moving to Northwestern as its defensive coordinator and weeks from being given the interim title.

On Tuesday, he stood at the same podium and talked about reflections. Now, the reigning Big Ten Coach of the Year spoke of how he’s assumed leadership in an athlete department that hung him out to dry and a football program that is unequivocally his.

We are in the David Braun era. 

This was an era that started, with a lack of a better term, horribly, but has shown the promise of what it could be last season. There’s still plenty more to prove, but Braun has earned the chance to show he can provide Northwestern with the kind of leadership it needs.

When Braun speaks, he’s more than likely going to talk about the student athletes. At the podium, he was asked what a David Braun-led team looked like, and he retorted saying this isn’t his team. It’s all of Northwestern football’s team.

In my sit down with him after his table session, where Braun clearly had a much better time this year than last, he spoke of the community that’s accepted him. He talked about the lessons he learned as a first-year head coach in the Big Ten and what excites him about the future.

I asked what he’s learned from the past year, and to talk about a measure he’s taken to ensure another scandal like the putrid hazing scandal never happens again. Braun, in a way, sidestepped the question.

"I think in my experience that I've had since I've been in Northwestern, I've identified so many incredible qualities of what our institution stands for, what our program stands for," Braun told me. "So many things that drew me to Northwestern were a lot of those same things I viewed Northwestern as, and that’s the type of program that I want to be a part of."

I’m going to be honest, that kind of response doesn’t instill much confidence. In the course of a year that scandal, while Braun had nothing to do it as one of the newest faces on the staff, is still being felt today. There needs to be something happening at the university.

While I may have wanted more in that moment, what Braun said next does tell me he understands the gravity of the situation and the nature of where the program.

He took full responsibility for the program.

"What I'll say is, at the end of the day in my role, it's my job and responsibility to ensure that our student athlete experience is as good as it gets in the country," Braun said.

Braun took this job when, frankly, he didn’t need to. Being thrust in a position where success is not expected and with little support would rub plenty of people the wrong way. Braun chose Evanston once as a defensive coordinator for the opportunity, and he found passion in Evanston as NU’s head coach.

"We believe in what this place stands for, we believe in what this program has stood for a long, long, long, long time in terms of prioritizing young men that want to play in the Big Ten," Braun said. "But also, they value earning a Northwestern degree and having an incredible experience and creating an incredible network for the rest of their life."

He mentioned it multiple times throughout the day: the successes belong to the players, and the failures rest on his shoulders first and foremost. This is how he understands it.

Right now, at Northwestern, there’s no place where failures can rest. NU’s director of athletics, Derrick Gragg, was given a different position within NU’s athletic department. 

The future of NU athletics remains to be seen. That’s not too new, though. It’s been that way since last year.

When the Fitzgerald regime ended, the turmoil had just begun.

He was fired too quickly, some said. He wasn’t fired fast enough, others retorted.

Enter: David Braun. Because of him, the university can make a clean break from the last coaching staff.

All Braun has done since is snap a 14-game road losing streak at Wisconsin, win seven games and win the Las Vegas Bowl. All in his first year at the helm.

He’s proven he’s more than deserving to be a head coach in a new age of college football. Plus, there’s still more work to be done. 

Northwestern needs an AD. With Gragg re-assigned, the university needs different and better leadership at the top. Someone that understands how to keep a watchful eye on a program without undermining what’s in place.

Northwestern needs to adapt to a new-look Big Ten, which now includes USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington. The challenge of residing atop the conference takes on a much different challenge now.

Northwestern still needs to navigate the back end of its horrific hazing scandal. Braun, for all the passion he has for Northwestern now, will have to lead the program when those scars are re-opened again when it all ends.

But, Braun didn’t have to choose Northwestern again, especially when he was hung out to dry.

After showing he can lead the program in the short-term during its worst moments, he’s earned the long-term opportunity to prove he can be the leadership the program needs, in good times and bad.

That long-term vision is exciting to Braun.

"The coaching profession can be tough on a family," Braun said. "To be at a place that I feel like our family aligns with and feel like we can be building the program for the long term is something that's really exciting."