Notebook: Northwestern looks to rally out of bye week at USC
EVANSTON-The last time Northwestern came out of a bye week, they won four games in a row. This time, they have a much harsher welcome with a Friday night game in Los Angeles against No. 20 USC.
“There are no weaknesses with this USC team,” head coach David Braun said at his press conference at the Walter Athletic Center on Monday. “Explosive offense, very talented defense and very efficient in their special teams play… The way they went into a hostile environment at Nebraska and found a way to win, I think that’s reflective of where [head coach Lincoln] Riley has this team.”
USC won at Nebraska, 21-17, on Saturday night, just one week after the Wildcats came up short, 28-21, at the same place. Though Husker quarterback Dylan Raiola suffered a season-ending broken fibula in the third quarter against USC that certainly influenced the outcome.
Northwestern has had the bye week to stew on a game they could have won, and Braun admitted to being “curious/concerned about what [last] Monday would look like.” But was encouraged by the resolve he saw in his team.
“The entire room, starting with our leaders, were on the edge of their seats,” Braun said. “Even though it was an off day and we were simply reviewing film, they were like, ‘Coach, give us the truth. Let’s get back to work.'”
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Injury updates
Braun’s updates can always be taken with a grain of salt, but he said that the team is hopeful to have back all three defensive backs this week that missed some or all of the Nebraska game: safety Damon Walters, cornerback Josh Fussell and cornerback Ore Adeyi.
Having them back on the field will be critical against one of the best passing teams in the nation in USC. Trojan quarterback Jayden Maiava ranks 14th in the NCAA with 2,315 passing yards and lead receiver Makai Lemon is sixth in receiving yards with 776. They each ranks second in the Big Ten, too.
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Braun weighs in on coaching carousel
The FBS coaching business is always cutthroat, but this season feels bloodier than most, with a long list of coaches already fired eight games into the season. One of them, James Franklin of Penn State, was fired the day after losing to Northwestern on Oct. 11.
Braun’s current standing at Northwestern is pretty firm at 5-3, but he gave his two cents when asked about the current landscape.
“I know [Curt] Cignetti has done an unbelievable job in a short amount of time at Indiana, but typically that’s a progression,” Braun said. “Craig Bohl at North Dakota State, they were 3-8 one season (Bohl’s 7th as head coach). I’m sure he was feeling pressure.
“The following year, they go to the national quarter finals, the year after they win the FCS national championship. Craig built it from the ground up. You hope that as people go through the hiring process, they have those things in mind.”
Braun was very complimentary of athletic director Mark Jackson and how his experiences have boosted how Northwestern goes about its business as a football program.
“One of the things I appreciate the most about Mark Jackson is he gets football. He’s been in the inner workings of it with the [NFL’s] Raiders and the Patriots, involved intensely with USC football when they were at their height. He gets what that progression looks like.”
Areas to improve at Northwestern
Braun has overseen a lot of modernization in a drastically shifting landscape in recent years, including the removal of limits on position coaches after the previous cap of 10 and the House settlement ushering in the revenue-sharing era.
“We’ve had to reimagine and, not reinvent, but evaluate everything,” Braun said. “The hiring of [athletic department GM] Christian Sarkisian, the way we’re structured as a staff, our operations and communications, unlimited [assistant] coaches.
“Are we where we need to be? No. But have we made progress and improvements? Absolutely. That’s one of the things as a head coach you don’t exactly enjoy, but it’s part of the job [to communicate] to Mark Jackson and the administration: these are our goals, what are the things we’re doing to make those something that’s not only realistic, but is a sustainable model?”
Braun is pleased with a lot of the changes that Northwestern has made, from working with admissions to expand their acceptable transfer portal window, to hiring additional staff after the 10-coach cap was removed.
What is he still looking for from the administration? At this point, it boiled down to staffing, getting more bodies in the recruiting office and on the coaching staff.
“At the end of the day, we don’t have to have the biggest staff in the country,” Braun said. “I mean, some of these staffs [are huge]. We can do more with less. We can do more with efficiency and alignment.
“But again, in the revenue-share world, how many resources are you putting into scouting, recruiting and retention? How are you maximizing your coaching staff?”
Northwestern has made some of those hires this offseason, notably run-game specialist/offensive assistant Ryan Olson, who came to the Wildcats from the co-offensive coordinator/offensive line coaching job at South Dakota State. He turned down a chance for a similar role at Washington State to join Braun in Evanston.
“In the old model, your 10 countable coaches that are directly coaching the guys are out on the road [recruiting] in May,” Braun said. “That’s a critical time, especially being a quarter [academic calendar] school. I’d like us to continue to evaluate how we maximize that to be at our best [as a staff] in scouting and recruiting, but also be very present with our team in those developmental times.”
Return to California
Braun’s playing and coaching career have been built in the Midwest, but he did have a stop in California when he was a defensive line coach for UC Davis from 2015-16. Other Wildcat coaches with California ties are receivers coach Armon Binns, who was born in Pasadena; running backs coach Aristotle Thompson, who coached in the state for Cal Poly or Cal from 2009-24; and tight ends coach/special teams coordinator Paul Creighton, who was at UC Davis from 2014-19.
There are several Californian on the roster, too: WR Hayden Eligon II, LB Braydon Brus, WR Chase Farrell, DB Jalen Lewis and DB JJ Lewis.
Thanks to the reality of the new Big Ten, they get to have a regular season game on their old home turf, and family and friends can come see them play without a flight across the country.
“Hayden was joking with me before warms up this morning,” Braun said. “Coach, I’m excited to get this crew out to Southern California, get back to my old stomping grounds. It’s a really, really neat opportunity [for our California players].”
