he coach of the wild cats David Brawn David we've been doing this for a long time the three of us this is year 18 for us so we started doing this when you were 22 years old it's awesome I believe it's true I I I did the math and in all the time we've been doing this I've got to be honest I really can't remember a more uncomfortable scenario than what was going on here last year with Northwestern and you were kind of in the middle of it and as much as I respected you and I'd gotten to know you just a little bit in that short period of time if you would have said to me what are the chances this guy is back here next year with all due respect I would have said slim and none right I mean it was a really impossible situation that you found yourself in and yet not only are you back here you're big 10 coach of the year you have a new long-term contract what has this last year been like from the moment that you were here last year to where you are now yeah Dave it's been a whirlwind I mean our our little girl was born just a few days after we were here at at Big 10 media days um you know trying trying to pull everything together get get our team ready for the season um you know navigating new space Boys in new school I mean it's it's been a whirlwind but uh it's also you know gone from a very difficult situation in some ways as a family moving your family from North Dakota thinking you're taking your dream job into a scenario where you're going what is on the horizon for our family what's on the horizon for for our players what does this look like it's uh it's turned into a dream come true in a lot of ways from a standpoint Kristen and I our family are so grateful to have the opportunity to lead this program moving forward you'll get a chance here shortly to visit with our players that are here uh we get an opportunity to work with some of the the the best young men in the country and Coach these guys uh what that group achieved those 103 young men that chose to stay what they achieved last year is something that we'll forever be really proud of and the challenge move forward Dave is you know for the last 6 months people have been telling everyone and myself included great job great job well you know what we better keep that urgency and that edge and a little bit of that chip on our shoulder uh the the big 10's never been easy it's been been quite a task quite undertaking it's only getting more difficult moving forward well one of the things that's really interesting was last year you inherited a staff and so this year in the offseason you got a chance to make that staff your own it meant keeping some of the coaches who had been on the previous staff it also meant making some changes you brought in Zack Luhan to be your offensive coordinator someone who you had competed against he was at South Dakota State winning national championships you guys won some national championships at North Dakota State it's an area where Northwest has really struggled here in recent years even in Good Seasons haven't had great offenses so give people a sense of what this offense is going to look like under Zach's tutelage you know it's going to be well thought out uh it's going to be intense intentional in terms of creating leverage uh and and it's it's going to have a willingness to evolve and what I mean by that is it can be really easy in an interview for someone to come in and say hey here's my Playbook or or or this is what we do and where I challenge Zach is I said that's great I saw what you did at South Dakota State I experienced it firsthand on some rough Saturdays playing against those guys but what they did such a great job of at South Dakota state is identifying what they were great at and playing to those strengths and and I trust and and know that Zach's going to do that here at Northwestern identify what AJ Henning Bryce Curts You Know Jack ler Mike R whoever starts at quarterback what what these guys do well um you know looking at Joe Heyman cam Porter Caleb koffi some of our backs as our old line continues to develop I I fully trust that Zach is going to continue to identify what we need to do to play winning football on offense and uh not be concerned about getting caught up in an ego of oh we need this many yards or this many points how do we play winning football and that that's the question we need to constantly ask ourselves in all three phases how do we play winning complimentary football uh Zach's the right guy for the job uh between him Tim mcaro and Paul kraton I feel like a very lucky head coach to have those guys lead in those three three phases most important lessons you've learned from year one that you take to year two as a head coach just being true to myself you know I someone asked me H how how I did it and you know I we did it and he goes no Dave but what did you do that helped lead that I said said you know I I harnessed some of my best quality I I'm driven by relationships that's just the way God made me um I leaned into that I need to continue to lean into that and then then I let my con competitive Spirit truly show I think as I got in that head coach role early I was I was too concerned about this that and over and at the end of the day what made me a good defensive coordinator is I am one competitive son of a gun like that I'm passionate about the game of football I I think I harnessed those two qualities coach I I I let him be on full display and I need to make sure I continue to do that because over the course of the last 6 months and navigating the offseason I I never could have imagined all the things that fall on your plate as a head coach and I need to make sure that I continue to return to those qualities to make sure that I'm I'm pouring into the the people that are most important that those those are our players so often you hear about players that have been in a system for a second year how things start to slow down from a head coach's perspective have things started to slow down for you you know what I I think there's a chance for them to slow down as we enter into fall Camp you know until we reached this point it had been truly a year of first first time going through a full recruiting cycle the class 25 I know we haven't gotten a signing day but in terms of official visits first time really navigating what nil looks like at Northwestern now there's conversations about the changing landscape of college football first Spring ball first time hiring a St I mean first summer camp session first time navigating you know we we give our assistant coaches some time off in the summer well that time off as you know coach looks a little bit different for a head coach there's different responsibilities it's been a year first I'm excited about where we're at but I'm excited in year two to to continue to improve in my role so you're no longer obviously calling the defenses you've got a new offensive coordinator so when you're not doing head coaching things and you actually get a chance to go in either one of the staff rooms where do you go do you learn the offense or do you advise the defense which do you do more do you do equal really try and make it equal I I think honestly where I can bring some of the greatest value is stepping in the offensive room I want to make sure I'm very aware of what's going on in offense but I also think I can bring Great Value to just help that room understand you know what what I'm seeing from a defensive perspective uh but but also really enjoy being in that defensive staff room uh I want to continue to be an asset to Tim mcgargle I want to continue to be someone he can lean on uh but I I think everyone that's working with our building right now knows that I'm not I'm not there to micromanage Tim has done a great job of taking what we built collectively last year and taking that foundation and built off of it I I I'm really coming back to year two I'm so excited for our guys on defense to have the opportunity to work in year two of the system with a new play caller with someone that even has continued to take it uh even a step further in terms of the evolution of our defense you spoke earlier about being able to evaluate the roster as a coordinator how quickly were they able to do that particularly on the offensive side did they feel comfortable how long does that take for for an offensive coordinator to be able to do spring Ball's critical there's a lot of guys that weren't practicing in the Spring Forest they're now on a roster whether it be guys coming back off an injuries or a couple transfers here or there fall Camp will be critical the fact that we double rep will be a huge asset to to Zach new in his role cuz he's just going to see more tape especially on some of the young guys that are devel you say double rep what what do you mean literally two practices going on at one time I mean instead of just one field they'll literally be instead of 22 guys getting better it'll be 45 four guys getting better um but I'll be honest with you part of that is going to have to happen as the season goes along you can think you're in the greatest shape ever and also you lineup week one you're go hold on this isn't working I I'm I'm excited about Zach's ability to do that continue to be flexible and again find ways to play wining football you have a really unique situation for the next couple years Stadium wise Ryan Field was knocked down it is being completely rebuilt it's going to be an amazing facility but there was a question as to where Northwestern would play and the school came up with a very unusual solution over the course of the spring and summer you're going to be in a small temporary Stadium on the lakefront that's going to seat about 15,000 people you'll play a couple games at Wrigley Field but for all intents and purposes your home stadium and we're seeing pictures of it I mean it's going to be in a spectacular setting as you could possibly ask for it is going to be intimate to say the least in the world of college football how do you see that situation in terms of isn't an advantage and what ways can you make it an advantage and and how do you kind of sell it to to your players at at the end of the day we needed to find a way and this is no easy task but to bridge the gap between old reinfield and new reinfield 2026 we'll enter into the the finest facility in all of college football but how are we going to bridge that Gap I think what we landed on and a credit to all involved in making this happen uh provides the best opportunity for our players to have a true home field it's right on campus provides an opportunity for our Juniors and seniors to have their last home games truly be home games provides an opportunity for our student body to engage we've seen what's G on at Welsh Ryan with our basketball programs incredible environment we we have a chance to create the football version of that on campus um and and hopefully not only in 24 and 25 but that builds into things that build into the new ryanfield it's going to be unique it's going to be imperfect but it's going to be ours it's going to be on campus I'm excited for uh the the the purple to show up and create a HomeField Advantage for us on the lake I want to ask you one last question just about kind of the changing landscape of college sports you talked a lot particularly when you were introduced as the full-time head coach when you got the job you said hey northwestern's going to have to be a great developmental program we need to make sure that our players play their best football of their career while they're playing for Northwestern not that we develop them for someone else in this changing landscape with the transfer portal nil all the things that are going on what have you learned about kind of how you could make that formula happen you know right right now where we're at I'm so proud of the work that people have done to to bolster our niil support but we're nowhere where we need nowhere close to where we need to be uh I I think the changing landscape actually provides us an opportunity to to to further support the retention of of our student athletes and at the end of the day the number one goal we'll have in our program and it's no different than it's been for decades is earn a Northwestern degree and we we we need to not only celebrate that but make sure that the young men that were recruiting the families that were engaged with how we structure everything with our program comes back to that and we talked about development I mean that that that takes investment over time we need to find guys that want to be at Northwestern for four and five years and then we need to make sure in terms of however this Revenue share shakes out that we are able to fully support our student athletes to to your point make sure that Xander Mueller is playing his best football college football at Northwestern and uh it's it's the Xander muers the cam Porters a guy like AJ Henning that transferred in but is a cat through and through those are the stories that we need to continue to celebrate and what we need to build our program around head coach of Northwestern David Brawn thanks a lot Dave really appreciate it