EVANSTON — Northwestern University interim head football coach David Braun will be named the team's permanent head coach, according to multiple reports.
According to The Inside Zone's Matt Fortuna, NU Athletics let the football team's staff know Wednesday that the interim tag on Braun is being removed.
ESPN's Pete Thamel and Adam Rittenberg later corroborated Fortuna's report on Braun becoming Northwestern's permanent head coach.
A year after a disastrous 1-11 season put the Wildcats at the bottom of the barrel in the college football landscape, controversy rocked the program as a hazing scandal made its rounds, and led to the firing of former head football coach Pat Fitzgerald, who was the longest tenured head football coach in the Big Ten at the time.
Braun took over with no previous head coaching experience and has led the program to a 5-5 record with two games remaining — which is more wins than Northwestern earned in their two previous seasons combined — despite all the turmoil surrounding the Wildcats' football program in recent months.
Braun was originally hired to be Northwestern's defensive coordinator under Fitzgerald back in Jan. 2023, which was the same role he was in while at FCS powerhouse North Dakota State University from 2019-2022.
Across four seasons leading the Bisons' defense, Braun was a part of two FCS National Championship teams — one in 2019, and the other in 2021. His defensive unit was the FCS's No. 1 scoring defense twice, one of which included NDSU's 2021 national championship squad.
Northwestern's next game is at home against Purdue (3-7), before travelling downstate to finish out the regular season at Illinois (5-5).