BIG TEN FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 30, 2026

David Braun

Northwestern Wildcats

Press Conference

DAVID BRAUN: Good afternoon. Thank you, everyone, for being here today. Excited to have this back in Chicago. I'm excited to be here and to be joined by three of the most impressive football players and men in the country: Caleb Komolafe, Robert Fitzgerald and Griffin Wilde.

Caleb Komolafe I would categorize 2025 as a breakout season for Caleb. So excited for him to be coming back in 2026 and be an integral part of a running back room that I feel is truly a strength of our football team, with Joe Himon, Gavin Sawchuk and other young emerging players within that room.

Robert Fitzgerald, again, someone that last year, breakout season. Fitz had been a critical element of our team on special teams and in packages on defense. Really stepped into that boundary safety role and emerged, in my opinion, as one of not only the best performers in the Big Ten but truly one of the best football players in the Big Ten.

I think that's the ultimate compliment to any football player. He's a football player. He's a throwback. He's a great tackler. He's a great leader. He's physical. He's instinctual. To have him back leading our defense is something that all of us are really excited about.

Then Griffin Wilde. I was so impressed with the way Griffin handled his transition into Northwestern, questions about, hey, could his talents transition from the FCS level to the Big Ten, and I don't think there's any head coach in the country that's more familiar with how that transition can happen. His competitiveness, his toughness, the way that he performs with the ball in there in competitive situations, we all saw it last fall.

To have him back as a key target within our passing game and now being utilized in Coach Kelly's offense is something that all Northwestern fans have to look forward to as we continue to track on Griffin and our offensive production.

As we approach the official start of the 2026 season, it is truly a new era in Northwestern football. We have reverence and appreciation for the past. What's been achieved over the last three decades under Coach Barnett, Coach Walker and Coach Fitz is something we will always talk about as a program.

I have a level of appreciation of what has been accomplished. But there is also an acknowledgement and an "and" proposition that we have expectations to do it better than we've ever done it before.

Big Ten Championship; why not us?

Host a College Football Playoff game at New Ryan Field; why not us?

Aspire to chase down a National Championship; why not us?

You may ask for a program that's gone 19-19 over the last three years, why such belief? I'll tell you why. Number one, leadership. New president, Mung Chiang, on board. Mark Jackson as our athletic director, going into year three. Having a chance to spend the last two years with Mark Jackson and spend time with President Chiang since he's arrived, there are no two other people I'd rather get in a foxhole with and find creative solutions on how we continue to push not only our athletic program but football program to new heights.

Leadership: We see it being built before our very eyes, the leadership of the Ryan family, all the work that Pat Ryan, Jr., the design, the development, the investment that is going into this football program. Why such belief? Great leadership.

Why such belief, Dave? Talent. I already talked about the three young men that are with us today. The talent that we've retained on this roster, 88 percent of eligible returning snaps decided to come back to Northwestern for the 2026 campaign. Impressive numbers in a changing landscape of college football.

What we're building in the class of 2027 with our recruiting class. That touches on the talent of our players.

We haven't mentioned our coaching staff. Chip Kelly, arguably the best offensive coordinator in all of college football history. Made a decision to choose Northwestern. Why such belief, Dave? The talent within our players, within the locker room, within our coaching staff.

Tim McGarigle, in my opinion, one of the best young defensive minds in all of football, wants to be at Northwestern, bleeds purple, played at Northwestern. Tim McGarigle chose to stay at Northwestern.

Then the opportunity for Paul Creighton, our special teams coordinator, with a growing staff to focus solely on special teams. Why such belief, Dave? The talent that exists within our program.

Why such belief? Ultimately because we're Northwestern. We're a top-10 university that plays in the Power Two. We're the only institution that can claim that. This isn't just a value proposition at Northwestern; it's an "and" proposition. Come to Northwestern and receive a world-class education and compete for Big Ten Championships.

Lastly, why such belief? Timing. New leadership, a committed and motivated support base of donors, a new landscape of college football, and we're moving into the best stadium in all of football. Timing matters. Why such belief? Now is the right time.

I do have a challenge for our students at Northwestern, for our community, for the Evanston community, for the Chicago community and greater Chicagoland. We are moving into the best stadium in all of football. It's my job to put the best team in that stadium. But it's your job, Northwestern students, Northwestern community, Northwestern fan base, Evanston, Chicagoland, to turn New Ryan Field into the best home field advantage in all of college football.

With that, I'll turn it over to questions.

Q. Aidan Chiles, transfer from Michigan State. He had a couple rough years there in the green and white. What about him made you want to pull the trigger to bring him to Northwestern, and how do you think he's going to develop under your coaching staff?

DAVID BRAUN: I'm really excited for the partnership between Aidan, between Coach Kelly and Coach Neuheisel. The three of those together I think is a partnership that is primed for success.

I ultimately had a chance to watch Aidan in his time at Oregon State and obviously track on him the last couple years at Michigan State. Very talented young man. Got on campus, starting to really understand his passion for the game of football. And ultimately the relationship between Coach Kelly and Aidan, Coach Neuheisel and Aidan that stems back to his high school days, there being a personal connection there, I think made all of us, including Aidan, really confident that this was the right partnership.

Q. This time last year you brought Preston Stone as a player rep even though he was a transfer quarterback and named him the starter. You kind of have Aidan in a similar spot even though he's not a player rep here today. Is Aidan your starter for the fall, and why or why not?

DAVID BRAUN: Ultimately, we brought Aidan in for a reason, to elevate the quarterback room. I still think there's a lot of really good competition in that quarterback room. The depth in that quarterback room is the best I've ever felt since I've been here at Northwestern. I think that applies to our entire roster and specifically our quarterback room.

We're not in a position right now to name a starter, but we won't be going into week one worrying about our quarterback. We're going to allow these guys to develop in Coach Kelly's system in fall camp, let these guys compete, and ultimately there's still work to be done.

Q. You mentioned the best stadium in college football, and the renderings and everything I've seen, it looks awesome. Can you give us an insider's look at what makes it awesome, and is there anything in there that has clearly got your thumbprint on it?

DAVID BRAUN: Yeah, I think the two things that really stand out when you step into the New Ryan Field, if you're ever fortunate to stand at field level, I mean, you truly feel like you're in a new-age Roman Coliseum. You feel the intimacy. You feel the fans on top of you, the canopy, the acoustics are going to act more like a dome than an outdoor stadium.

Then the reverse engineering of that is try to find a bad seat. Go to the so-called upper deck and go to the back row. I've sat in those seats. The view for the fan is incredible. What I'm most excited about is what this opportunity provides for us to reinvent how we do game day at Northwestern football and ultimately impacts the experience for our players.

Q. You talked about the respect that you and this program have for the past. Obviously we'll get a chance to see that past in October when you go to East Lansing to take on Pat Fitzgerald and Michigan State. What's the significance of that game to you and then to the program going up against the guy who hired you to come to Northwestern?

DAVID BRAUN: Yeah, I mean, you just mentioned it in your question. There's "and" there, right?

Ultimately, there's a task at hand. Michigan State is a competitor of ours. We have to find a way to position ourselves to be at our best with every Big Ten opponent that we have. That Saturday will require us to be at our best to ultimately go 1-0 that week.

There is an opportunity, whether it be in the fall or Big Ten meetings this May out at Terranea, there's an acknowledgment, the level of gratitude that I have for Pat Fitzgerald believing in me in hiring an FCS defensive coordinator to come be a defensive coordinator in the Big Ten, I'll forever be grateful for that.

There's an opportunity on that day to acknowledge that and soak that in and then reshift our focus and make sure that our team is at our absolute best to make sure that we go into East Lansing and prepare ourselves to win against a really good football team that will be very well-coached.

Q. I got to see the stadium the other day; it's absolutely phenomenal, stunning, everything you guys say about it checks out. I want to ask you about Jerry Neuheisel, give you a chance to comment on his infectious personality, young guy, offensive mind, bright guy, chose Northwestern. Talk about him a little bit.

DAVID BRAUN: Yeah, I got a chance to spend a lot of time with Chip in the process, and then did have a chance to get to know Jerry a little bit but probably not at the extent that I did with Chip.

From day one of Jerry being on campus, I've been blown away with his intelligence, his football savvy, his ability to relate with our players and connect with our players, and ultimately, his ability to coach the most critical position in all of football, the quarterback position.

I can't express effectively through words how grateful I am to be working alongside Jerry Neuheisel. He's a stud.

Q. Offense has been a challenge for you, for Northwestern during your tenure and for many, many years before that. What do you hope Chip Kelly brings to the program, and what kind of impact have you already seen?

DAVID BRAUN: You know, ultimately, he's just bringing so much -- just such a wealth of experience. Change is hard. I felt like offensively '24 to '25 we were improving, but ultimately I felt like Northwestern offense needed a transformative change, and my goodness is hiring Chip Kelly a transformative change. It's his experience, it's his outside-the-box thinking, it's his understanding of how we can position our guys to suit their strengths within the offense.

And I think the thing that stands out to me the most, sitting in offensive staff meetings, specifically the spring, the amount of times that I'm listening to conversation, the why behind the way that we're doing things on offense and starting to recognize how difficult that is to defend.

When you're sitting in there as a former defensive coordinator, you're going, my goodness, this is challenging for Tim to deal with in spring ball and for our opponents to deal with in the fall. There's no cookie cutter way. It looked different at Oregon for Chip than it did at UCLA versus Ohio State versus his time in the NFL, but at the end of the day he's always produced on offense.

His experience and his willingness to think outside the box are the things that stand out to me the most.

Q. A lot of new at the program -- new stadium, new offensive coordinator, new quarterback -- but a lot of retention. How can continuity be an advantage for the team this year?

DAVID BRAUN: It's everything. It's everything in college football right now. It's fun to talk about roster turnover and transfers. At the end of the day, this is still the ultimate team game. Something that we talk about regularly, it's harder than ever to protect culture, to protect true brotherhood, true purpose-driven program where guys are playing for something bigger than themselves.

That's challenging in college football right now. But to have the retention, to have the continuity, to have the relationships and then have transfers come in and say, my gosh, this place is special, this group of guys is special, ultimately that's how you win in the fourth quarter in the Big Ten, with a bunch of guys that are going to battle for one another.

Retention has been a hallmark of this program. It needs to continue to be for years to come.