Ranking all 14 Big Ten head coaches entering 2023 season

14. David Braun, Northwestern

Braun enters the 2023 season as a first-time head coach under less-than-ideal circumstances with what has gone on regarding the Northwestern hazing scandal over the past several weeks that led to the dismissal of former coach Pat Fitzgerald. A former defensive lineman at Winona State in the mid 2000s, Braun has had assistant coaching stops back as his alma mater, with NAIA school Culver-Stockton, and more recently at Division I programs in UC Davis and Northern Iowa. 

After three years as defensive coordinator at the FCS level for North Dakota State, Braun joined Northwestern in the same role earlier this year, and will now be tasked with steadying the ship for a program in turmoil that went just 1-11 last year.