David Braun
David Braun went 24–20 as a head coach, 2023–2026, at Northwestern. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 4–1); by them his record is 23–20. Share
- Record
- 24–20 career
- Seasons
- 4
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Best season
- 2026 5–1
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Northwestern | 8–5 | T–2nd | Las Vegas Bowl W | ||
| 2024 | Northwestern | 4–8 | 16th | |||
| 2025 | Northwestern | 7–6 | T–10th | GameAbove Sports Bowl W | ||
| 2026 | Northwestern | 5–1 (Wikipedia: 4–1) |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 9 | 0–9 | 0% |
| Against top-10 teams | 4 | 0–4 | 0% |
| Against rivals | 5 | 1–4 | 20% |
| Conference games | 30 | 13–17 | 43% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 2 | 2–0 | 100% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 19 | 12–7 | 63% |
| At home | 15 | 13–2 | 87% |
| On the road | 17 | 6–11 | 35% |
| At neutral sites | 12 | 5–7 | 42% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 13 | 13–0 | 100% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 31 | 11–20 | 35% |
His own 44 games on file, 2023–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bret Bielema 2023–2025 | 1–2 | Illinois | 3 |
David Braun’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Purdueseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Penn Stateseries | 3 | 2–1 |
| Illinoisseries | 3 | 1–2 |
| Marylandseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Minnesotaseries | 2 | 2–0 |
| Wisconsinseries | 2 | 1–1 |
| Indianaseries | 2 | 0–2 |
| Michiganseries | 2 | 0–2 |
How he was hired
- Hired by Northwestern for the 2023 season from Northwestern, where he was defensive coordinator. He had a prior connection to the school.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008–09 | Winona State | Graduate assistant | |
| 2010 | Culver–Stockton | Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2011–14 | Winona State | Co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2015–16 | UC Davis | Defensive line coach | |
| 2017 | Northern Iowa | Running game coordinator and defensive line coach | |
| 2018 | Northern Iowa | Special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach | |
| 2019–22 | North Dakota State | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach | |
| 2023 | Northwestern | Interim head coach and defensive coordinator | |
| 2023–present | Northwestern | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Matt EntzNorth Dakota State
Assistants who became head coaches
- Jeff GenykEastern Michigan
- Bill O’BoyleChadron State
- Harlon BarnettMichigan State
- Chip KellyOregon, UCLA, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers
Worked under (1)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matt Entz | North Dakota State | 2019–22 | Defensive coordinator and safeties coach |
Coached under him, later head coaches (4)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeff Genyk | Northwestern, 2023: special teams and tight ends coach | Eastern Michigan | |
| Bill O’Boyle | Northwestern, 2024–25: offensive line coach | Chadron State | |
| Harlon Barnett | Northwestern, 2024–25: assistant head coach and defensive backs coach | Michigan State | |
| Chip Kelly | Northwestern, 2026: offensive coordinator | Oregon, UCLA, Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers |
Other assistants under him (6)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Mike Bajakian | Northwestern, 2023: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Sean Gleeson | Northwestern, 2023: analyst | |
| Tim McGarigle | Northwestern, 2023: linebackers coach; 2024–26: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Zach Lujan | Northwestern, 2024–25: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Jerry Neuheisel | Northwestern, 2026: quarterbacks coach | |
| Tim Drevno | Northwestern, 2026: offensive line coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
How he coached
Braun’s teams went for it on 20% of fourth downs and on 41% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 51% of plays and took 27.6 seconds a play, 2023–2026.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 13 g | 14 of 108 13% | 28% | 53% | 25.7 | −0.03 | |
| 2024 12 g | 18 of 100 18% | 39% | 56% | 28.2 | −0.10 | |
| 2025 13 g | 29 of 89 33% | 59% | 48% | 28.9 | +0.04 | |
| 2026 6 g | 6 of 36 17% | 31% | 42% | 28.1 | +0.20 | |
| All 44 g | 67 of 333 20% | 41% | 51% | 27.6 | 0.00 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.