Deep purple: The amazing Northwestern football story

By all accounts, this was a program left for dead.

A significant controversy involving the hazing of players left longtime coach and Northwestern University football icon Pat Fitzgerald gone from the job right before the season was about to begin.  Fitzgerald’s departure caused the Cats to be the focus, embarrassingly, of a national story that went viral.

To put it mildly, it wasn’t good. An already struggling program (the past two years had been bad ones) was now knocked back with a major blow that threatened, quite frankly, to set the program back for many more years.

People were jumping off the Cats bandwagon in increasing numbers. Numerous players left the team because of the hazing scandal, some high-profile recruits rescinded their commitment to the team, and countless veteran season ticket holders turned in their season tickets and said, “They are done.” 

Dark days, indeed. 

The university, trying to right the ship, or at least keep it afloat, named defensive coordinator David Braun as the interim head coach. Braun was an outsider who, just this year, came to the team from South Dakota, replacing another defensive coordinator who was let go due to poor performance.

Coach Braun’s previous head coaching experience? None. Not college, junior college, high school, or even Pee Wee football.

Welcome to “the big time” coach, and let us know if you need any help.

Many thought it was like throwing him to the wolves and that Braun would be eaten alive by bigger, more experienced Big Ten opponents and coaches. 

The expectations for the season for Northwestern were somewhere between bad and disaster. It was picked to finish last by just about every publication and prognosticator.

But then things changed.

Slowly at first, with the first minor bright light being how Braun handled his first press conference amid the controversy. He was calm, understanding, confident, and solidly communicative.

“Maybe this young guy will be ok, at least to get through the season,” some thought.

It didn’t look good at first. In game one, Rutgers beat the Wildcats up badly, and in game three, Duke ran and passed all over the gang in purple 38-14. A season of disarray was beginning to meet its fateful destination.

But this story did not follow the expected script. A fantastic turnaround began that nobody saw coming, not even the Northwestern fans and student body, who were showing up to games in numbers that might be seen at a high school game (maybe not even that much.)

It all began with a wake-up “wow” win over Minnesota 37-34. Then, two weeks later, a big upset victory over a strong Maryland team, and suddenly, folks were starting to take notice.

The expected disaster of a season —maybe, not so much?

Then things went from mildly surprising to story-book-like success. After a close loss to division champion Iowa, the Cats shocked the college football world by knocking off football powerhouse Wisconsin 24-10.

Last Saturday? The hits just kept coming with a massive victory over Purdue 23-15! The students, nowhere to be seen at the season’s start, showed up in large numbers and stormed the field after the victory.

An unlikely turnaround

Now with a 6-5 record heading into the final week, Northwestern is bowl-eligible. At the beginning of the controversy-filled season a bowl game was about as likely as finding an available Taylor Swift ticket.

It was indeed a remarkable turnaround for the gang in purple.

This was a team that figured to win one, maybe two games all season, based on the loss of their beloved head coach, many of their players, and a national embarrassment of a story involving hazing in the program—now on the verge of a winning record and a bowl game appearance.

It was a success story that only came to fruition because the players remained loyal to the team and refused to quit. The young, unproven head coach David Braun rose to the occasion and somehow rallied and motivated the troops. Credit, too, to the other assistant coaches who stayed the course and wouldn’t let the players stray.

One regular season game remains against one big one against rival—Illinois, this Saturday.

Can Northwestern keep the winning streak going? Can this real-life, feel-good story have another happy chapter against all odds?

We shall see. But whatever happens from here on in, this “Deep Purple” Northwestern football story has been shocking and an absolute pleasure to watch.