Northwestern Head Coach David Braun Speaks on the Wildcats Upcoming Matchup with Indiana

Written by: Nate Comp (@NathanComp1)

Fresh off a bye week, Northwestern head coach David Braun met with the media Monday to discuss his team’s results thus far and the Wildcats upcoming matchup with Indiana. Braun felt like it was a productive bye week for his squad, focused on getting healthier while also completing some competitive practices. Let’s take a look at what Braun had to say about Indiana specifically.

Q: Opening Statement.

“Coach Cignetti has done an incredible job. It’s a hot football team right now, they’re playing really confident, really well. Off to a 5-0 start. No weaknesses on this team. Play really well in all three phases. Really high-level quarterback play. Well-coached offense, well-rounded and balanced. Defensively, they’re playing at a really high level. And certainly really well-coached on special teams.”

Q: Does the way Indiana has played so far, coming in undefeated, is there extra motivation with the chance to win a Big Ten game and beat an undefeated team?

“Yeah, I think there’s a lot of excitement around that. It’s our first Big Ten home game this season against clearly a very well-coached, talented, winning football team. It’s no surprise to me that they’re having the success they’re having. Coach Cignetti has been able to do this at multiple stops, to get teams playing at a high level very quickly. He’s done a good job of bringing in a lot of transfers that fit their scheme and fit their culture. Bryant Haines, their defensive coordinator, is someone that I have worked with in the past and is a close friend. Tremendous coach. The job that they’re doing is no surprise, but it definitely adds an extra layer; there’s no doubt they have our attention. The job that they are doing, the way that they’re winning, the way that they’re closing out games. This is a very talented football team that is playing at a really high level.”

Q: Indiana is averaging 48.8 points per game this season, what is the defensive staff preparing to slow down Kurtis Rourke and that offense?

“They’re balanced, high-end quarterback play. They do a great job in RPO. Very strategic, calculated, and well thought-out on their shot plays. We’re going to have to find ways to affect him [Rourke]. He’s the one with the ball in his hands every play. We’re going to have to force him to process post-snap and find ways to affect him in the pocket. At the end of the day, they’re going to find ways to move the football but it comes down to limiting explosive plays and when they do get down in the redzone areas we’ve got to do a great job of bowing up and forcing them to kick field goals. If they put a drive together, let’s make sure it results in an attempt at three points, not a touchdown.”

Q: Last year you went from 1-11 to 8-5, thus far Indiana was 3-9 last season and now they are 5-0, ranked, and winning games in dramatic fashion…what goes in to a turnaround of that nature and what does that say about the job Cignetti has done thus far?

“I think the thing that is most impressive about the job that they have done is although it is a very different roster, a lot of transfers contributing at a high-level for them, I give them a tremendous amount of credit for that… that is not an easy task, especially in your first year. Their ability to establish an identity in all three phases and establish a culture and have a group that is playing so well together is a credit to Coach Cignetti, his entire staff, and the group of young men that are there at Indiana. It’s a tremendous turnaround, they are certainly off to a hot start. Not just winning football games but winning them in emphatic fashion.”

Q: You mentioned Indiana’s ability to add through the transfer portal, here at Northwestern there are a lot more restrictions… is there any “jealousy”?

“No, again credit to Coach Cignetti and those that hired him. He’s had the ability and has shown it in his time at Elon, his time at JMU, and now his time at Indiana. That’s how they chose to build this year, and we’ll see what their philosophy is moving forward long-term building the program, but credit to them.

I think the thing that we are absolutely convicted in, myself leading that charge, is for us to win the Big Ten we are going to have to out-develop people and out-team people. I think the best way to do that is to be fully committed to high school recruiting and developing young men over the course of their four and five years. In that model, we’re going to have to do a great job of retaining our best, moving forward and then selectively brining in the right transfers.”

Q: Building off of getting Kurtis Rourke off schedule, what are you looking at so that your top-20 defensive line in stats can get in the backfield and force Rourke to do some of that late processing?

“They’ve done a good job of protecting him and he’s done a good job of getting the ball out on time. It all ties in together. The more we can force him to process what he is seeing in the back-half post-snap, the longer he should be required to hold onto the ball, which buys time for our pressure to truly affect him. And vice versa, the more that we can consistently get pressure, especially early in the game, and make him feel like he doesn’t have a clean pocket to stand in, hopefully leads for opportunities for him to put the ball in some spaces that we can attack the football and create some takeaways. But to his credit, and everyone around him, they’re playing at a really high-level. And you could see in the first half against Maryland, uncharacteristically they turned the ball over a few times, I think Maryland early on in that gameplan was doing some good things to certainly affect him. But we’ve seen some good quarterback play so far this year, he has impressed me more than anyone I’ve watched on film so far this year. He’s doing a great job and the guys around him are doing a great job of supporting him.”