While it’s a small step on what will be a difficult journey, featuring formidable opponents and hostile crowds, landing in the win column grants the program an essential reprieve - a step in the right direction for a program that seemed to make all the wrong moves this summer. The only thing we can do is keep on supporting him - hopefully keep on winning.” “For us to go out and get this done for him means the world. “He was thrust into a position he was not expecting to be in,” Saka said. Sophomore defensive lineman Anto Saka, who tallied the team’s first sack, the first of his college career on Saturday, described Braun as a “players’ coach.” Instead, he was handed the dual tasks of mending a stricken culture and producing a positive gridiron product in one of the nation’s premier conferences. This past January, Braun arrived in Evanston expecting to handle defensive duties for a team he’d watched growing up. “In a lot of ways it still feels surreal,” Braun said. On a day where his team scored 31 unanswered points after the halftime break, nobody needed a victory more than Braun, and the former North Dakota State defensive coordinator received a raucous recognition on his trek adjacent to Ashland Avenue.Įxhaling as the 12-game losing skid he inherited had finally snapped, the moment he helped manufacture finally sunk in. Once senior quarterback Ryan Hilinski hit sophomore running back Joseph Himon II on a screen pass for an 85-yard touchdown that punched the lead up to three scores, that ever-elusive winning feeling crept back into Ryan Field. While UTEP kicked off the contest hot on an eight-play, 70-yard drive - echoing scenes from the group’s piling Piscataway problems - the Miners wouldn’t find paydirt for the rest of the contest. “We really challenged the group to immediately flush it before we even left New Jersey.” “It’s no secret that last Sunday was a tough day for us (and) a tough start to the season,” Braun said. Last Sunday’s season opener at Rutgers left much to be desired - and seemed to paint a deeply dark picture for the team’s ensuing slate.
The Wildcats went nearly 100 weeks without a victory inside the United States, having a lone victory over a sputtering Nebraska in Dublin, Ireland to show for their efforts in the 2022 season.
Once he arrived in the media room, the coach said there’s very few occasions that have made him speechless, but Saturday’s statement victory over UTEP certainly fit the bill. Minutes after notching his first win at Northwestern’s helm, interim head coach David Braun trotted through the short pathway that separates Ryan Field and Welsh-Ryan Arena, preparing to address the media.Īs surrounding supporters erupted into emphatic cheers, letting loose their frustrations after seasons of disappointing displays, Braun triumphantly raised his fists into the September sky.
0 kommentar(er)
