Northwestern elevated David Braun from defensive coordinator to interim coach for the upcoming season, replacing Pat Fitzgerald, who was fired Monday in the wake of a hazing scandal.
The university announced Braun’s promotion Friday.
Braun was hired as defensive coordinator six months ago. He spent the previous four seasons in the same position at North Dakota State, helping lead the Bison to FCS national championships in 2019 and 2021.
Fitzgerald was fired Monday after a university investigation found allegations of hazing by 11 current or former players, including “forced participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature,” Northwestern President Michael Schill wrote.
Fitzgerald, who led Northwestern for 17 seasons, has maintained he had no knowledge of the hazing. After Northwestern initially suspended but did not fire him, the student newspaper, The Daily Northwestern, published an article including allegations from a former player who described specific instances of hazing and abuse and suggested Fitzgerald might have been aware.
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The elevation of Braun puts the program in the hands of someone who never shared the sideline with Fitzgerald during a game and was not part of the culture the longtime coach established. The rest of Fitzgerald’s assistant coaches and support staff will remain in their jobs for 2023, the university has said.
The university on Thursday also announced the firing of baseball coach Jim Foster.
Foster’s dismissal one year into the job was announced to players on a video call Thursday afternoon with Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg, sources told the Tribune. Assistant coach Brian Anderson, a former player for the Chicago White Sox who was part of the 2005 World Series-winning team, will lead the program “during this time of transition,” the university said in a statement.
In a message to parents the Tribune obtained, Gragg said the decision was “weighted on multiple factors, including but not limited to, the authentic feedback we received from your student-athletes in postseason surveys.”
Current and former players, alumni and people close to the baseball program previously told the Tribune that they alerted university administration — including Schill and Gragg — of problematic behavior from Foster starting last fall. At least some of those complaints spurred a human resources investigation.
The university’s investigation found “sufficient evidence” that Foster “engaged in bullying and abusive behavior,” according to an internal HR document the Tribune obtained. The probe went on to conclude that Foster “made an inappropriate comment regarding a female staff member, and spoke negatively about his staff to other staff members.”
Chicago Tribune reporter Jonathan Bullington contributed.