Northwestern's Braun raring to unveil new OC Kelly's offense

CHICAGO -- As Northwestern prepares to debut a lavish stadium overhaul that cost more than $850 million, coach David Braun is confident the Wildcats will finally have a flashy offense to match.

Braun spoke to ESPN on Thursday about the "transformative" hire of Chip Kelly as the school's new offensive coordinator, declaring it proof of the school's commitment to football. He pointed to the Northwestern offense's average ranking of No. 121 overall in the FBS in the past decade and took his share of the blame as the head coach the past three years.

"There needed to be some form of transformative change," Braun said of hiring Kelly. "And the fact that he chose us is a reflection of what we're building."

Northwestern is 19-19 under Braun, matching Nebraska's record over the same stretch under head coach Matt Rhule. While Braun has gone 2-0 in bowl games, Northwestern's best offense under Braun was last season, when the Wildcats finished No. 96 nationally.

Braun said the Wildcats' offense will resemble Kelly's rough-and-tumble run-based teams at UCLA as opposed to his hyper-tempo teams with Oregon. Kelly spent one year as the Raiders' offensive coordinator in the NFL and called plays at Ohio State on that team's championships run in 2024. He has also been the head coach at Oregon and UCLA and with the Philadelphia Eagles.

"The answers that we have in the pass game post-snap, the level of nuance, but also very digestible to our players, is something that as I sit in that offensive staff room as a former defensive playcaller, I go, 'My gosh, this is really hard to defend,'" Braun said.

Braun said there's a running joke among the Wildcat wide receivers that they've got "a problem" if they can't get open in the offense.

"I think it's a lot easier just because the way that he can manipulate the defense in his favor, the way that he will do shift trades, motions to get the defense out of whack," said Northwestern star receiver Griffin Wilde, who had 880 receiving yards last year. "And then all this safety's rotating over top. Now we're slipping a guy right by him."

That's good news for quarterback Aidan Chiles, who transferred from Michigan State and is the favorite to start over sophomore Ryan Boe and veteran transfer Nicco Marchiol.

Northwestern opens the new Ryan Field on a Friday night against Penn State on Oct. 3 in a nationally televised game. It'll be a pivotal moment for the trajectory of the school's football program, coming less than a decade after the Wildcats opened a $270 million facility on Lake Michigan that is still considered among the elite in college athletics.

"It's like no stadium in all of college football," Braun said, comparing it to a "new-age Roman Colosseum" and noting the acoustics are such that it sounds "like a dome." He also pointed to the revenue generation possibilities, including a spate of premium seating.

Braun said the stadium sends a clear message to the rest of the Big Ten and the sport.

"We're not here just to participate," he said. "There's no greater visual to what level of investment we're putting into football than that."

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