EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern football coach David Braun has made bold calls late in games, but they usually come on a sideline somewhere, not across the dinner table from his wife, Kristin.
Yet there they were this spring, enjoying a rare night out around Braun's 39th birthday, engaged in a conversation they never could have envisioned a year earlier. Braun, who had not worked at a major conference school until 2023, is the reigning Big Ten Coach of the Year. Last year, he led Northwestern through one of the rockiest stretches in program history, securing the permanent coaching job and the financial rewards that came with it.