David Braun won Big Ten Coach of the Year last season and should have won National Coach of the Year after inheriting a scandalous mess at Northwestern in the middle of the summer and still delivering an 8-5 record. But now the roster and staff are his, and 2024 is a new year. Who is on Braun’s coaching staff for the Northwestern Wildcats?
Northwestern Wildcats Coaching Staff
Head Coach, David Braun
When Braun came to Northwestern in January 2023, he thought he was going to be the defensive coordinator. He held that title for almost six months, but then the Pat Fitzgerald firing caused an immediate staff shakeup.
Despite being a program outsider, Braun was thrust into the head coaching role, a job he’d never held at any other stop in his career.
The former North Dakota State DC worked his way up from a Division III graduate assistant at Winona State to Northwestern, making stops at Culver-Stockton, UC Davis, and Northern Iowa along the way.
Now with an offseason as the head coach under his belt, Braun is looking to turn the Wildcats into consistent winners. His eight wins were tied for the most by a Northwestern coach in his first year, and his five conference wins were the best in an inaugural season. He also made some adjustments to his staff this offseason.
Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers, Tim McGarigle
Known best for being a standout linebacker at Northwestern, Tim McGarigle has spent most of his coaching career with the Wildcats, spending six seasons as the team’s linebackers coach. As a player, he still sits second on Northwestern’s all-time tackles list with 545 career stops.
McGarigle became Northwestern’s linebackers coach in 2018 after a brief stint in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers and a season at Illinois. His first position coaching job was from 2011-2015 with Western Michigan.
In his second year as defensive coordinator, McGarigle was promoted internally to replace Braun when the latter became head coach last season.
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks, Zach Lujan
Zach Lujan is one of the sneakiest home-run hires in college football this season. He joins Northwestern’s staff after winning FCS Coordinator of the Year at South Dakota State in 2023.
Lujan has spent his entire playing and coaching career with the Jackrabbits but was persuaded by Braun to move into Northwestern’s offensive coordinator role, tacking on quarterbacks coaching duties as well.
Lujan’s Jackrabbit offenses were among the best in the FCS. He spent the last five seasons as quarterbacks coach and the last two as offensive coordinator.
Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends, Paul Creighton
Paul Creighton comes to Northwestern after spending the last two years with the Washington Huskies as a quality control analyst. He worked primarily with the Huskies’ special-teams units in the last two seasons.
Prior to coaching with Washington, Creighton was with Kalen DeBoer at Fresno State in 2020 and 2021 as the tight ends coach. Creighton coached at Colorado State University-Pueblo as the defensive line coach and was the recruiting coordinator and special teams coordinator for UC Davis, where he overlapped with Braun.
Wide Receivers, Armon Binns
Armon Binns is entering his second season as wide receivers coach for the Wildcats after spending the 2022 season in the same role at Youngstown State. He was a solid receiver at the University of Cincinnati in the late 2000s and early 2010s, spending five years in the NFL after being an undrafted free agent in 2011.
Binns bounced around several schools as an assistant wide receivers coach and graduate assistant before coaching at Howard (2019). He’s coached multiple all-conference receivers and is partly responsible for having developed multiple NFL receivers.
Running Backs, Chris Foster
Chris Foster joined Northwestern’s staff in 2023 after leaving East Carolina, where he was running backs coach and recruiting coordinator. He spent five years at Georgia Southern as associate head coach, RBs coach, and recruiting coordinator for the Eagles.
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A 20-year coaching veteran, Foster coached at Appalachian State, Maryville College, and Gardner-Webb, his alma mater. He’s coached multiple All-Americans and is considered an excellent recruiter and running backs coach.
Offensive Line, Bill O’Boyle
Bill O’Boyle comes to Northwestern as the offensive line coach after spending the 2023 season at Colorado in the same role. He was on Sean Lewis’ staff at Kent State from 2018-2022 and like so many on this staff, has FCS experience in the Dakotas as the former OL coach at South Dakota.
O’Boyle has previous coordinating experience and was the head coach at Division II Chadron State College as part of an 18-year stint there.
Defensive Line, Christian Smith
Christian Smith joined Northwestern in 2023 after coaching the defensive line at South Dakota State under Braun. At SDSU, Smith helped create one of the most dominant defensive lines in the FCS, helping the Jackrabbits to their best stretch in school history.
While South Dakota State was his first on-field role when he was hired in 2017, Smith worked on various staffs around the midwest from 2014 to 2016, including stops at Ohio State and Iowa State.
Cornerbacks, LaMarcus Hicks
LaMarcus Hicks joined the Wildcats as part of the wholesale staff changes in 2023 after coaching corners at Utah State in 2022. Hicks is a 12-year coaching veteran with stops at Concordia, North Texas, Jackson State, Bowling Green, and Eastern Michigan.
Safeties, Harlon Barnett
Unlike much of this coaching staff, Harlon Barnett is a longtime Big Ten coaching veteran, having spent over 15 years in the conference. Barnett is most known for his long career at his alma mater, Michigan State, where he coached from 2007 to 2017.
Barnett is a former All-American and spent seven years in the NFL. He was the acting head coach for the Spartans after Mel Tucker was fired.
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