How 'timing' — and a bit of fate — brought four new coaches to the Big Ten

INDIANAPOLIS — One year after all 14 coaches returned, the Big Ten saw four new faces at its media days this week. They’re all in the same division, but their various backgrounds make them intriguing hires.

Luke Fickell is now at Wisconsin after helping build Cincinnati into an eventual Power Five program. At Nebraska, you have Matt Rhule, fresh off a few years in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers. Then, there are the new kids on the block. Two first-time head coaches — Ryan Walters at Purdue and David Braun at Northwestern in the interim — take over under drastically different circumstances.

All four will be key as the Big Ten begins a new era.

For Fickell, it’s a return to the Big Ten. He previously served as the defensive coordinator and interim head coach at his alma mater, Ohio State. His decision to leave Cincinnati came as a surprise. The Bearcats were moving to the Big 12 and were one year removed from a College Football Playoff appearance.

However, Fickell said, it was about more than just football.

“If it wasn’t the right time for my family — even as great of a place as this is and as great of a job as it is — I don’t think that I would’ve jumped in full heartedly,” Fickell said when asked by On3 about his decision to leave UC. “Because if it wasn’t the right thing for everybody, it wouldn’t have been the right thing for me, too. So many things just came aligned, and I didn’t know a ton about Wisconsin, to be honest with you. [My wife and I] had put … kind of parameters in place to say, ‘Hey, if we’re ever going to leave, if we’re ever going to go some place, what would you leave for?’

“As opposed to saying there’s these six places that I would go to, it became more of, ‘OK, what’s important for you as a professional and to grow and do what you want to do and then, what’s important to us and our family?’ Never thought about Wisconsin, and as this thing became a possibility, it just started to check every box. Just the good fortune that things aligned for a reason and to be where we were with our family and the timing. It was the right time.”

Matt Rhule on his return to college: ‘I was meant to work with this age group’

Rhule built up an impressive track records of turning programs around. At Temple, he took the Owls from a 2-10 record in 2013 to two straight 10-3 seasons from 2015-16. That took him to Baylor, where he turned a 1-11 Bears team in 2017 into an 11-3 record with a Sugar bowl appearance in 2019. The Carolina Panthers came calling, though, and he left for the NFL.

Things didn’t go as planned for Rhule in Carolina, though. The Panthers had an 11-24 record under Rhule’s watch and fired him after a 1-4 start to the 2022 season. There were rumors he’d take some time away, but he ultimately landed at Nebraska to once again orchestrate a turnaround.

The biggest thing Rhule learned in the NFL, though, is he belongs at the college level.

“I think we’re all meant to do something,” Rhule said to On3 during his media session. “We all have a purpose with our lives. I was meant to work with this age group. When I did get fired, it was almost like I was getting eulogized the next day. All my former players were texting me and reaching out to me. ‘Hey, Coach, you meant this to me,’ ‘Coach, you helped me do this.’

“For me and my purpose working with young people, I just enjoy the college game. I enjoy recruiting, I enjoy getting to know the parents, I enjoy watching guys graduate, I enjoy watching guys get jobs, have kids. I’m now starting to get to the point where guys I coached, their kids are starting to come up. Scary, but true. … And part of my NFL experience was also COVID, so that was kind of off, too. But I just like being around young people in these formative years and watching them becomes things that, maybe, they didn’t know they were going to be.”

How Ryan Walters and David Braun are preparing to become two very different first-time head coaches

It’s not a stretch to say Braun’s situation at Northwestern is the toughest in college football. Last year at this time, he was the North Dakota State defensive coordinator. Now, he’s taking over a program in the midst of a hazing investigation and dealing with the fallout of Pat Fitzgerald’s firing just 16 days prior.

Braun took the podium at Big Ten Media Days for what turned out to be a de facto introductory press conference. It marked the first time anyone from Northwestern met with reporters publicly in light of the investigation and Fitzgerald’s firing.

As a result, Braun is performing a balancing act while serving as the Wildcats’ interim head coach.

“I told our players a couple weeks ago moving forward it is my ultimate purpose to make sure the four people back home are taken care of, and beyond that, I’m here to support and serve them moving forward,” Braun said from the podium. “Through one-on-one meetings with a majority of our team, I have found a team that has come together, that truly loves one another, and has an incredible resolve to attack the 2023 season and write their own story about overcoming adversity.

“Let me be clear. This football team will be ready to go. I look forward to coming together as a team, a staff, an athletic administration, a university, an alumni base, a fan base, to fully support these student-athletes as they go make us all proud moving forward.”

Walters was also a defensive coordinator at this time last year. He was at Illinois under Bret Bielema and helped turn the Fighting Illini defense into one of the nation’s best. He’s now at Purdue replacing Jeff Brohm and changing philosophy, bringing Graham Harrell and his Air Raid offense to West Lafayette.

The transition to head coaching has been smooth, Walters said at Big Ten Media Days. For someone who was a hot candidate in head coaching circles, he said one Purdue had one important quality that stood out to him.

“The people,” Walters said. “I didn’t know a lot about the community, I didn’t know a lot about the facilities. I knew, obviously, the conference. But going through the interview process, I got the chance to meet and converse with administration and the leadership here.

“I remember walking out of my last interview and calling my wife and saying I want that job because I want to work with those people. And that has held true. I couldn’t be more excited about it and gracious of the support that they’ve given our program. I couldn’t be at a better place.”

The four new Big Ten coaches are walking into a conference that’s starting to look much different. A new television deal kicks in this season, just one year before USC and UCLA join the party. Divisions will also be going away in 2024, meaning the conference will move to a Flex Protect Plus scheduling model.

It’s all part of a new era for the Big Ten.