It has been a triumphant four months for Northwestern football.
But also a terrible year.
There have been more highs on the field — against Minnesota, Maryland, Wisconsin, Purdue, Illinois — than any outsider saw coming.
But only after sordid lows off it.
The Best Worst Season Ever ends Saturday with the Las Vegas Bowl (6:30 p.m., Ch. 7) against Utah at Allegiant Stadium, a feat to be celebrated that the Wildcats climbed so far — from 1-11 in 2022 to 7-5 in 2023, the biggest one-year improvement for any FBS team. But the hazing scandal heard ’round the college football world, which got longtime coach and campus icon Pat Fitzgerald fired in the summer and led to lawsuits yet to be sorted out in court, continues to envelop it all.
‘‘Nobody wants to be the next Northwestern,’’ this columnist wrote before the games even started.
No program would want to be known for allegedly ‘‘running’’ players or putting them through the ‘‘car wash,’’ innocuous names for illicit practices involving nudity and abuse. Nobody wants to author the next hazing scandal. And no school would wish to handle such a scandal so poorly, first by trying to sweep it under the rug with a meaningless two-week, offseason suspension of the coach in charge, then by refusing to speak publicly — a president hiding behind statements and an athletic director hiding altogether — about any of the cascading foulness.
But a football season with an unforeseeable bowl-game cherry on top brought much joy and at least a measure of healing to the whole scene, and that was, in and of itself, remarkable and magnificent.
‘‘An opportunity to continue a season with an incredible group of people,’’ coach David Braun called it Friday. ‘‘For us to be blessed with an additional three weeks with this group, you couldn’t ask for anything more.’’
The first thing this columnist wrote about Braun, then a little-known staffer new to it all — brought on from the FCS ranks at the start of the year to be Fitzgerald’s defensive coordinator — was that he would ‘‘deal with a likely player exodus and go from there, trying to beat some opponent, any opponent, with odds against it stacked high.’’
Also: ‘‘Fitzgerald’s last two Wildcats teams went a combined 2-16 in Big Ten play, and this next team might make the previous two look like world-beaters.’’
That analysis was so far off the mark that it’s as funny as it is embarrassing.
Who was this Braun guy, anyway? He seemed rather like an empty purple sweatshirt. After the Wildcats laid an egg in the opener at Rutgers, Braun doubled down on all his previous talk about winning a bunch of games and sounded — to at least one numbskull at that news conference — foolish, in over his head.
But how right Braun was. The Wildcats rallied from 21 down in the fourth quarter against Minnesota and won in overtime, and it was no fluke. They won four of their last five regular-season games, including the finale at Illinois, eliminating the rival Illini from bowl consideration. Your Big Ten coach of the year? It’s still Braun. It’s still a total mind-blower.
Believe this: The higher-ups at Northwestern did not expect to be sticking with Braun as coach beyond this season. He was in the interim role because he was there and willing, because he understood what it meant and embraced it and — an important factor — because he hadn’t been touched by hazing implications. But now the ‘‘interim’’ tag has been lifted. It’s his ship to steer into an uncertain future.
‘‘I’m waking up each morning full of gratitude for the opportunity,’’ he said, ‘‘and full of a realization that I still have a lot to learn as a head coach.’’
It’s far from a sure thing that Braun will succeed over the long haul as coach of the Wildcats. His most meaningful victory — surviving and thriving in his maiden voyage — is in the bag, but he surely aims to contend for championships and factor significantly into postseasons and all that, like any coach does. It will be enormously challenging, as the recruiting rankings after national signing day demonstrate. Northwestern took it on the chin this week — understandably, given so much turmoil — its class ranked 101st nationally and 18th among Big Ten schools (including the four newcomers arriving from the Pac-12) by 247Sports. Fitzgerald’s last 10 classes had an average national rank of 53½ by 247Sports.
It might be worth acknowledging, too, the hand Fitzgerald had in creating this Wildcats team that’s set to tangle against Utah. Fitzgerald’s players. Fitzgerald’s coaches. At least, they were.
When then-coach Randy Walker died suddenly in 2006, he left behind a list of program tenets on a whiteboard. Written at the top were the words ‘‘Do Not Erase.’’ The good Fitzgerald did in 17 seasons as Walker’s successor — and there was a hell of a lot of it — can’t be erased, either.
But Braun has led extraordinarily well since taking the captain’s wheel. Player exodus? There was none. They stayed, they stayed together and, boy, this became some story.
‘‘Has it sunk in yet?’’ Braun said. ‘‘Honestly, it hasn’t.’’
