“You can’t spray perfume on a 4-8 season. It just stinks.”

After an underwhelming second season as Northwestern’s head coach, David Braun couldn’t sugarcoat it. The 2024 campaign was the antithesis to Braun’s successful debut in 2023, when the Wildcats went 8-5 and earned a trip to the Las Vegas Bowl.

Northwestern’s offensive struggles quickly rose to the surface in a 1-1 start last fall, leading Braun to grant redshirt sophomore Jack Lausch his first career start at quarterback in a shocking twist to the lineup. Lausch brought newfound excitement to Evanston, throwing for 227 yards and rushing for 62 yards to secure a 31-6 win against Eastern Illinois. The Chicago native’s performance made him the first Big Ten quarterback to throw for 220 yards and rush for 60 yards in his first career start since Justin Fields’ 2019 season opener.

But the spark proved short-lived. Following Lausch’s breakout performance, Northwestern went 2-7 in conference play. In three of those seven losses, the Wildcats never scored a touchdown. Plagued by injuries to the offensive line, the Wildcats only had eight healthy linemen at the end of the season.

Now, with a full complement of 18 linemen back in the locker room, 15 new transfers, an experienced defense and once again a new quarterback, Northwestern looks to bounce back in 2025.

Another year, another quarterback

At Big Ten Media Day, Braun announced Jack Lausch was no longer with the program. Following the conclusion of the 2024 football season, Lausch joined the Northwestern baseball team, starting in 43 games as an outfielder.

“Jack ultimately made a decision to solely focus on baseball moving forward,” Braun said. “Jack has a bright, bright future in the game of baseball for a long, long time.”

With Lausch’s departure, all eyes are on Northwestern’s newest quarterback: SMU transfer Preston Stone. Though Stone only saw four starts for the Mustangs last season, he was still a team captain throughout their impressive 11-3 season. In 2023, Stone started all 12 games, throwing for nearly 3,200 yards and finishing 12th in the FBS with 28 touchdowns.

Although this will mark the seventh consecutive season that Northwestern has started a new quarterback in the season opener, the team is confident in Stone’s ability to lead the Wildcats’ offense this fall.

“The biggest thing for me was establishing my work ethic for the sake of myself and earning that confidence for myself,” Stone said, “but also to establish that relationship with my teammates to know that they’ve seen the kind of work that I put in and they can feel confident in me stepping on the field as well.”

After being a four-star recruit in high school—receiving offers from powerhouses such as Alabama, LSU, Penn State and Florida—Stone originally chose SMU to stay in his hometown of Dallas.

Now almost 1,000 miles away from home, Stone says his move to Northwestern was driven by the coaching staff.

“I got to talk to a few schools, but when I talked to coach Braun, there was just a level of sincerity and belief in myself that I just felt was different,” Stone said, adding that offensive coordinator Zach Lujan’s system drew him in. “Getting to sit down with coach Lujan for a couple of hours and see how he gives the quarterback the keys to the car, it’s a very empowering position in his offense and the way he does things, and I feel like those two things were a huge differentiator.”

Defensive foundation

While Northwestern’s offense is the talk of the town with so many questions still lingering around the starters, the Wildcats’ defense could be the shock factor of the season.

Braun has spent the offseason applauding the defensive front. “Ultimately, the defensive line is one of our deepest rooms in the entire program,” he said.

Within that unit, there’s one standout.

Redshirt junior Anto Saka has received heaps of attention this offseason, being named to The Athletic’s annual “College Football Freaks List” and even floating into projected NFL first-round mock drafts.

Saka has yet to start for Northwestern but finished his second year ranked 13th in the Big Ten in pass rush win percentage, per PFF. His explosiveness on the pass rush and an added 15 pounds to his frame have impressed Braun in camp.

“The expectations Anto has for himself is to be one of the best defensive ends in the country, and I would say the same,” Braun said.

Despite all of the noise, Saka credits the Wildcats’ experienced roster for their drastic improvements in practice.

“When you have talented guys coming back and you don’t have to rebuild the foundation that you’ve already done,” Saka said. “Those guys, they’re dogs. They were hungry all offseason … We all had a bad taste in our mouth.”

Northwestern returns a majority of its defensive production but takes a major hit at linebacker after losing captain Xander Mueller to the Kansas City Chiefs. With his absence, fifth-year Mac Uihlein is an unsurprising replacement. Last season, Uihlein took a huge leap, leading the team in total tackles with 85, a significant jump from his 13 in 2023.

However, who would play alongside him was still up in the air until Braun announced that senior Braydon Brus would start on the weak side.

“His explosiveness, his speed are things that really differentiate him as a Will linebacker. You can just tell that Braydon is becoming more comfortable,” Braun said. “I don’t think we made the decision—he did, just by his consistent performance.”

Navigating the transfer portal

Losing 13 players in the transfer portal, including second-team All Big Ten selection Theran Johnson to Oregon, is not an easy fix. In turn, Northwestern went to the transfer portal to bolster its roster, adding 15 new players from across the country.

“Northwestern football will never be driven solely by transfer recruiting,” Braun said. “But ultimately in the new landscape of college football, it’s our job to evaluate where we need to improve as a team, where we need to improve as a roster, and find the right young men to come into our program.”

Aside from Stone at quarterback, Northwestern landed linebacker Yanni Karlaftis from Purdue, wide receiver Griffin Wilde and guard Evan Beerntsen from South Dakota State, linebacker Jack Sadowsky V from Iowa State, and former Michigan State starting defensive back Dillon Tatum.

“That entire group has done a great job of buying into what Northwestern is all about, what this team is all about,” Braun said. “Our leadership on the team has done a great job of bringing those guys in and showing them the way and helping those guys integrate into the team.”

Shifting landscape

Since Braun joined the team three years ago, he’s kept the same motto.

“In chaos, there’s opportunity.”

In an attempt to keep up with the everchanging college football landscape, Northwestern hired veteran NFL scout Christian Sarkisian as general manager and brought on former South Dakota State offensive coordinator Ryan Olson as a run game coordinator.

“College football has flipped on its head,” Braun said. “For us to think that we can operate in a similar fashion that we have in the last three, 10, 20 years, we’d be kidding ourselves,”

Accompanied with the broader NCAA changes, Northwestern will face new Big Ten opponents that they didn’t have the chance to compete against last year. Northwestern’s 2025 slate includes four teams in the AP’s Top 25 preseason poll: No. 2 Penn State (Oct. 11), No. 7 Oregon (Sept. 13), No. 12 Illinois (Nov. 29) and No. 14 Michigan (Nov. 15).

Despite such a tough schedule, Stone is excited for the challenge, which begins in Week 1 against Tulane in New Orleans on Aug. 30.

“Regardless of the environment, regardless of whatever the stakes of the game may be—Week 1, Week 2, Big Ten Championship—we’ll be good to go.”

About the Author
Taylor Hancock is a junior journalism student at Northwestern University, originally from Atlanta. At Northwestern, she calls live broadcasts across football, women’s and men’s basketball, and volleyball for WNUR Sports, the student-run radio station. You can also find her on the sidelines with Northwestern’s student sports broadcast station, NNN SportsNight.