Around the Big Ten: Dave Wannstedt turned down overseer role at Northwestern
Veteran NFL and college head coach Dave Wannstedt turned down a role on the Northwestern coaching staff, underscoring the instability around the program. Northwestern opens their season in five weeks at Rutgers football.
Given the state of the Northwestern football program following the firing of Pat Fitzgerald last week, it appears that Wannstedt was approached by the university for an oversight role of the football team. What that role exactly was, looks and sounds vague, especially with David Braun being named interim head coach last week.
But Wannstedt was definitely approached and claims that he had two conversations about it with people from Northwestern over this past weekend.
The role, according to Wannstedt, was to provide support for the coaching staff and the players, noting that “Cleanup wasn’t a part of it.” The focus during his conversations with the Northwestern athletic department, he said, was purely on football.
Braun. hired in January to be the defensive coordinator at Northwestern, was elevated to interim head coach several days after Fitzgerald was let go.
“I heard rumors last week that they were going to bring in another defensive coordinator and let Braun was going to be the head coach type of guy, and then they’re brilliant enough to Skip Holtz or whoever to oversee the overseer, I guess I don’t know.,” Wannstedt told 670 The Score in Chicago.
“It was very fluid to me. You know, I’m a little bit anal, but I got to be exact on everything and there wasn’t a lot of exactness and I respect that because they were trying to do the right thing. They were trying to give these players and coaches some help at the end of the day and I respect that part of it.
“And I understood that and we were talking back and forth the seven day a week thing and everything you know was not going to fit what what my mindset is right now as far as me personally and what I’m doing with.”
Wannstedt is currently an analyst for the Big Ten Network. He has connections to Rutgers football and head coach Greg Schiano.
In 2013, Wannstedt was the special teams coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when Schiano was their head coach. Had he taken the role with Northwestern, he would have gone against Schiano in the season opener on the first weekend of September.
Related
Tom Crean analyzes Rutgers basketball recruit Asa Newell: Could be one and done
Why has Rutgers football targeted North Carolina this recruiting cycle? Greg Schiano explains why
