Jim O'Donnell: Long football line just said “no” before Northwestern settled on David Braun

ONE WEEKEND AGO, David Braun and Northwestern stunned Wisconsin 24-10 at Camp Randall Stadium to move to 5-5 in 2023.On The Enchanted Lakefront, the sighs of relief could be heard from the office of President Michael Schill to the desk of athletic director Derrick Gragg.That’s because the search to find a permanent replacement for Pat Fitzgerald was getting stuck in an increasingly constricted cul-de-sac.Braun’s unexpected success allowed Schill, Gragg and cohorts to remove the “interim” tag from the coach’s title. On Tuesday he received a university-friendly four-year deal that will make him one of the lowest-paid coaches in The Big Ten.THE DAILY HERALD HAS LEARNED that of nine candidates on the original shortlist — a scroll that did not include Braun — eight took passes on NU.Only Bronco Mendenhall, the former coach at BYU and Virginia, was all in. But his was not a name guaranteed to recharge purple passions.Top names opting out included: Duke’s Mike Elko, Lance Leipold of Kansas, Dave Clawson of Wake Forest and Mike Kafka, the former Wildcats QB who’s now the offensive coordinator of the New York Giants.Another fresh talent who said “no thanks” was Tommy Rees. He’s the 31-year-old Lake Forest High grad who later quarterbacked Notre Dame and is now in his first season as offensive coordinator for Nick Saban at Alabama.Others: Troy Calhoun of Air Force, former Wisconsin chief Paul Chryst and Willie Fritz of Tulane.NORTHWESTERN’S SEARCH TROIKA was headed by iron-willed Pat Ryan Jr. (the “Jerry Jones Jr.” of the process, according to one familiar with its sequencing). His wing mates were Gragg and Glenn Sugiyama of DHR Global Executive Search.The job is considered a don’t-touch-it item by so many top professionals for assorted reasons.Among them: The unsettled lawsuits by past student-athletes against NU involving alleged hazing, Pat Fitzgerald’s open-ended $130M action vs. the university and the perception that administrators handled so many tangents of Fitzgerald’s abrupt poleaxing in such clumsy manner.Also not helping is the awkward advance of renovation plans for Ryan Field. While the stadium upgrade is now likely to happen, it’ll also probably leave the Wildcats playing some future home games at such venues as the soccer-specific SeatGeek Stadium in southwest suburban Bridgeview.Whether Braun can keep and recruit better players in the new age of the transfer portal and strategic NIL money against the wall of NU admissions standards also remains to be seen.THREE YEARS AGO, Fitzgerald was further bolstering his image as “Mr. Northwestern Football” with a Big Ten West championship, a win over Auburn in the Citrus Bowl and a final national ranking of No. 10.Now his recruits and his fumes have enabled the resourceful Braun to salvage an impossible season.But “Coach Fitz” hasn’t been completely forgotten.He recently received a form letter from the school informing him he owed it $50 for failing to return a security key fob.Just say “NU?”STREET-BEATIN’:Only one NFL game this weekend is playing to a smaller segment of the nation than the 10% that will have access to the Bears-Lions (Fox, noon; Adam Amin, Mark Schlereth). That’s TEN-JAX (6%). The network disinterest is based on concerns about a blowout. DET is minus-7 ½. Turnovers and a big day by David Montgomery will trash-compact the Bears. …