Northwestern University President Michael Schill made headlines last week when he unexpectedly announced his resignation. Schill had held the position since 2022, overseeing an era that included a football hazing scandal, the construction of a new $850 million stadium and three National Championships in lacrosse, field hockey and women's golf.

Head football coach David Braun was asked about Schill's resignation during his press conference on Monday, September 8. Here's what Braun said about the relationship he had with Schill and his impact over the last three years.

"Changes in leadership are hard," Braun said. "The things that I will acknowledge are the things that I absolutely know to be true. Without his support, I wouldn't hold this position. I'm incredibly appreciative of the opportunity that I have, and that's something that he ultimately had to make a decision on. I'm incredibly grateful for Northwestern Medicine Field at Martin Stadium and being able to play on the lakefront these last two years. Without his support, that doesn't happen.

"We did get to share time together in some really trying times. I'll be really honest with you, it was a lesson for my young boys, eight and 10 years old. We navigated a really difficult time of our family [moving] across the country. A huge reason why we decided to move was to work for Coach Fitz, and I'm getting asked a lot of hard questions from young kids. Ultimately, it was a lesson for them that you can disagree with the decision that is made, but you can also be willing to enter into conversations of where you can find common ground.

"The conversations that President Schill and I had over those months in my interim time were critical to positioning our program to focus on making sure that our 2023 team had an opportunity to write their own story and go have a really successful season. Leadership change is hard. It provides some opportunity, but I will certainly acknowledge the fact that I'm grateful for the opportunity that he gave me to hold this position."