Ask Northwestern interim football coach David Braun what the best things are that he has instilled in the Wildcats, and he’ll tell you transparency and trust.
‘‘I hope that anyone who has interacted with me since I’ve arrived at Northwestern would say that I’ve tried to do my best in both,’’ Braun said Monday, less than a week before his team’s season opener Sunday at Rutgers.
We’ll just have to take his word for it.
Transparency? Trust? Those are loaded words for a coach to be using these days in Evanston, where the football program and athletic department are trying to pick up the pieces after a hazing scandal that led to the dismissal of the king of all ’Cats, Pat Fitzgerald.
Braun’s boss, athletic director Derrick Gragg, and Gragg’s boss, president Michael Schill, have been anything but transparent, hiding from the media for weeks on end. And Wildcats football players now have been sealed off from necessary — and inevitable — contact with reporters on at least a couple of notable occasions. The first was Big Ten media days late last month in Indianapolis, where the Wildcats’ player representatives no-showed. The second was Monday, when Braun explained — poorly — that he was taking the completely unusual step of banning player interviews throughout a game week.
‘‘My policy on that is we’re less than a week away from our first football game,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m here to talk about football. Our players are ready to talk about football.’’
Um, no? They aren’t.
It’s a strange move, kind of like putting air back into the balloon instead of letting the start of the season ease some of the tension surrounding the program. Braun also declined to reveal his starting quarterback or the names of his captains, but that was just normal football stuff. Speaking of which, how sure is a first-time head coach heading into his first season at the FBS level that he knows what he’s doing and has a handle on this thing?
‘‘I am extremely confident in my ability to lead, to inspire, to meet people where they’re at and to pull people together for a common purpose,’’ he said, ‘‘and I also believe I have a unique ability to identify the things that I don’t know or don’t understand and wholeheartedly admit that I don’t and seek the wisdom and expertise to help me navigate that.’’
In other words?
‘‘I know I’ve been put in this position for a reason,’’ he said, ‘‘and I’m confident that I’m up to the task, up to the challenge.’’
Trust that if you want to. We’ll find out either way.
Three-dot dash
Cubs fans loved to hate former Brewers slugger Ryan Braun. Do they dislike current star Christian Yelich with equal vigor? Yelich says yes — and happily has ‘‘inherited’’ the honor.
‘‘They definitely don’t like me a lot, but it’s cool,’’ said Yelich, in town for a mighty big series on the North Side. ‘‘It’s a good laugh when you go to Wrigley Field and just get booed and everybody talks [expletive] to you for three hours. It makes the game fun. It’s something I’ve never really minded.’’
The nerve of him, right? . . .
The Cubs don’t have to catch the Brewers to make the playoffs, but they do want to put themselves in position to host a best-of-three series. Right now, that means winning the division or overtaking the Phillies for the first wild-card spot. The harder task? Tough call. . . .
A leaguewide rise in stolen bases has made baseball a better watch overall. We’re seeing it play out with the Cubs, who began their series against the Brewers with 112 steals — third-most in the National League — and on pace for 140, which would be their most since 1990 (151). This team has Nico Hoerner leading the way with 34 swipes. That one had Ryne Sandberg and Shawon Dunston with 25 apiece, only 24 ahead of beer-keg-bodied catcher Hector Villanueva. . . .
The White Sox have a lot less go-go, with only 78 steals. Wouldn’t want to get anybody hurt. . . .
Jonathan Toews has left the door open to playing again, which has led some life coaches — sorry, fans and media — to worry that doing so could tarnish the Blackhawks great’s legacy.
Oh, please. These types of ‘‘legacy’’ concerns are so silly. It’s Toews’ life, and he should do with it whatever he wants to. Give it another whirl. Why not? Or not. Either way, the Stanley Cup banners aren’t going anywhere. . . .
Sports Illustrated deemed Packers quarterback Jordan Love’s entire preseason ‘‘spotless.’’ There are many more reports like that out there, but we understand if you’re afraid to go look at them. Week 1 is coming. . . .
I can’t be the only one who wants to go back in time and be Louis Lappe for just a minute. Lappe is the 12-year-old Californian who hit a walk-off home run Sunday against Curacao to win the Little League World Series. Maybe someday he’ll be a big-league All-Star. Or an accountant. Or an HVAC guy. Look, there’s plenty of time for him to sort all that out. Meanwhile, what a fabulous thrill.
This you gotta see
Brewers at Cubs (7:05 p.m. Tuesday, Marquee): Former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes plus current Cy Young contender Justin Steele should equal a legit playoff atmosphere.
Nebraska at Minnesota (7 p.m. Thursday, Fox-32): It’s the first Big Ten game of the season and Matt Rhule’s debut as the Huskers’ coach. We’d like to think the Rhule Era will be longer and more fruitful than the Scott Frost Era or the Mike Riley Era, but one never knows.
Toledo at Illinois (6:30 p.m. Saturday, BTN): Have Bret Bielema’s Illini gotten manhandle-the-MAC good? If not, the Rockets — who won that conference in 2022 and are the favorites to do so again — might take off and not look back.
Only because you asked
From Bernie, via email: ‘‘Seriously? Northwestern at Rutgers is the best CBS could do to open the Big Ten season on national TV? And on a Sunday?’’
Not to pick nits, but CBS’ first Big Ten game is big, bad Ohio State at Indiana on Saturday. That’s not so shabby, is it? As for your larger points, well, no, Wildcats-Scarlet Knights isn’t about to light the world on fire. But just think of it: The winner will be in first place in its division and — oh, baby — alive for the playoff.
The bottom five
The White Sox: No, the games aren’t watchable, but this buddy movie Jerry Reinsdorf and Tony La Russa are starring in is going to be a total scream.
C.J. Stroud: Did you hear the Texans named the former Ohio State star their QB1? Handing him a clipboard or a ticket out of Houston probably would have been a kinder gesture.
Facebook: It’s wonderful that your amazing children are back in school and playing sports. But do we really need to see the horrendous-quality videos to prove it?
NFL roster cuts: All at once — bam! — 1,000-some players around the league are out of work. Whom do they think they are, journalists?
Getting older: Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford reportedly is having trouble connecting with his younger teammates, and he’s just 35. And the rest of us wonder why our offspring sometimes look at us like we have two heads.
