On February 15, 2024, Sun sports editor Jane McNally and writer Hamna Waseem sat down with newly minted football head coach Dan Swanstrom. The three spoke for an hour about football, life and everything in between. The interview was intended to be released just ahead of Swanstrom’s inaugural season with the team.
Part Two details Swanstrom’s philosophy –– the fundamentals of his coaching methodology and how that has adapted and changed over the years. Swanstrom also explains how he believes his philosophy will be implemented at Cornell.
Below is the full transcript of the one-on-one interview with football head coach Dan Swanstrom. The transcript has been edited for clarity.
Jane McNally: I guess to start off, if you were to summarize your coaching philosophy in a couple of sentences, how would you do that?
Dan Swanstrom: Yeah, I mean, I think for me and our staff, first and foremost, [I hope] we define [our]selves as teachers and educators first and foremost. That’s the easiest place to start. The most important part of leadership is setting the example. That’s the first level of leadership and I work very hard to bring a staff together, not just myself, that understands [that] the first step of leadership is setting the example. So, we’re teachers and educators. We set the example.
And then from there, it’s my job to devise a plan of standards and expectations that are tangible to not just the coaches, but the players, and then everyone surrounding our program. And then it is very imperative that our coaches hold the student-athletes accountable to those standards and expectations. And when you do meet high-level standards that we celebrate it like crazy, and then when you drop below the line that we teach and educate what we want from this program, so that’s how I would define it really quickly. Kind of the CliffsNotes of it.
There’s a lot more to it. There’s obviously a lot more layers, but those are just quick step one, step two, step three of like, how you devise your plan, and I think, for me, I think my job starts with the development of the student-athlete. … Obviously, we want to develop them as players and athletes, but we want to develop them academically, we want to develop them socially. So there’s a development piece and then the other part of our job is to recruit the best prospective student-athletes to Cornell, you know, I think if you kind of define your job into those two pieces, then everything kind of falls into place of what your job description is, and then, you know, the other piece of it as well –– what’s the action of that? What’s the philosophy of doing that? Well, you know, set a great example. You’re teachers, you’re educators –– you’re helping a student-athlete also self-actualize their goals through the process. And then having a team actualize their goals as a team, which is the most important thing. And we could go on and on about those layers, but I think that’s a quick CliffsNotes for you.
Jane McNally: Yeah. You talked about holding the student-athletes to [a] strong standard. What would you say are some of maybe the non-negotiables that you instill as a coach, whether they be on the field or off?
Dan Swanstrom: Well, I mean, there’s obviously non-negotiables that you can’t overcome, you know, and I hope we don’t ever have those problems. You know what I mean? Like, there’s some situations where it’d be impossible for me to look at somebody the same way if their actions were something, … you know what I mean? Especially when you’re pushing the edge on criminal behavior, things like that, there are certain things that people have done that I’ve coached where they just can’t even be around the program, because I can’t even look at them the same way and nor do I want them around the program. So there’s a lot of things that I would consider non-negotiable.
But as far as just being at Cornell, you know, we’ve got good young people in this program. And the thing I just truly want instead of just making rules and like declaring, ‘Okay, this is a rule of school,’ like we really don’t have rules. We kind of define what a perfect student-athlete looks like. And then we’re like, ‘Hey, can you hit this? Can you get to that level?’ And it’s different for each individual, like you don’t want to make too many rules. When you make rules, all they want to do is go and break them. What you want to do is create tangible standards and then say, ‘Hey, can you be this? Okay?’, ‘Well, you did it today. Can you do it again?’ [and] ‘That is awesome. If you do this again, you’ll be really something special’ or, ‘You fell below the line, well, can we come back tomorrow and do it better? ‘
And so I think that’s a better way to define what we’re doing. You know, the thing I would say is this staff and myself –– we’re really passionate about the game. We’re really passionate about coaching and teaching. We’re really passionate about getting better and having incremental growth, which is just really hard to do day in and day out. And I just want the people that are around us and our student-athletes around [to understand that] this is gonna get hard. The monotony of doing this day after day and getting good, but can we just have a little passion and a little fun doing this? Can we have a little passion for the game? Like, you don’t have to match my passion. I’m a grown man. This is what I chose to do. But can you have a little passion for the sport, a little passion for the game? And if you’re not feeling it, can you fake it till you make it? Like that type of attitude?
The other thing, too, being at a place like Cornell –– I think it’s special. I think it’s special to be here. I think there’s a lot of people who would do anything to be here and to have the opportunity to be here. You know, please just don’t take it for granted. Don’t take the classroom for granted. Maximize the opportunities that are in front of you, maximize your academic experience. Don’t just survive the academic experience. Let’s really try to get everything out of it that we can. Nothing frustrates me more than myself not having the opportunity to play in the Ivy League. I wasn’t recruited. They didn’t think I was good enough. You know, having to go to Rhodes College and play with the student-athletes who all would have loved to have the experience to be at a school like this. Don’t take it for granted.
And a lot of people help to get you to where you are. Skipping class, not doing your homework, not [putting] in the work and not doing what the professor asked you to do, … it’s just something that just kind of irks me. … I had a tremendous higher education experience and it would be hypocritical of me not to try to pull it out of our student-athletes like the coaches I played for did for me.
Jane McNally: So, you are, from what I’ve seen, naturally offensive-minded. So, as an offensive coordinator, what guiding principles shape your approach to designing and implementing offensive schemes?
Dan Swanstrom: I’m just player-driven, you know, I’m very much in the process of learning our players. But what we try to do is we just try to fit it to our best players — what they do well. I mean, we do have a system of offense. But the system is big, and it’s expansive, and you don’t install the whole system. You pick and choose what works for the individuals in your program. So what it’s going to look like, I have no idea, because I’m still learning everybody and we haven’t even had a practice yet. You know, we’re just lifting and running and so there hasn’t been much football or any football activity. I haven’t seen anybody do anything yet.
So I’m kind of getting back into that world but we’ve just got to learn, you know, I gotta learn. Spring ball will be very important for us to learn the athletes and then what they’re capable of doing and then figuring out what buckets we pull from that build an offense for the guys that are here.
Jane McNally: Yeah, how do you kind of combine –– [after] a few years as an offensive coordinator –– balance that offensive flair that you have experienced with … the other sides of the ball?
Dan Swanstrom: Yeah, I mean, I hired a great staff. You know, [assistant coach/offensive line] Sean Reeder has been an offensive coordinator before. [Assistant coach/wide receivers] Michael Hatcher has been an offensive coordinator before. [Assistant coach/tight ends] Andrew Dees has tremendous experience coaching in the NFL. So, the offensive staff has a lot of really smart, intelligent coaches that I’m able to lean on. And that way, I’m able to be more of a head football coach than just a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, so I’m gonna try to do it all. I mean, I did it all at IC. Like I said, I don’t have hobbies, so I’m happy to lean into all of it.
But yeah, I gotta make sure there’s balance in this program. I gotta make sure that [the] defensive staff is supported. You know, you’ll see a lot of times where an offensive-minded coach doesn’t support the defense correctly or give them what they need to be successful and it shows up on game day. We’re really going to try to build a defensive-minded program and really play great defense here. And that’s my expectation, and [I will] kind of figure out the offense as we go.
Hamna Waseem: You know, as we’ve spoken about your past opportunities, you’ve worked with some very talented players. So what qualities do you look for in athletes and how do you approach mentoring them both on and off the field?
Dan Swanstrom: Yeah, I mean, the players –– everyone’s different. I mean, just everyone’s different [in] how they learn and how they develop. I mean, we’ve done it a million different ways. And the one thing that’s common is there’s a want, there’s a passion, there’s a desire to be good. And you just channel that energy for them. And part of the development of great players is [that] they just feed off success. I think they really do. The better they get, you know, the more they lean into it, the more they trust you and the more you can guide them to get to that compelled level of student-athlete which we talked about. It’s kind of [the] highest level of a student-athlete. There’s just a truly committed individual who has the ability to take people with them.
And I was talking to a couple of the players recently about that, you know, Justin Watson at Penn just won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs again, his third Super Bowl. [When I] coached [him] at Penn like, his day-to-day was just so unique and so special, how he went about his business and his work and his dedication to his craft, his complete dedication to academics and his family. … You know, the guy’s got three Super Bowl rings, and he was compelled at the highest level and people just follow him. I talked about A.J. Wingfield over [at] Ithaca College had that same type of makeup, you know, he’s not an NFL football player, but he was cut from the same cloth and people just followed him and just elevated the program. I think about, you know, Brian Piatek at Johns Hopkins University, just elevating the program and just getting to that compelled level. That’s what you’re looking for.
I think the other thing I think we do a good job of as a staff is –– we’re tough. We have really high standards. We have really high expectations, but it’s not a negative program, like the way we got to think of it as coaching and teaching and trying to pull the best out of everybody.
You know, the hardest thing I think we run into honestly is when we want something more out of a player, and we’re trying to fake it as coaches, trying to show them that we believe in them, but they can’t see through it, because you’re not being authentic to them. I think that those are kind of the tougher situations of coaching that you get into when a kid does have ability, has talent, but he’s not performing well. You know, I think that’s much tougher. That’s much trickier than developing the guys who have it, you know, and figur[ing] out how to get those guys to perform at a high level.
I think one of the things they see in our program is we try to instill confidence. We try to build up a moment and try to give it to them, but when it’s not authentic, you can say whatever you want, you can do whatever you want, but these kids are smart. They’re gonna see right through you. So, I think that the hardest thing in this league is managing the kids who aren’t performing and trying to get them to elevate to their capabilities.
Jane McNally: So, reflecting on your time back at Penn. You helped engineer a pretty remarkable turnaround in their offensive performance. What do you think were the broader adjustments you need to see such rapid growth?
Dan Swanstrom: The kids there were really hungry, and they were embarrassed [of their offense.] They were easy to put in the right positions [and] the right directions. I mean, I walked into a really tremendous opportunity [at Penn] with a good group of kids who had underperformed and knew they underperformed. So that group, [they were] willing to be amendable and kind of go with the new coach’s idea. I went in [and said], ‘You guys did it a different way. You tried it your own way. It didn’t work very well. So why don’t we try it my way?’ And then everyone’s like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it your way.’
And so it was really not that difficult. And you know, those kids bought in quick and they wanted to compete and they played hard and they trained hard. And so that was just like a reprogramming, that was just getting organized and giving them something to kind of unite them, bringing them together and getting them going in the right direction. You know, that group was ready. They were ready for the moment and it just needed just a little direction and connectivity with the offense group there.
Jane McNally: Do you maybe see a similar opportunity here?
Dan Swanstrom: This [team’s] got more work, this one’s got more work to do. I think there’s some want to and there’s some passion, but the collective group has no clue. Like, that group at Penn was well trained. They were in shape. They were ready to compete. We have much further to go.