ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell football won four straight games in the middle of 2025, defeating Bucknell, Brown and Princeton and capping the streak with a 39-17 statement win at Penn, before dropping its final two, to finish 4-6 overall and 3-4 in Ivy League play, in the second season under head coach Dan Swanstrom. Ask Swanstrom about it, though, and the story isn't about arriving anywhere. It's about a standard that's still being built, one day at a time.  

"It doesn't look exactly the way I want it to look yet, but that's part of the process," Swanstrom said at Ivy League Media Day in August, reflecting on his first two seasons in Ithaca. "For the first two years we just needed to get to baseline compliant behavior within this program. That took two full years... Now we're trying to put together committed habits mixed in with an occasional individual here and there who are willing to be compelled."
 
He points to the start of this year, not last November's finish, as the real inflection point. "January 1 of 2026 was just -- my first day at Cornell, in a lot of ways," Swanstrom said. "There's a nice energy, there's a nice bounce... the guys understand what elite leadership looks like, and that starts by setting the example. I'm asking these guys to do exactly as I do it, not as I say it."
 
That framing carries into what he expects on the field. "Coming out of last year, I fully expect us to be a fundamentally different team," he said. "But nobody in this program has equity... I can only analyze what they put on the field, and they will be evaluated. We're going to create a hyper-competitive environment that creates that." In a later conversation, Swanstrom put a finer point on it: outside of a select few positions, he considers every spot on the roster an open competition, with the job going to whoever earns it.
 
The Big Red was picked in a tie for fifth with Princeton in the 2026 Ivy League Preseason Poll, a slight step up in respect after finishing seventh a year ago, with 46 points from the league's 16 media voters.
 

The Offense:

Cornell returns the core of an offense that finished third in the league in total yards a year ago, though Swanstrom's own standard leaves no one settled in, including at quarterback. Senior Garrett Bass-Sulpizio, who split time before winning the job last season, said his approach hasn't changed now that he's the clear No. 1 heading into camp. "I really think, honestly, nothing changes," Bass-Sulpizio said. "I prepare the same no matter what situation I'm in, whether I'm the backup, the third string, the starter going into the week... you never know when your name's going to be called, so I never wanted to waste any opportunity that I got."
 
Bass-Sulpizio passed for 1,860 yards and six touchdowns in 2025, and he'll again have two of the league's most decorated returning weapons around him: senior tight end Ryder Kurtz, a Phil Steele Preseason All-American, and senior wide receiver Samuel Musungu, back after missing all of 2025 and named the Ivy League's Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.
 
Having Musungu back alongside Kurtz gives the offense a second true difference-maker to stress opposing defenses. "Sam coming back is a big part of our offense," Kurtz said. "In my opinion, he's the best receiver in the country... They're going to have to make a choice of who they're going to defend -- me or Sam -- and whoever they target more, the other guys can have a better game." Bass-Sulpizio, who has roomed with Musungu since their freshman year, credited his fellow senior's work ethic for setting the tone in the receiver room: "Even over the summer, he'd be running hills every Tuesday... he makes me and Ryder better every day, on and off the field."
 
Key Returners: Garrett Bass-Sulpizio (QB), Ryder Kurtz (TE), Samuel Musungu (WR), Brendan Lee (WR), Jordan Triplett (RB)
Players to Watch: TJ Hamilton (WR), John McAuliffe (RB), Ryan Matulevich (WR), Ty Doughty (RB)
 
With Musungu healthy again alongside Kurtz -- who caught 44 passes for 523 yards and four touchdowns a year ago -- and Triplett coming off a 454-yard, five-touchdown season on just 98 carries, Cornell has as much proven skill-position talent back as it's had in years. The backfield also adds a new option in sophomore Ty Doughty, a transfer from Mercer. The bigger question remains up front, where the Big Red will look to rebuild continuity on the offensive line to give Bass-Sulpizio and the run game more room to operate.  

The Defense:

The biggest change on defense won't come from the two-deep -- it's on the headset. Cornell brings in Mike Toerper as its new defensive coordinator, reuniting him with Swanstrom after the two worked together at Johns Hopkins and, later, Ithaca College. "Me and Mike have been together for years," Swanstrom said. "The truth is, when I got the job at Ithaca College in 2017... he was my first call, and he came with me... We know we're a tremendous team together. It's kind of a reunion – you're back with your brother that you've put in 16, 17 years of coaching and building football programs together."
 
On the field, the Big Red returns several experienced pieces even after losing key contributors like Damon Barnes, Joey Cheshire and James Reinbold. Senior defensive back Johnny Williamson led the team last year with 9.0 tackles for loss and an interception returned for a touchdown, while senior cornerback Braylon Howard and senior safety Tommy MacPherson both return after ranking among the team's top tacklers.
 
Key Returners: Johnny Williamson (DB), Braylon Howard (CB) and Tommy MacPherson (S)
Players to Watch: Cooper Cameron (LB), Gage Homola (DL), Malachi Edgerly (DL), Ian Wall (LB), Michael Taylor (LB)
 
The Big Red allowed 26.0 points per game in 2025, and closing that gap will hinge as much on Toerper installing his scheme as on the same standard Swanstrom has preached across the roster -- an experienced front seven with no guaranteed jobs, competing daily to replace last year's top two tacklers.  

Special Teams:

Cornell's kicking picture could look considerably steadier in 2026 with senior Alan Zhao back to full health. Zhao missed most of 2025 with an injury, but his 2024 season is the more telling number as he went 12-of-13 on field goals and 33-of-34 on extra points that year, including an 11-of-12 mark from beyond 30 yards. By comparison, Cornell's kickers combined to go just 5-of-6 from 30-plus yards in 2025.
 
Senior Nolan Albright returns at long snapper after a Phil Steele Preseason All-Ivy nod a season ago, and junior Caden Lesiewicz returns after handling both kicking and punting duties at the tail end of 2025 (4-of-5 on field goals, 39.0 punting average). Sophomore Will Buck will handle kickoffs.
 
Key Returners: Alan Zhao (K), Nolan Albright (LS), Caden Lesiewicz (K/P), Will Buck (P/K), Brendan Lee (PR)
 
With Zhao's health the swing factor and three other players who saw meaningful placekicking or punting snaps a year ago all back, Cornell has more experienced depth at specialist than it's had in some time.
 
The return game gets a boost as well, with senior Brendan Lee -- who returned 12 punts for 64 yards a season ago -- earning a spot on the Phil Steele Preseason All-Ivy Third Team as a returner.
 

Schedule Outlook:

Cornell opens the season on the road for the third straight year, traveling to rival Colgate on Sept. 19 before returning home to open Ivy League play against Yale on Sept. 26, the defending Ivy champion and preseason favorite after its historic FCS Playoff run a season ago.
 
The non-conference slate also includes a trip to Georgetown on Oct. 3 and a home date with Lehigh on Oct. 17, with a home game against Harvard on Oct. 10 in between. The Big Red then hit the road for back-to-back Ivy tests at Brown (Oct. 24) and Princeton (Oct. 31) before closing with three straight games against Penn (Nov. 7, home), Dartmouth (Nov. 14, home) and at Columbia (Nov. 21).
 
Cornell will play five games at Schoellkopf Field in 2026: Yale, Harvard, Lehigh, Penn and Dartmouth.