Cornell Big Red 2026 Season Preview

Swanstrom's Reset

A 4-6 finish and a 3-4 league mark left Dan Swanstrom's program below .500 in a year the Big Red needed traction, and the No. 83 power rating says the roster still has a gap to close against the rest of the Ivy field. The 2026 story is whether Cornell can turn close conference games into wins rather than repeat a season that hovered around break-even both overall and in league play.

Bass-Sulpizio Runs a Steady Machine

Cornell moved the ball efficiently in 2025, ranking 13th nationally in offensive success rate, but turned that into just 21.0 points per game because the big play never showed up, sitting 124th in explosiveness. Garrett Bass-Sulpizio takes over as the established starting quarterback in 2026 with that same tension to manage, an offense that stays on schedule but rarely strikes for chunk yardage. A minus-5 turnover margin did as much damage as any missing explosive play, and cleaning that up matters more for this group than manufacturing a deep-ball threat that was not there last year.

Garrett Bass-Sulpizio is the established starter for 2026, and the label undersells what Cornell got done through the air last season, a passing game that ranked 46th nationally in yards per game and an offense that posted the 13th-best success rate in the country. The explosiveness number tells the real story, though: at 124th nationally, Cornell moved the chains but rarely broke a big one, which is exactly what an offense stuck at 87th in scoring despite solid yardage totals looks like. Bass-Sulpizio's job in 2026 is turning those efficient, grinding drives into points, with Devin Page, Ty Blair, Ryan Downes, Adam Landry and Cameron Shannon behind him on the depth chart.

Jordan Triplett's 454 yards on the ground last year make him the clear centerpiece again, and Cornell's offense will keep leaning on him behind a passing game that outproduced the run (222 yards per game through the air against 146 on the ground). John McAuliffe and Ricardo Lagares Jr. give Dan Swanstrom complementary bodies who already have game reps, and Mercer transfer Ty Doughty adds another back with real production, 332 yards and 2 touchdowns, to a group that otherwise absorbed light losses in Robert Tucker III and Gannon Carothers. The explosiveness numbers were the real problem in 2025, a 124th-ranked mark on successful plays, and this backfield's ceiling in 2026 depends on Triplett or Doughty turning some of those efficient gains into chunk plays.

Brendan Lee's 31 catches for 312 yards mark him as the clear returning option in a passing game that finished 46th nationally in yards per game, but Cornell loses its top target in Doryn Smith, who had 44 grabs for 393 yards and 3 scores. TJ Hamilton (11-192-1) and Ryan Matulevich (16-183) offer some proof this passing attack can push the ball downfield, though the offense's explosiveness ranked just 124th, and the departures of Smith, Matheson Bossick and Davon Kiser strip out a chunk of the intermediate game. Three-star signee Emery Speight arrives out of De La Salle as a high school addition with no college stats yet, giving Dan Swanstrom a developmental piece while Lee and Hamilton carry the proven production into 2026.

Ryder Kurtz is the engine of this passing game, his 43 catches for 514 yards and 4 scores a big chunk of an attack that finished 46th nationally in passing yards per game despite an offense that struggled to finish drives (87th in scoring, 124th in explosiveness). Nolan Albright is back as a complementary piece after a modest 3-catch season, while Brandon Gilbert, Joe Safar and Blaine Zoller return without a statistical track record, giving Dan Swanstrom experienced bodies even if the production beyond Kurtz is unproven. Chaparral three-star Adrian Ortiz joins via the incoming class, but until he or someone else shows up in the box score, Kurtz remains the singular known quantity at the position.

Cornell's offense found gaps at a modest clip last season, ranking 13th nationally in success rate but 124th in explosiveness, a line that could move bodies but rarely sprung anything long. With Kevin Ma, Evan Nesmith, Keegan Opper, Ty Short and Parker Spellacy all gone, that grinding identity is what Dan Swanstrom has to rebuild around Seyi Akinbola, Caleb Bowman, Timothy Bruen, Mac Dorward and Brandon Dunn up front. The margin for 2026 is thin between preserving the efficient, play-it-safe passing game that produced 222 yards a game through the air and finding the explosive plays this group never delivered.

Cornell's front held up well enough in 2025, ranking 28th nationally in yards per play allowed and 40th against the pass, and the group tasked with building on that is almost entirely intact. Will Bagby, Cole Bennett, Tommy Ducker, Malachi Edgerly, Sam Greenspan and Elliot Hampton all return without needing to replace the departed trio of Declan Ochendowski, Mason Yacovelli and Maxwell Van Fleet in the lineup. Ben Van Hoek and Jackson Cox arrive as incoming edge recruits and Colton Anderson joins on the interior, adding fresh bodies to a room that already knows what it did well against the run, where Cornell allowed 162 yards per game, 64th nationally.

Cornell's defense actually held up better than the record suggests, ranking 28th nationally in yards per play allowed and 40th against the pass, and the linebacker corps built that whether Cooper Cameron, Sean Cytrynbaum, Darryl Davis, Bo Draheim, Mason Grabowski and Cole Keith all return intact. That kind of continuity at the second level, with the run defense (162 yards allowed, 64th) the clearer target for improvement, gives Dan Swanstrom a known group to build around rather than a reconstruction project. Josiah Smith arrives out of Newnan as a high school signee to add to the room, but the story here is six familiar names picking up where a solid statistical unit left off.

Cornell's defense ranked a respectable 28th nationally in yards per play allowed a year ago, but five of its top defensive backs are out the door, including safeties Damon Barnes, Nicholas Dlabach and Jeremiah Lewis and corner Rick Coleman Jr. What holds the back end together in 2026 is Camari Berry and Mikey Gayle at corner alongside Rodell Evans III at safety, none of whom carry a statistical track record on file but all of whom were in the room for a pass defense that finished 40th in yards allowed per game. Dan Swanstrom's group protected the middle of the field well enough last season that keeping Berry, Gayle, Evans and fellow returnees Alex Ahaghotu, David Aluya and Jacob Carter together matters more than any single arrival.

Caden Lesiewicz went a perfect 4 of 4 on field goals last fall and shares the placekicking job with Jonathan Roost, who made all three of his own tries, giving Dan Swanstrom two options who simply do not miss inside their range. Will Buck returns after averaging 37.7 yards on 30 punts, and Alan Zhao adds another kicking look after going 2 of 3. The identity here is not uncertainty but reliability, Cornell's specialists made almost every kick they attempted in 2025 and both kickers are back to keep doing it.

Ryder Kurtz

Cornell's passing game runs through Ryder Kurtz now that Doryn Smith's 44 catches and 393 yards are gone, and the tight end's own 43 catches for 514 yards and 4 touchdowns already outproduced the departed receiver a year ago. With Garrett Bass-Sulpizio settled in as the returning starter and Brendan Lee the lone proven complement outside, Kurtz becomes the security blanket the Big Red offense cannot function without. If he repeats that target share, Cornell's passing attack holds steady.

Cornell Covered Anyway

The scoreboard said 4-6, but the number Cornell bettors will remember is that road underdog mark, perfect against the spread while going 1-4 straight up away from Ithaca. That gap between losing games and beating the line is the whole story of Dan Swanstrom's 2025, a team that kept conference games within reach far more often than its 3-4 league record suggests, covering in league play at a well above break-even rate. Nothing here says this program is winning more games in 2026, but it does say oddsmakers were consistently overrating Cornell's opponents, and until that adjusts, backing the Big Red as a road dog is the play.