'Football and cowboying:' How life as a cowboy makes Colton Swan the right fit as DC for Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Colton Swan couldn't contain his excitement.

The newly named defensive coordinator at Utah whipped out his phone in the middle of a press conference and started scrolling through the pictures. He couldn't suppress the smile on his face or the eager anticipation he had to show a photo of his 5-year-old daughter.

This wasn't just a proud dad showing off his children to unsuspecting media, it was his worlds colliding in one moment.

"This is what we do as kind of our entertainment in Idaho, OK?" he prefaced.

As he eventually settled on the photo, he quickly turned it around for all to see. His young daughter had just been bucked off a sheep at a rodeo and was "scorpioned," a seemingly uncomfortable position in which her body was bent backward as she hit the ground.

"That's me in the background," he said, still smiling, "kind of yelling at her — or encouraging her, if you will."

In this brief moment, football was the furthest thing on his mind. But that photo and Swan's upbringing is exactly what qualifies him to lead a defense that has been known for decades for its physicality and hard-nosed nature.

The former cattle rancher from Idaho knows a thing or two about toughness. He embodies the phrase "cowboy up" — or to the non-cowboy out there, "suck it up."

To Swan, life has simply been "football and cowboying."

His grandfather, who later owned a 10,000-acre cattle ranch, played quarterback at the University of Utah, while his father played football at Utah State. One of his brothers, John, also played at Utah State, while another, Shay, competed at Boise State. His youngest brother, Biff, played football at Weber State.

It was a family affair — in football and cowboying.

And like any good cowboy, Swan lived at the rodeo, where he became a decorated roper and earned a partial scholarship to Weber State. He also walked on to the football team and was eventually awarded a scholarship.

It was year-round rodeo competitions while balancing football, where he became one of the top linebackers in program history as an all-conference player.

"We just grew up that way, and it's kind of a way of life," Swan said. "You don't ever move away from it; it's awesome. I actually think it teaches you a lot about toughness and endurance, and just the way that life really is the hard way — not cowering down to stuff; that adversity can become difficult."

It's why Swan was the easy choice to take over as defensive coordinator when Scalley was named Utah's next head coach. Scalley has long preached about RSNB — Relentless. Smart. Nasty. Ballhawks — and who better to carry that forward than the man who has lived it on a daily basis?

Much like his predecessors, Swan will expect his players to bring the physicality while operating at a high level to keep Utah's defense one of the best in the country; he's proven that over the years as the team's linebacker coach.

But now he gets to take that to the entirety of the defense.

And though Scalley has long had his hands on the makeup of the defense, he has turned the full operation over to Swan.

"It's his defense," Scalley said. "I wanted that as a defensive coordinator; Kyle (Whittingham) gave that to me. Now we are who we are, and we have a mutual understanding of what we want to do here, but there's certain things that they're going to do, and they'll ask my opinion on it. But I want him to have the freedom to be him, to not feel like someone's looking over his shoulder, second-guessing what he's doing. I'm there to support him."

There will be differences, or a unique "spin," but the bread and butter of Utah's defense will be the same.

"This defense has been in place for a long time here," Swan said. "The University of Utah has been very good, so you've got to keep that in the back of your mind as a coordinator. If it's working and it is providing very good production and it's not broken, then don't try to fix something that's not broken.

"So, as a coordinator, you've got to be smart with that. But at the same time, you want to have your own spin on things and really looking for ways to improve things where things maybe broke down in the past."

Still, there will be a certain cowboy flair that permeates the defense — or more appropriately put: toughness and endurance.

Or even better: Cowboy up.

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