FRISCO, Texas -- Brian Schottenheimer was excited Saturday afternoon. A little more than three months after he was named head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, he was finally on the field at The Star.
His visor was flipped backward, and he went from player to player at last weekend's rookie minicamp, striking up conversation after conversation, from first-round pick Tyler Booker to one of the nine undrafted free agents.
"For me, I love being on the grass," Schottenheimer said. "That's where, as a coach, you get lost. You get lost in the moment. You get lost in the chance to connect, when you put hands on and get involved in the drills."
Since being named the 10th coach in Cowboys history, Schottenheimer has preached the importance of culture. He wants players to know he cares about them. He wants players to care about each other. He wants the assistants to have close relationships to the players.
He wants energy and enthusiasm from everybody. Phil Mafah, a seventh-round running back, noticed that immediately.
"My first impression, honestly, is their energy," Mafah said. "The coaches have so much energy on this staff, and it just allows the players to be themselves and feed into it, and you just feed off each other. So I feel like you can never get bored talking to the coaches because they've always got something real to say or are providing you with real energy."
As the players went through simple pre-practice stretching, the coaches were talking to somebody. Offensive line coach Conor Riley was with third-round corner Shavon Revel Jr. Quarterbacks coach Steve Shimko was reunited with defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku, whom he recruited to Boston College.
When the players moved on to individual drills, the offensive assistants went to one side of the field and the defensive assistants to the other. There was constant chatter with Schottenheimer leading the way.
Music played throughout the practice. Under Schottenheimer's predecessor, Mike McCarthy, it was only during the pre-practice stretching.
"I'm a very on-the-go coach. I think you will see that with our staff. They're very on-the-go, and great energy, great juice," Schottenheimer said. "That's what it's about."
Jaydon Blue, the Texas running back and fifth-round pick, said Schottenheimer's approach is contagious
"I love his energy. I mean he matches our energy. He comes in the meeting room with juice, and he likes to have fun," Blue said. "I mean that's what I like as a coach. When you have a coach that you can relate to and that will have fun with you and know how to turn [it] off when it's time to coach."
There were only 19 players on hand -- nine draft picks, nine undrafted free agents and one tryout player -- for the rookie camp, but Schottenheimer was everywhere. It was similar to how McCarthy's predecessor Jason Garrett worked the practice field, moving from one position to the next.
But Garrett did not serve as the playcaller after his third year as the head coach, so he had time to observe everything. When the season starts, Schottenheimer will be the playcaller, but he said he will continue to oversee everything, while acknowledging he will be hands-on with Dak Prescott and the quarterbacks "a bunch." Most of McCarthy's time was spent with the quarterbacks.
With the veterans in Phase 2 of the offseason program, the offensive and defensive players are on the field at separate times, so Schottenheimer has not missed a thing. When the organized team activities begin in a couple weeks, he has scripted the practices so he can move around.
"It's my job as a head coach to know exactly what's going on in every room and every drill," Schottenheimer said. "Practice phases, it's very detailed out, so I can look and say, 'The second five minutes of individual [drills], I want to go watch the DBs do this or the linebackers do a pattern-match drill' ...
"It's so clearly scripted out ... it makes it easy for me to kind of say, 'OK, this is a period I want to check on the defense."
In addition to the on-field changes, Schottenheimer has altered things off the field, too.
At his first team meeting with the veterans, players filed into the seats where they normally would have sat the previous few years.
"I let them sit down, and then I had them stand up and I had them move seats. Why? It's a new year," Schottenheimer said. "It's 2025. We'll do that in 2026 and 2027 and beyond. I think when you start a new year, do something different."
He has also changed the locker room seating assignments. Prescott remains in the middle of the room but closest to him is Micah Parsons.
"Two of our best players, put them together," Schottenheimer said. "There's also other things we're doing in there where guys are competing every day in different things that we've kind of put in there, but just they can challenge each other in a good way."
Garrett was strategic in his locker room placement, filling the corner spots with leaders. McCarthy continued that. So has Schottenheimer.
After TE Jason Witten retired, G Zack Martin moved into that spot. Now it's WR CeeDee Lamb's home. OT Terence Steele moved into the corner spot once occupied by DE DeMarcus Lawrence. CB C.J. Goodwin and DT Osa Odighizuwa remain their corner spots once occupied by OT Tyron Smith and LB Sean Lee. Free agent running back Miles Sanders is now in the spot near the equipment room that backup QB Cooper Rush held.
"There's a method to the madness," Schottenheimer.
Schottenheimer has put a lot of thought into how he would operate as a head coach. After 24 years as an assistant, this is his chance.
"I've always been someone that believes in connections, getting to know these guys," Schottenheimer said. "I've always been someone who's been able to be demanding, and I'm pretty good at disciplining guys. I promised myself when I got this opportunity that I wouldn't change, because I think I've seen too many people change.
"The guys I've seen change -- I'm not going to name them -- they weren't very successful. And I plan on being really successful. The reason I think I'll do that is because of my values and my beliefs and how hard I work, but also because I'm going to be me and I'm not going to change that for anything."