His colleagues joke that he's the brains of the program.
They're really only half-joking.
True, football operations director Daniel Kuhn - DK to anyone inside the Franklin Field hash marks - does not call plays. Nor does he hit the road to find the next star Quakers. But someone has to make sure that team buses have parking spots, that recruits visiting campus have a good time, that alumni keep stroking checks, that coaches' schedules don't become messier than they already are and that, in general, the talent in the Penn program stays happy.
Kuhn came to Penn two years ago as Ivy League football's first full-time video coordinator. That year, he was named the best at the position in I-AA football. The Quakers like his video skills but love his enthusiasm. And the chili powder.
Life before Penn
He started at the top of the football food chain. Kuhn interned with the NFL's Buffalo Bills in 2001, before he graduated from college. The team went 3-13, but Kuhn thought that pro football would be his long-term goal.
He worked closely with the Bills' equipment manager and head trainer, who inadvertently helped him land his next gig. Kuhn never learned their full names, but he didn't end up needing them.
After Buffalo, Kuhn moved across the country twice - "on a whim" each time, he said. Eventually, he applied for an operations job with the Austin Wranglers of the Arena Football League and was interviewed by an ex-Bills employee.
He was asked if he worked with Woody and Hojo, as the two men were known. He said yes. His interviewer replied, "That's all I need to know."
He would spend the next 18 months with the Wranglers, and for the record, he thinks the AFL has great teams and great players, thank you very much.
While he was there, the Wranglers made what both Kuhn and the team considered an impressive run to make the AFL postseason. The team's owner apparently disagreed. After the Wranglers were eliminated from the playoffs, he fired the entire staff before they had a chance to leave the locker room.
"I got very turned off by that," Kuhn said, and he then looked on the college game with a favorable eye. Then he found a job at Penn.
Sunny in Philadelphia
To his colleagues, he's an Excel whiz with a penchant for color-coding everything in sight. He's the only coach who keeps a sleeping bag in his office.
But among the Quakers, Kuhn's most well-known quirk is his ever-present chili powder. The bottle of Creole seasoning that Kuhn, who hails from Louisiana, applies to his food is hard to miss, and he boasts that everyone who has tried it has liked it.
Count Kyle Olson as a believer. Kuhn grew close to the junior transfer student over the summer, when Olson first arrived on campus knowing almost no one and bored to death. He found an outlet in Kuhn's office and gained an appreciation for the job.
"He's all over the place," Olson said. "One minute he's up in the stands and the next he's down on the field doing something with the coaches. . He makes a lot of people's lives easier."
Kuhn doesn't know if he will be at Penn for the long haul, but it's safe to say he's sold on the college game.
"He loves Penn," senior linebacker Jay Colabella said. "No one wants to be there more than DK."
