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GAME INFORMATION
Game #2: Cornell at Yale
Kickoff: Saturday, Sept. 26, at 12:00 p.m. ET
Site: The Yale Bowl (61,446), New Haven, Conn.
2009 Records: Cornell (1-0, 0-0 Ivy); Yale (1-0, 0-0 Ivy)
Series Record: Yale leads 42-27-2
Last Meeting: Cornell won 17-14, Sept. 27, 2008, in Ithaca, N.Y.
Radio: WHCU 870 AM, Barry Leonard (play-by-play), Buck Briggs (color)
Television: VERSUS Network
Radio: WHCU 870 AM, Barry Leonard (play-by-play), Buck Briggs (color)
Satellite Radio: SIRIUS (channel 130)
Live Video: Available at www.YaleBulldogs.com
Tickets: Available by calling (607) 254-BEAR

HEAD COACH JIM KNOWLES '87
The Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Football, Jim Knowles, is in his sixth season at the helm of the Big Red (25-26 overall, .490; 15-20 Ivy, .429) ... Knowles, an All-Ivy defensive end and three-year letter winner on the gridiron, was hired by his alma mater as head coach on Jan. 30, 2004.

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ITHACA, N.Y. — Two of the most storied programs in college football history renew a rivalry that dates back more than 120 years when Cornell and Yale square off at the Yale Bowl on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 12 p.m. The contest will be televised nationally on the VERSUS Network, which is available on channel 72 locally in Ithaca. The game can be also heard locally on WHCU 870 AM with Barry Leonard on the call, at www.CornellBigRed.com as part of the RedCast subscription service, or on SIRIUS Satellite Radio (channel 130).

Cornell and Yale will meet for the 72nd time on the gridiron in a series that dates back to their first meeting in 1889. The Bulldogs have won six of the last eight meetings and will be shooting for a Big Red team that silenced the 2008 league preseason favorites with a 17-14 triumph a season ago on Schoellkopf Field.

Both squads are coming off dominating season-opening wins over Patriot League foes, with Cornell topping Bucknell 33-9 in Ithaca and Yale knocking off Georgetown 31-10 on the road. The winner will get an early leg up on the Ivy League competition, which kicks off with a big matchup between defending Ancient Eight co-champions Brown and Harvard in a rare Friday evening affair.

Yale, the winningest team in Football Championship Subdivision history, will be out for its 850th all-time triumph. The Big Red, meanwhile, ranks 10th with 615 victories and counting. First-year head coach Tom Williams, who picked up his first collegiate victory with the win over the Hoyas, will be coaching in his first game against an Ancient Eight opponent.

The Big Red offense was full of big plays, as five different skill position players had plays of 30 yards or more, including three going for touchdowns. Senior Ben Ganter skillfully ran the offense, completing 17-of-25 passes for 172 yards and two touchdowns, but just as impressively did not turn the ball over. His scoring tosses came from 30 yards out to senior Bryan Walters and 31 yards out to sophomore Shane Savage. Senior Stephen Liuzza, who lined up behind center and split out wide, completed a pass and ran for a team-best 71 yards, including an electrifying 65-yard touchdown.

Defensively, senior middle linebacker Chris Costello led a young defense that surrendered just 238 yards and one touchdown to a Bison spread option attack. The preseason All-American had 14 tackles, while sophomore defensive end Matt MacFarlane had 3.5 tackles for loss and a sack to spearhead the unit. The defense forced three turnovers, earned a safety and hounded the Bison passing game into a 12-of-28 day passing, surrendering just 3.7 yards per attempt. Junior defensive back Emani Fenton had a pair of pass breakups and sophomore Rashad Campbell notched a pass breakup and recovered a fumble.

Special teams also had plenty of highlights, with junior Brad Greenway kicking a career-long 43-yard field goal and junior Drew Alston putting six of his eight punts inside the 20, with three inside the 10 and two inside the 3-yard line in his first varsity game. Walters, who earlier in the day set the Ivy League record for career kick returns, celebrated the day with a 63-yard return to open the second half that took all the wind out of a possible Bucknell comeback after halftime. Greenway ended the possession with his scoring kick.

A WIN OVER YALE WOULD:
• cut the Bulldogs' lead in the all-time series to 42-28-2.
• make the Big Red 2-0 in a season for the second straight year.
• even Cornell's record in Ivy League openers at 26-26-2.
• be the 616th in program history (10th most in the Football Championship Subdivision).

THE CORNELL-YALE SERIES: (Yale leads 42-27-2) Cornell and Yale have met 71 times on the gridiron, dating back to the first encounter in the 1889 season. The largest margin of victory in the series was a 70-0 Yale win during the 1889 campaign. Cornell's longest win streak over Yale is four games (1990-93), while the Bulldogs claimed seven straight victories over the Big Red (1973-79). The series has recently tilted toward the Bulldogs, who have won six of the last eight meetings between the squads, though Cornell upset the 2008 preseason Ivy League favorites 17-14 at Schoellkopf Field a season ago.

THE IVY OPENER: Cornell opens the 54th official season of Ivy League play with a 25-26-2 record in the previous 53 conference starters. The Big Red has faced Yale nine times (each of the last nine seasons) in Ivy openers previously with a 3-6 mark. Included was last year's 17-14 Big Red victory at Schoellkopf Field.

FOR OPENERS: The Big Red continued its pattern of success in season openers with a 33-9 triumph over Bucknell on Sept. 19. The Big Red sports an all-time record of 89-29-4 (.746) in season openers and is 10-4 against Bucknell when Cornell plays the Bison to begin a campaign.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
• The Big Red will attempt to win its Ivy League opener for the second straight year when it meets Yale as part of the Game of the Week package on the VERSUS Network.
• Senior quarterback Ben Ganter, who was 17-of-25 for 172 yards and two touchdowns, returns to the field where he made his first college appearance, the Yale Bowl. As a sophomore, Ganter saw late action against the Bulldogs in a 51-12 Yale victory in 2007 and threw a touchdown on his first career attempt, a 30-yard toss to Bryan Walters with 3:55 to play in the third quarter.
• The Big Red made big plays in the passing game a week ago with two scoring plays and three total plays of 30 yards or more from three different receivers. The Yale pass defense surrendered 332 yards in the air last weekend against Georgetown.
• Cornell's rushing offense will look to find holes in a Bulldog defense that gave up just 23 yards on the ground last weekend against the Hoyas.
• Senior running back Randy Barbour needs 83 yards on the ground to become the 28th 1,000-yard rusher in Big Red history.
• Senior wide receiver Bryan Walters is nearing a few milestones. He needs one reception to become the eighth Cornellian to reach 100 career catches. With 798 career punt return yards, he also is 104 yards away for matching the Ivy League record of 902 set by Penn's Mark Fabish 13 years ago.

REVIEWING THE BUCKNELL WIN: Second quarter touchdowns by Bryan Walters, on a 30-yard pass from quarterback Ben Ganter, and Stephen Liuzza, on a 65-yard run, broke open a tight 9-7 game as Cornell won its season opener over Bucknell, 33-9, on Sept. 19 at Schoellkopf Field. Ganter, making his second career start for the Big Red, went 17-for-25, passing for 172 yards and two touchdowns. Ganter spread the ball around, with Horatio Blackman, Shane Savage and Walters each tallying five catches. Blackman led the receiving corps with 67 yards, while Savage and Walters had 49 and 45 yards, respectively. The Cornell defense was led by preseason All-America linebacker Chris Costello with 14 tackles, while junior Dempsey Quinn and senior Aaron Levine, with 10 tackles apiece. As a unit, the Big Red held the Bison to just 238 yards of offense.



NOTES VS. BUCKNELL:
• The win was the third straight in a season opener for the Big Red and improved Cornell to 89-29-4 all-time in season openers.
• Cornell has now won eight of its last nine non-conference games.
• The Big Red's 24-point margin of victory in the season-opening win over Bucknell is the most since dropping the Bison 38-14 during the 2007 season opener behind three touchdowns from Luke Siwula '09.
• Cornell had a total of six explosive offensive plays (five offensive plays of more than 20 yards and one return of more than 40 yards) in the victory, with senior wide receiver Bryan Walters posting two, a 30-yard touchdown reception and a 63-yard kickoff return to set up a field goal.
• Senior linebacker Aaron Levine made her first collegiate interception.
• Sophomore defensive end Matt MacFarlane had 3.5 tackles for loss and the team's only sack in his first varsity appearance.
• Sophomore wide receiver Shane Savage hauled in five catches, including a 31-yard touchdown, in his first varsity appearance. Classmate Abdul Taylor also had his first career catch, a 9-yard pass from senior Stephen Liuzza.
• Making their first collegiate starts were Matt Green (LG), Paul Ostick (C), Matt Harrison (RG), Shane Savage (WR) and Ben Moody (RB) on offense, and Matt MacFarlane (DE), Brian Carroll (NG), Hugh Stewart (DE), Brandon Lainhart (SLB), Aaron Levine (WLB), Dempsey Quinn (Bandit) and Ben Heller (FS) on defense.
• Making their first varsity appearances were juniors Drew Alston (P), Jack Campbell (DE), Matt Green (LG), Paul Ostick (C) and Robert Zimmerman (LS); sophomores Brian Carroll (NG), Emile Chang (NG), Matt Harrison (RG), Ryan Houska (TE), Alex Johnson (WR), Troy Lewis (RB), Matt MacFarlane (DE), Shane Savage (WR) and Abdul Taylor (WR); and freshmen Jake Allyn (TE), Nick Mlady (RB), Ben Moody (RB), Jon Scheidler (WR), Richie Silverman (LB), Hugh Stewart (DE) and J.C. Tretter (TE).

CORNELL RECEIVES VOTES IN SPORTS NETWORK POLL: Cornell received three votes in the latest Sporting News FCS poll released on Sept. 21. Harvard (65), Penn (57) and Yale (2) also received votes.

TURNOVER VICTORY: Cornell has ranked among the bottom 10 teams in the Football Championship Subdivision each of the last two years, but it was a different story in the opener against Bucknell. The Big Red forced three turnovers, and its one  miscue came after the defense intercepted a pass and fumbled away the return. Cornell's offense hasn't turned the ball over this season in 59 plays.

HOUSE OF HORRORS: The Big Red football team hasn't had much success in its last five trips to the Yale Bowl, losing all five contests by a combined score of 177-70, including 88-29 in its last two trips. All-time, Cornell is 12-26 against Yale in New Haven.

CORNELL FOOTBALL ON YOUTUBE: Catch Cornell athletics on YouTube, with highlights, feature stories and interviews with players and coaches all season long. Log on to www.youtube.com/cornellathletics.

LIVE AND IN YOUR HOME: You can see live streaming video of each of the Big Red's five home games courtesy of Cornell athletics and IBN Sports. Visit www.CornellBigRed.com or www.IBNSports.com for more information. For subscription information for Cornell's other sports through the Redcast subscription service, visit Cornell's web site, www.CornellBigRed.com.

WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY?: All of the Big Red's football games in 2009 are carried live on WHCU (870 AM) in the Ithaca area and on the internet at www.CornellBigRed.com. Barry Leonard returns for his 12th season in the booth and 10th season in the play-by-play chair, while Buck Briggs '76 is back to provide the color commentary for a ninth season. Special guests will also make appearances throughout the year.

GET SIRIUS: The Cornell football team will make three live appearances on SIRIUS Satellite Radio during the 2009. SIRIUS Satellite Radio has been the national radio home for Ivy football and men's basketball since 2005. SIRIUS will once again broadcast the Ivy League 'Game of the Week' during the 2009-10 season with a 12-game broadcast schedule for football. All games will be broadcast on Sirius 130. Big Red fans and SIRIUS subscribers will find contests at Yale (Sept. 26) and at home against Brown (Oct. 24) and Columbia (Nov. 14) on the satellite provider.

THE IVY LEAGUE ON VERSUS: For the 2008 season, The Ivy League experienced unprecedented national television coverage of Ivy football with five-game television package titled 'The Ivy League Football Game of the Week Presented by TIAA-CREF' on the VERSUS network. Owned by Comcast and in approximately 73 million homes, VERSUS is the network national cable home of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Stanley Cup Playoffs as well as regular-season college football action from Big 12, Pacific-10 and Mountain West conferences. The agreement marked the first time since the early 1990s that Ivy League football games have been packaged together nationally. Three Ivy football games will appear on the network during the 2009 season, including next weekend's contest for the Big Red at Yale.

LIVE STATS: If you can't make it to Schoellkopf Field, you can follow the Big Red live on the internet with Live Stats. Just follow the link on www.CornellBigRed.com for official stats updated in real-time for each of the Big Red's home games.

UP NEXT: The Big Red remains on the road to face Central New York rival Colgate on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 1 p.m. in Hamilton.