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GAME INFORMATION
Game #9: Cornell at Columbia
Kickoff: Saturday, Nov. 13, at 12:30 p.m. ET
Site: Wien Stadium (17,000), New York, N.Y.
2010 Records: Cornell (2-6, 1-4 Ivy); Columbia (3-5, 1-4 Ivy)
Series Record: Cornell leads 60-34-3
Last Meeting: Columbia won 30-20, Nov. 14, 2009, in Ithaca, N.Y.
Radio: WHCU 870 AM, Barry Leonard (play-by-play), Buck Briggs (color)
Live Stats: Available at www.GoColumbiaLions.com
Live Video: Available at www.GoColumbiaLions.com
Tickets: Available by calling (607) 254-BEAR

HEAD COACH KENT AUSTIN
Kent  Austin, the Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Football, is in his first season at the helm of the Big Red (2-6 overall, .250; 1-4 Ivy, .200) ... Austin has won CFL Grey Cups as a player, assistant coach and head coach ... most recently the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Ole Miss, Austin was hired as head coach on Jan. 27, 2010.

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ITHACA, N.Y. — For years, fans of Cornell and Columbia have unofficially called the annual football matchup the “Empire State Bowl.” Now, after playing each other for nearly 125 years, this season's contest will be played with the official Empire State Bowl moniker. Columbia will host the first trophy game between the teams when the Big Red visits Wien Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 13, at 12:30 p.m. You can listen to the game locally on WHCU 870 AM with Barry Leonard and Buck Briggs on the call, or online through the RedCast subscription package.

The winner of Saturday's game will take the traveling trophy, which will be presented annually to the winner of the game.

Both Cornell and Columbia will be attempting to climb a notch up the Ivy League standings when the teams meet in 2010. Both squads enter with identical 1-4 conference marks, and a win would guarantee a share of at least sixth place. For the Big Red, that would come as an improvement over its preseason eighth-place slotting by the media and would continue its upward climb.

The Big Red tired in the fourth quarter and surrendered a halftime lead (10-7) to a powerful Dartmouth offense, falling 28-10 at Schoellkopf Field. Senior Emani Fenton grabbed his fifth interception of the season, all in Ivy League contests, and junior Zack Imhoff recorded 13 tackles. Senior safety Ben Heller also made 10 tackles on defense. On offense, freshman quarterback Jeff Mathews was 21-of-33 passing for 164 yards. His favorite target was junior Shane Savage, who hauled in seven passes for 73 yards. Senior place-kicker Brad Greenway booted a 49-yard field goal, a career-long and the sixth-longest in Cornell history. Drew Alston punted 10 times, with the senior pinning three of his kicks inside the Dartmouth 20. He now has 22 punts downed inside the 20 this year.

The Lions bring a dangerous team looking to bounce back after four straight losses, including two by a field goal. All-Ivy candidates Sean Brackett (134-of-224, 1689 passing yards, 17 touchdowns, five interceptions) at quarterback and Andrew Kennedy (39 catches, 527 yards, seven touchdowns) at tight end lead the offense. Defensively, Alex Gross is a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete and leads the conference in tackles (96 tackles). Head coach Norries Wilson is finishing his fifth season on the Lions' sideline.

A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD:
• surpass the 2009 win total overall (2-8) and in Ivy play (1-6).
• improve Cornell's lead in the all-time series to 61-34-3.
• snap a two-game losing streak to the Lions overall and at Wien Stadium.
• be the 619th in program history (10th most in the Football Championship Subdivision).

THE CORNELL-COLUMBIA SERIES:  (Cornell leads 60-34-3) This will be the 98th meeting between Cornell and Columbia, with the Big Red holding a 60-34-3 lead in the series. The two teams first met in 1889, a 20-0 Cornell win. The Lions won last year's matchup 30-20 at Schoellkopf Field and enter the contest with a two-game win streak in the series. The squads teams have been evenly matched in the past two decades, with Columbia holding an 11-10 edge in the past 21 seasons after Cornell had won 12 straight contests between the teams, the longest streak in the series history.

REVIEWING LAST YEAR'S GAME VS. COLUMBIA (Nov. 14, 2009 in Ithaca, N.Y.): Columbia quarterback M.A. Olawale scored a pair of second half touchdowns and the Lions settled the game down after a crazy start, winning a 30-20 decision over Cornell on the Big Red's Senior Day at Schoellkopf Field. Olawale rushed for 95 yards on 11 carries and closed out the win with a 19-yard scamper with 1:51 to play to seal the deal. Zack Kourouma added 105 yards and a touchdown as the Lions rushed for 260 yards in the victory. Ross Morand, the younger brother of Cornell safety Frank Morand, intercepted two of the Lions six picks in the victory, with Augie Williams adding 10 tackles and an interception. Randy Barbour had a big day running the ball for the Big Red, posting 120 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, including a career-long 55-yard gallop in the first quarter in what turned out to be a wild first two minutes of the contest. Bryan Walters also had a big day with 260 all-purpose yards, including 89 receiving yards and two scores. Dempsey Quinn had 10 tackles, a forced fumble and a tackle for loss, while Chris Costello intercepted a pass, had a sack and registered eight stops. The game featured two touchdowns in the first 55 seconds, three in the first 1:11 and four in the first 4:30. The Lions raced out to a 13-0 lead before the Big Red tied it right back up at 13-13.

STORIED RIVALRIES: The Big Red is involved in three of the top 20 most-played rivalries in college football. Heading into the 2010 campaign, the Cornell-Penn series ranks fifth in most games played with 117. The 97 meetings between Cornell and Columbia ranks 12th, while the Cornell-Colgate rivalry stands 17th with 93 games played. The Cornell-Dartmouth and the Cornell-Penn series are the second-longest uninterrupted active series, as the teams have met every season since 1919, a span of 91 years. They trail only the Lafayette-Lehigh series, which has been played every year since 1897.

NOTES FROM THE 2009 MEETING VS. COLUMBIA:
• Mike Spooner made his first career start at defensive end and had tackles for loss on three straight plays on the Lions' third possession of the game.
• Bryan Walters posted 260 all-purpose yards, his second-highest total of the season. He also had two touchdown receptions, giving him 12 for his career
• Randy Barbour's 120 rushing yards were a season high.
• Emile Chang started at right guard, giving him starts on both the offensive and defensive lines in 2009 (vs. Fordham at nose guard).

WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
• After years of going by the unofficial title of the “Empire State Bowl,” Cornell and Columbia will make it official in 2010 with the Big Red's second trophy series. The Big Red already faces Penn in the Trustee's Cup each season since 1995.
• Both Cornell and Columbia will be attempting to claim their second Ivy wins of the season.
•It will be the 98th all-time meeting between the programs in a series dating back to 1889. The two teams have played each year since 1920.

NOTING THE DARTMOUTH GAME:
• Senior Emani Fenton intercepted his fifth pass of the season, all coming in Ivy League contests.
• Senior Brad Greenway's 49-yard field goal tied the sixth-longest in school history and was the longest by a Cornell player since John Rodin's 50-yarder against Harvard in 1995.
• Sophomore wide receiver Luke Tasker scored a 14-yard rushing touchdown, his second of the season. He has two career carries for 26 yards and two scores and is now the team's active leader in touchdown runs.
• Junior Zack Imhoff registered a career-best 13 tackles.
• Senior Jack Campbell posted his first career sack, good for a nine-yard loss.
• Senior punter Drew Alston punted 10 times, the third time this season he has had a game with double figure punts.

TEAM NOTES THROUGH WEEK 8:
• When you take out sack yardage out of the team's rushing total, the Big Red is averaging a respectable 4.3 yards per carry.
• The Big Red has scored on 76 percent of its chances in the red zone (13-of-17) and has scored 11 touchdowns (65 percent).
• Cornell is 8-for-10 scoring in the red zone in Ivy play (seven touchdowns, one field goal).
• Through eight games, Cornell has called 50 percent rushing plays (255) and 50 percent passing plays (254).
• The Big Red has been outscored 121-44 in the middle two quarters (second and third) of games this season.
• The Big Red has blocked four kicks in 2010 after blocking just three total in 2009 and four in 2008.

PLAYER NOTES THROUGH WEEK 8:
• Senior Emani Fenton has five interceptions in five Ivy League contests.
• Cornell's leading receiver (Shane Savage - 487 yards) has more yards from scrimmage than the team's leading rusher (Grant Gellatly - 308 yards). This would be the fourth straight year that occurrence has happened.
• In Ivy play, junior Shane Savage has 34 receptions for 387 yards.

BOOKER-TANDY NAMED TO ESPN THE MAGAZINE ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM: Junior tailback Nick Booker-Tandy was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District I first-team on Nov. 4. He joined 12 other Ivy League players who will advance to the national ballot for Academic All-America. Booker-Tandy has been outstanding both on the field and in the classroom in his first season for the Big Red. He ranks second on the team in rushing (247 yards) and scoring (12 points), and also ranks among the team leaders in receptions (13) and receiving yards (131). The transfer from Lafayette College rushed for 53 yards on just four carries against Harvard and caught an 8-yard touchdown against Yale. Booker-Tandy ran for a touchdown in the win over Bucknell. In the classroom, Booker-Tandy has posted a 4.0 grade point average in Applied Economics and Management and is an Academic All-Ivy nominee.

IVY PLAYERS OF THE WEEK AWARDS (Nov. 1):
• Senior Emani Fenton was named Defensive Player of the Week after breaking up a game-tying two-point conversion attempt with under six minutes to play and then intercepting a pass in the end zone with 23 seconds remaining to help the Big Red snap a nine-game conference losing skid in a 21-19 win over Princeton. The senior had five tackles, all solo stops, and broke up three passes from his cornerback position.
• A week after making his first collegiate start, Kevin Marchand had four tackles, including 1.5 for a loss, and recovered a fumble and returned it 2 yards for the eventual game-winning score against the Tigers and earned Rookie of the Week. After sophomore Cody Roberts' crunching sack of quarterback Andrew Dixon jarred the ball loose, Marchand got off his block and scooped up the loose ball, returning it the final yards for his first collegiate score.

UP NEXT: Cornell will close out the 2010 season at home when it plays host to Penn on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 12:30 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.