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CORNELL INFORMATION
Roster I Schedule & Results I History and Records

BUCKNELL INFORMATION
Roster I Schedule & Results I Statistics

GAME INFORMATION
Game #1: Bucknell at Cornell
Date: Saturday, Sept. 21, at 3:00 p.m.
Site: Schoellkopf Field (25,597), Ithaca, N.Y.
2012 Records: Cornell (0-0, 0-0 Ivy); Bucknell (1-0, 0-0 Patriot)
Series Record: Cornell leads 41-11
Last Meeting: Cornell won 15-10, Sept. 29, 2012, in Lewisburg, Pa.
Television: None
Radio: WHCU 870 AM, Barry Leonard (play-by-play), Buck Briggs (color)
Live Stats: Available at www.CornellBigRed.com
Live Video: Available at www.IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork.com
Tickets: Available by calling (607) 254-BEAR or online here

HEAD COACH DAVID ARCHER '05
David Archer '05, the Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Cornell Football, is in his first season at the helm of the Big Red (0-0 overall, .000; 0-0, Ivy, .000) ... Archer is the youngest Division I head football coach in the country ... he has been an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at his alma mater for six years ... Archer was hired as head coach on Jan. 3, 2013.

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STORY LINES
• Cornell opens its 126th season of football when it meets Bucknell on Saturday, Sept. 21 at 3 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
• Making his debut as Cornell's head coach will be David Archer '05. The former Big Red gridiron captain is the youngest Division I head football coach at 30 years old.
• The Big Red sports a 90-31-4 record in its first 125 season openers and have won four of the last six.
• The game will also serve as Cornell's Homecoming. The Big Red brings a 34-29-2 record all-time in Homecoming games into the weekend.
• It will be the 53rd "Battle of the 'Nells", with Cornell holding a decisive 41-11 lead in the all-time series. The Big Red has won six consecutive matchups between the teams.
• In last year's Homecoming game, the Big Red ran off with a 45-6 victory over Yale, posting the largest margin of victory over the Bulldogs in school history. The win came in front of a crowd of 15,333 at Schoellkopf Field.
• Besides Homecoming, Cornell athletics will celebrate Hall of Fame Weekend. Among the 12 inductees will be football players Mike McGrann '88, Win Osgood 1893 and Carl Shields '75. Osgood was inducted for his efforts in multiple sports, while Shields primarily was inducted for his track and field career.
• The Big Red will be out to snap a three-game losing skid dating back to last year.
• Cornell is 4-2 in non-conference games over the last two seasons, averaging 27.7 points and 413.3 yards per game over that span. Big Red quarterbacks have completed passes at a .597 clip while averaging 357.8 yards per game with 11 touchdowns and six interceptions.
• The Big Red returns one of the nation's most explosive offenses, led by four-year starter Jeff Mathews at quarterback. Already Cornell's all-time leading passer, he is on the verge of breaking dozens of Ivy League records as a senior. A 2013 FCS preseason first-team All-American according to Phil Steele, Mathews was the 2011 Bushnell Cup Award winner as the Ivy League's Offensive Player of the Year and was the 2012 runner-up.
• A year ago, Cornell led the Ivy League and ranked third nationally in passing offense (374.8 yards per game) and was second in the conference and 22nd nationally in total offense (430.6 yards per game).
• Cornell will need to replace three of the school's seven career receiving leaders, all lost to graduation. The tandem of Kurt Ondash, Shane Savage and Luke Tasker combined for 454 catches for 6,154 yards and 38 touchdowns. Together the trio piled up 3.5 miles of receiving yards. Despite that, the Big Red still returns preseason first-team All-Ivy receiver Grant Gellatly, who has caught 103 passes for 1,262 yards and seven touchdowns in his first three seasons.
• Sophomore running back Luke Hagy, one of 20 finalists for the Jerry Rice Award as national freshman of the year in 2012, will key the running game while also serving as a weapon in the passing game. He ranked among the national leaders with 105.4 all-purpose yards per game.
• Seniors Tre' Minor and Brett Buehler lead the Big Red defense, which is expected to be much-improved with a year of experience. The duo, along with sophomore defensive back Jarrod Watson-Lewis, will look to better rushing defense, passing defense, total defense, scoring defense and sack totals that ranked eighth in the Ivy League a season ago. The Big Red defense had its best showing a year ago against Bucknell, surrendering just 10 points and 286 yards of offense in a 15-10 win in Lewisburg, Pa.

ABOUT BUCKNELL
• Bucknell won its third consecutive season opener with a 27-14 home win over Marist on Sept. 7 in Lewisburg, Pa.
• Senior quarterback Brandon Wesley completed 12-of-16 passes for 176 yards and two touchdowns in the victory. He moved within 155 yards of becoming the school's all-time leader, surpassing Scott Auchenbach.
• The Bison are now 3-1 in its last four games dating back to last year.
• Bucknell returns nine offensive starters and seven defensive starters from last season's 3-8 squad. Seven of its 11 games were decided by a touchdown or less.
• The Bison were picked to finish sixth in the 2013 Patriot League preseason poll after going 0-5 in the conference a year ago.
• Seniors Travis Friend, Jeff Goyette and Derrick Palmer were elected team captains for the 2013 season.
• Fourth-year head coach Joe Susan sports an 11-23 record on the Bucknell sideline and a 21-23 overall record as a collegiate head coach. He is 0-3 against Cornell.

A WIN OVER BUCKNELL WOULD ...
• give head coach David Archer '05 his first win as a collegiate head coach.
• improve Cornell's record in season openers to 91-31-4.
• extend Cornell's win streak over the Bison to seven games and extend its advantage in the series to 42-11.
• give Cornell a 103-57-5 record all-time in the month of September.
• be the 628th in program history (11th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).

THE CORNELL-BUCKNELL SERIES
• This will be the 53rd meeting between Cornell and Bucknell, with the Big Red holding a 41-11 lead in the series.
• The two teams first met in 1888, a 20-3 Cornell win.
• The Big Red won the first three meetings before Bucknell claimed a 4-0 victory in 1891.
• It would be 88 years and 24 games before the Bison would win its next contest against Cornell.
• The Big Red won its sixth straight game over Bucknell last year with a 15-10 triumph in Lewisburg, Pa.

CORNELL VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
• Cornell has a 129-74-7 record against the seven current members of the Patriot League football conference, including a 41-11 edge over Bucknell.
• The Big Red has advantages over Colgate (48-43-3), Fordham (4-3-0), Georgetown (2-1-0), Holy Cross (5-0-0), Lafayette (14-8-2) and Lehigh (15-8-2).

CORNELL ON OPENING DAY
• If the Big Red continues its historical pattern of success in season openers, it could be big trouble for this year's opponent, Bucknell.
• The Big Red sports an all-time record of 90-31-4 (.736) in its 125 previous season openers.
• Cornell opened the 2011 campaign with a 24-13 victory over Bucknell at Schoellkopf Field behind 332 passing yards and two touchdowns from quarterback Jeff Mathews.
• The Big Red has won four of the last six season openers.
• In four of the last 10 years, Cornell has been the last Division I football team to kick off its season (2004, 2006, 2007 and 2011).

BIG RED ON HOMECOMING
• Cornell football has a 34-29-2 record dating back to 1948 in Homecoming games.
• The Big Red topped Yale in last year's Homecoming contest, dropping the Bulldogs 45-6 on NBC Sports Network.

NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell opens its 126th season of football when it plays host to Bucknell at Schoellkopf Field.
• The game will feature the debut of head coach David Archer '05, the youngest head football coach in Division I. He is the 27th head coach in school history.
• The contest will also serve as the Big Red's Homecoming and Hall of Fame weekends.
• Senior quarterback Jeff Mathews is 3-0 all-time under center against the Bison, including topping Bucknell 15-10 last season in Lewisburg, Pa. behind a 278-yard passing performance that included a rushing touchdown. He enters the 2013 season opener needing 964 yards to become the Ivy League's career passing yardage leader.
• First-year assistant coach Greg Jones was an All-Patriot League linebacker for the Bison, graduating in 2010. As a player at Bucknell, Jones tallied 257 career tackles and was named first-team All-Patriot League as a senior in 2009 while earning the Bison Gridiron Club's MVP award. He majored in history with an education minor and was awarded an undergraduate research grant from the university as a senior

RECORD WATCH
• Senior Jeff Mathews enters the season needing 964 passing yards to surpass Brown's James Perry as the Ivy League's all-time leader (9,294).
• Mathews is also 161 yards away from moving past Ricky Rahne '02 as the school's career leader in total offense. He enters the season opener with 7,834 yards, just short of Rahne's four-year total of 7,994.
• Mathews needs four touchdown passes to tie Ricky Rahne '02 as Cornell's all-time touchdown passing leader, a mark that would sit in the top five all-time in Ivy history.
• Mathews is six completions from breaking Rahne's career record of 678 completions.

IVY LEAGUE DIGITAL NETWORK
• The 2013-14 season will be the inaugural year of the Ivy League Digital Network.
• With the exception of the Nov. 9 game at Dartmouth, which will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network, all of Cornell's games will be available on the network this season.
• All Ivy League contests, both home and away, will be in high definition and feature increased production values, including replay and other features.
• The subscription-based service can be accessed on CornellBigRed.com or through www.IvyLeagueDigitalNetwork.com.

NEXT UP
• Cornell opens Ivy League play when it visits Yale on Saturday, Sept. 28 in New Haven, Conn.
• Yale leads the all-time series 44-29-2 dating back to the first encounter in the 1889 season.
• The Big Red trounced the Bulldogs in its 2012 Ivy League opener, 45-6. The Homecoming game on NBC Sports Network saw Jeff Mathews throw for 340 yards and four touchdowns, while Luke Hagy ran for two more scores.