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CORNELL INFORMATION
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Schedule & Results I
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History and Records
YALE INFORMATION
Roster I
Schedule & Results I
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GAME INFORMATION
Game #2: Cornell at Yale
Date: Saturday, Sept. 28, at 12:00 p.m.
Site: The Yale Bowl (61,446), New Haven, Conn.
2012 Records: Cornell (1-0, 0-0 Ivy); Yale (1-0, 0-0 Ivy)
Series Record: Yale leads 44-29-2
Last Meeting: Cornell won 45-6, Sept. 22, 2012, in Ithaca, N.Y.
Television: None
Radio: WHCU 870 AM, Barry Leonard (play-by-play), Buck Briggs (color)
Live Stats: Available at
www.YaleBulldogs.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 (1-0 overall, 1.000; 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.
STORY LINES
• After an exciting season-opening Homecoming win over Bucknell, the Cornell football team will turn the page and open Ivy League play when it visits Yale on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 12 p.m. at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn.
• Yale leads the all-time series with the Big Red 44-29-2, though the Bulldogs will be attempting to avenge last season's 45-6 loss to Cornell in Ithaca. The Bulldogs have a 34-23 advantage since Ivy League play began in 1956.
• The Big Red and the Bulldogs have one of the oldest rivalries in college football, first squaring off in 1889 in New Haven, Conn. Yale won that day 60-6. Cornell didn't pick up its first win in the series until 1940, a 21-0 triumph in Connecticut.
• Cornell took advantage of a nationally televised opportunity and a great Homecoming crowd to earn its 39-point victory over the Bulldogs, its largest margin of victory for the Big Red in the series ever.
•
Jeff Mathews passed for four touchdowns and
Luke Hagy scored twice as the offense piled up 482 yards of offense. The defense forced four turnovers and allowed just 350 yards of offense.
• First-year head coach
David Archer '05 picked up his first collegiate win in a driving rainstorm that didn't deter more than 15,000 fans from filling the Crescent at historic Schoellkopf Field.
• The 45 points scored by the Big Red was the most in the debut of a head coach since Carl Snavely's 1936 squad put up 74 points in a 74-0 win over Alfred. It is the third-highest total in a coach's debut, behind Snavely's 1936 squad and Daniel Reed's 1910 team that dropped Hobart 50-0 in its opener.
• After falling behind 10-0 by the end of the first quarter, Cornell exploded in all three phases of the game to outscore the Bison 45-3 the rest of the way before pulling the starters early in the fourth quarter.
•
Jeff Mathews completed 15-of-23 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns while directing an offense that didn't turn the ball over despite the difficult conditions. He became the school's career leader in total offense (8,096 yards) and completions (688).
• Mathews' three touchdowns moved the senior within one of Ricky Rahne's school record of 54. Mathews already owns 35 Cornell individual records.
• His favorite target was junior
Lucas Shapiro, who recorded his first career 100-yard receiving game with five catches for 113 yards and a touchdown. He had catches of 30 and 45 yards, and all five receptions went for a first down.
• The defense did its part, scoring twice itself and not allowing an offensive touchdown, the first time it has held an opponent out of the end zone since a 20-3 win at Princeton to open the 1999 campaign.
• In all, the Big Red took advantage of six Bucknell turnovers while not committing one itself.
• Senior place-kicker
John Wells was named Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week after making all six PAT kicks, his only field goal attempt (38-yards) and averaging 64.4 yards per kickoff with five touchbacks in eight opportunities.
•
David Archer will be looking to become the first Cornell head football coach to open with a 2-0 record since Jack Musick's Big Red squad defeated Buffalo (28-21) and Colgate (15-14) en route to a 3-0 start in 1966.
• Archer became the first Cornell coach to win his coaching debut since Jim Hofher's 1990 squad opened the year with a 17-14 triumph over Princeton.
ABOUT YALE
• Yale opened its 2013 season with an impressive 39-22 victory at Colgate, the most points by a Bulldog team since the 2008 season opener.
• The Bulldogs ran for 327 yards, including 236 from junior Tyler Varga. That yardage total was the third-best in a single game in Yale history.
• Varga ran the ball an astounding 39 times and found the end zone once.
• Senior quarterback Henry Furman ran for three touchdowns and completed 11-of-17 passes for 129 yards.
• Defensive end Dylan Drake posted three tackles for a loss and a sack, while Will Vaughan had a team-high 10 tackles.
• The Bulldog offense posted 30 total first downs and compiled 537 yards of offense, while the defense held Colgate to a 2-of-18 day on third down (18 percent).
• The win was the seventh consecutive season it opened with a non-conference win before meeting Cornell in week two. The teams have split those six meetings after Yale opened 1-0.
• Second-year head coach Tony Reno will be looking to match the team's win total from his first season when Yale went 2-8. Reno is 0-1 against Cornell.
A WIN OVER YALE WOULD ...
• make Cornell 2-0 to start a season for the first time since 2009.
• give the Big Red a 1-0 Ivy record to open the campaign for the second straight year.
• improve first-year head
David Archer's record to 2-0 as a collegiate head coach (first Cornell coach to open 2-0 since Jack Musick in 1966).
• give Cornell a 104-57-5 record all-time in the month of September.
• be the 629th in program history (11th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).
THE CORNELL-YALE SERIES
• Yale leads the all-time series 44-29-2 dating back to the first encounter in the 1889 season.
• 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 eight of the last 12 meetings between the squads, though Cornell upset the 2008 preseason Ivy League favorites 17-14 at Schoellkopf Field in 2008 and knocked off the Bulldogs 14-12 at the Yale Bowl in 2009.
• The Big Red beat Yale 45-6 last season to snap a two-game skid against the Bulldogs.
THE LAST TIME OUT
• Down 10-0 late in the first quarter, with rain pouring down and a crowd of more than 15,000 starting to head for cover, the Cornell football team took a cue from first-year head coach
David Archer '05. He told them it was Cornell weather, that it was just a matter of time. He was right. He was very right. Cornell outscored the Bison 45-3 the rest of the way and the Big Red made everyone forget about the weather in a 45-13 victory on Saturday, Sept. 21 at Schoellkopf Field.
• On a slippery field that grew harder to manage as the day went on, Cornell (1-0) secured the football and Bucknell didn't. The Big Red didn't commit a turnover on offense while taking advantage of six Bison miscues. The home team scored a pair of defensive touchdowns and didn't allow a touchdown itself (Bucknell's lone one came from its special teams).
• Senior
Tre' Minor scooped up a fumble and returned it 18 yards for a third quarter score. Five minutes later, sophomore
Jarrod Watson-Lewis went one better and scrambled 82 yards for a touchdown.
• Senior quarterback
Jeff Mathews continued to rewrite the Cornell record book with a 15-of-23 passing day for 285 yards and three touchdowns despite adverse passing conditions. With his strong afternoon, Mathews became the school's all-time leader in completions (688) and total offense (8,096), surpassing Ricky Rahne '02 on both lists.
• Junior
Lucas Shapiro, who hauled in five passes for 113 yards and a 30-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter that put the Big Red into the lead.
• Senior
Grant Gellatly added 66 yards on five catches, while
Luke Hagy and
Chris Lenz, both sophomores, each caught touchdown passes. For Lenz, his 44-yard scoring catch was his first career reception.
• Senior
Dustin Dillard also scored his first career touchdown.
• Senior place-kicker
John Wells booted a 38-yard field goal and six successful PAT kicks.
• Freshman
Chris Fraser handled the punting duties and averaged 43.6 yards on five punts and sophomore
Ben Rogers averaged 22.0 yards on three kick returns.
• Bucknell was led running back CJ Williams, who rushed 30 times for 148 yards, and do-everything Kyle Sullivan who returned a punt 59 yards for a touchdown, punted three times and caught a pass.
• Bison quarterback Brandon Wesley connected on just 7-of-16 passes for 118 yards with one interception. He also lost a pair of fumbles.
THE IVY OPENER
• Cornell opens the 58th official season of Ivy League play with a 27-28-2 record in the previous 57 conference starters.
• The Big Red has faced Yale 13 times (each of the last 13 seasons) in Ivy openers previously with a 5-8 mark.
• Included was last year's 45-6 Big Red victory in Ithaca.
NOTES TO KNOW
• The Big Red will attempt to open a season 2-0 for the first time since 2009 and claim its Ivy opener in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2008 and 2009.
• Cornell will be taking to the road for the first time in 2013 and attempting to snap a three-game skid away from home.
• Head coach
David Archer '05 will be looking to become to be the first Cornell head coach to open their coaching career with a 2-0 record since Jack Musick in 1966.
RECORD WATCH
• Senior
Jeff Mathews enters the contest needing 678 passing yards to surpass Brown's James Perry as the Ivy League's all-time leader (9,294) in that category.
• Mathews needs one touchdown pass to tie and two to surpass 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.
• If Mathews throws for 250+ yards, he'll break Rahne's school record of 17 games at or above that mark.
• Senior
Grant Gellatly needs 114 receiving yards to move into the school's top 10 career list. He enters the weekend in 12th with 1,328 yards. Sitting 10th is Zac Canty '09 with 1,442 yards.
PASSING FANCY
• A Cornell quarterback has thrown for 300 yards or more in 10 of the last 13 games. Prior to that, there were only 26 300-yard passing games in the program's first 124 seasons, spanning 1,132 games.
•
Jeff Mathews has posted five of the school's top 10 passing yardage totals in school history and three of the top five marks in Ivy League history.
• Mathews is one touchdown passes away from the school's career record of 54, set by Ricky Rahne '02.
• Mathews has been sacked 106 times in 30 career games (3.5 per game), but has missed just one game due to injury.
• If Mathews continues at his career average of 287.2 yards per game over his final nine career contests, he would end with his career with an Ivy League record 11,201 yards (current record, Brown's James Perry – current Princeton offensive coordinator – with 9,294 yards). If those numbers are boosted to 344.7 yards per game, which he has averaged over the last three seasons, he would finish with 11,718 yards.
• He is on pace to finish his career ranked among the top 20 all-time in passing yards in Football Championship Subdivision(FCS) history.
AWARD WINNER
• Senior place-kicker
John Wells was named Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week on Sept. 23. He was a perfect 6-for-6 on PATs, connected on a 38-yard field goal and averaged 64.4 yards on his eight kickoffs with five touchbacks in a 45-13 win over Bucknell.
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 meets Central New York rival Colgate on Saturday, Oct. 5 at 12:30 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
• The Big Red leads the all-time series 48-43-3, with the Raiders claiming wins in the last four meetings.
• Cornell's last win in the series came in 2007, a 17-14 victory at Schoellkopf Field.