QUICK HITS
• If you're heading to New Jersey for Saturday's Cornell-Princeton game, you're likely to get a treat, and more than likely to see lots of tricks.
• The Halloween showcase will kick off at 3:30 p.m. on the American Sports Network live from Princeton Stadium.
• Cornell is 10-8 all-time on Halloween, including 0-3 against Princeton (1896, 1903, 2009).
• The game can also be viewed on the Ivy League Digital Network, while Barry Leonard will be on the call on WHCU 95.9 FM/870 AM.
• Annually the Cornell-Princeton series has been an entertaining contest with amazing storylines for the last quarter-century.
• Peppered with last-second finishes, crazy endings and upsets galore, eight of the last 11 contests between the teams have been decided by a touchdown or less, with that stretching to 11 of the last 15 meetings and 18 of the last 25.
• Thirteen games have been decided by a field goal or less or in overtime during that 25-year span.
• The Tigers have won two straight meetings, including last season's 38-27 victory in Ithaca.
• Both squads are desperate for a win, with the Big Red looking to end a seven-game losing streak and Princeton out to snap a two-game skid.
• Cornell couldn't overcome a 21-0 deficit 10 minutes into its 44-24 loss to Brown last weekend.
• The Big Red trailed by as many as 25 points (28-3) in the first half, but rallied to within 10 points (34-24) early in the fourth quarter.
• Despite missing its top two tailbacks, Cornell rushed for a season-best 260 yards - the most by a Big Red team since the 2009 campaign.
• Taking away sack yardage, Cornell averaged 7.3 yards per carry on 37 carries with eight rushes of at least 10 yards.
• Sophomore Jack Gellatly, earning his first varsity carries, ran for 93 yards on 12 carries and added five catches for 52 yards.
• Senior Ben Rogers, who has two 100-yard receiving games this season, hauled in five catches for 109 yards and two touchdowns.
• Junior captain Miles Norris had eight tackles and forced a fumble, but the defense surrendered a pair of touchdowns in short field situations (1-yard and 37-yard drives).
• Junior punter Chris Fraser leads the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in punting average (46.6 yards per punt), a mark that ranks sixth among all college punters at all divisions.
• The Tigers have lost consecutive road games, one in heartbreaking fashion in the final minute (38-31 at Brown) and the other after trailing undefeated and nationally ranked Harvard at the half by just a touchdown (42-7 at Harvard).
• Princeton began the season 4-0 before injuries took its toll on head coach Bob Surace's team.
• Kicking legends Pete '64 (Cornell) and Charlie (Princeton) Gogolak have been named the National Football Foundation's Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award Recipients for 2015.
 • David Archer '05, the Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Cornell Football, is in his third season at the helm of the Big Red (4-22 overall, .154; 3-14, Ivy, .176).
• Archer is the second youngest Division I head football coach in the country.
• He had been an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at his alma mater for six years.
• Archer was hired as head coach on Jan. 3, 2013.

THE SERIES
• This will be the 98th meeting between Cornell and Princeton, with the Tigers holding a commanding 59-36-2 advantage.
• The two teams first met in 1891, a 6-0 Princeton win.
• In all, 15 of the last 20 meetings have been decided by a touchdown or less.
• Princeton has won consecutive games over the Big Red, including last season's 38-27 triumph in Ithaca.
 
ABOUT PRINCETON
• The Tigers enter the weekend with a 4-2 record after dropping its second straight game, 42-7 at Harvard, after beginning the season with four wins.
• Princeton outscored opponents 146-58 over the season's first four weeks, including a 52-26 victory over Lehigh and a 44-20 triumph over Colgate.
• The Tigers' offense is averaging 30.7 points and 421.8 yards per game this season with a balanced attack (246.3 yards passing, 175.5 yards rushing).
• Quarterback Chad Kanoff has completed 56 percent of his passes for 1,310 yards and four touchdowns, while the trio of Joe Rhattigan, DiAndre Atwater and John Lovett have combined for 926 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on the ground.
• Lovett has also caught 22 passes for 300 yards - both team highs.
• Princeton's defense has forced 13 turnovers, including two interceptions by Khamal Brown.
• Place-kicker Nolan Bieck has been a weapon, making all six field goal attempts (two longer than 40 yards) and is 20-of-22 in PAT kicks.
• Head coach Bob Surace is one of only two men to win an Ivy League title as both a player and head coach. He sports a 24-32 record, though it is 22-14 over the last four years after going 2-18 over his first two seasons.

A WIN OVER PRINCETON WOULD ...
• give Cornell its first win of the season, making it 1-6.
• make the Big Red's Ivy record 1-3 on the season.
• snap a seven-game losing streak dating back to last season.
• give Cornell a 11-8 record all-time on Halloween day, including 1-3 vs. Princeton.
• cut the Bears' lead in the all-time series to 59-37-2.
• be the 632nd in program history (12th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).
 
WILDEST SERIES IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL?
• Peppered with last-second finishes, crazy endings and upsets galore, eight of the last 11 contests have been decided by a touchdown or less, with that stretching to 11 of the last 15 meetings and 18 of the last 25.
• Thirteen games have been decided by a field goal or less or in overtime during that 25-year span.
• During that two-decade span, an amazing run of exciting games have been played between the teams.
• In the last 15 years alone, Cornell blocked a PAT with 11 seconds left to win by one in 2000,a Princeton rally from a 25-10 deficit in the fourth quarter ended with a 32-25 Tiger win in 2002, a blocked Tiger PAT late in the fourth gave the Big Red another win (2004), Derek Javarone of Princeton booted a game-winning field goal in OT to set an Ivy League record for career field goals (2005), Cornell handed Ivy champ Princeton its only league loss in 2006, a Peter Zell 47-yard field goal fell short at the horn in a 37-34 Tiger win in 2007 and the Big Red nearly rallied from a 12-point deficit in the final 45 seconds, with a pass into the end zone falling incomplete as time ran out in a 31-26 loss in 2008.
• In 2009, Tommy Wornham connected with Trey Peacock for a 78-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter gave Princeton a 17-13 win.
• The 2010 season saw Emani Fenton break up a two-point conversion that would have tied the game in the fourth quarter and then intercept a pass with the Tigers in chip-shot field goal position with 23 seconds remaining for a 21-19 Big Red win.
• Cornell won 24-7 in the 2011 meeting, but even that was in a rare October Nor'easter than dropped eight inches of snow during the game.
• It was back to normal in 2012, as John Wells connected on a 23-yard field with 50 seconds left after missing a game-tying PAT attempt earlier in the fourth quarter.
• Two years ago, the Ivy champions were too much for the Big Red in a 53-20 Tiger victory that saw Tiger quarterback Quinn Epperly set an NCAA FCS record by opening the game with 29 consecutive completions and finished the day with six total touchdowns.
• Last season the teams combined for 65 points, 897 total yards (including 681 yards through the air) in a 38-27 Princeton victory.
 
GOGOLAK BROTHERS EARN NFF HONOR
• Cornell football great Pete Gogolak '64 and his brother, Princeton star Charlie Gogolak, have been named the National Football Foundation's Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award Recipients for 2015.
• The first soccer-style place-kicker in collegiate football history, Pete '64 set a national major college record of 44 consecutive kicking conversions from 1961-63.
• First presented in 1974, the NFF Outstanding Contribution to Amateur Football Award provides national recognition to those whose efforts to support the NFF and its goals have been local in nature or who have made significant contributions to the game of football either to the manner in which it is played and coached or to the manner in which it is enjoyed by spectators.
• The Gogolaks become the 39th and 40th recipients of the award.
• The Gogolaks will be honored at the 58th NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Dec. 8 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.
 
LAST TIME OUT
• Brown jumped out to a three-touchdown lead less than 10 minutes in at Schoellkopf Field, but Cornell kept coming, inch-by-inch.
• The Big Red rallied to within 10 points early in the fourth quarter thanks to an impressive game on the ground from its offense, but the Bears' air attack ultimately lifted them to a 44-24 victory.
• The Big Red piled up 260 rushing yards, with sophomore fullback Jack Gellatly leading four rushers with at least 30 yards on the ground with 93 yards on just 12 carries.
• Sophomores Josh Sweet (six carries, 60 yards) and Jake Jatis (four carries, 48 yards) and junior Dane Brown (six carries, 33 yards) were also highly effective.
• The rushing total was the highest in a game for a Big Red team since the 2009 squad piled up 284 yards against Fordham.
• The Big Red's offensive line of seniors Zach Wilk and Daniel Cunningham and juniors Dan Morin, Alex Emanuels and John Foster continuously opened holes that allowed players to average 7.3 yards per carry.
• Cornell's three touchdowns all came through the air however, with senior Ben Rogers hauling in two as part of a five-catch, 109-yard effort.
• Junior Robert Somborn completed 18-of-38 passes for 205 yards and three touchdowns without committing a turnover.
• Defensively, Miles Norris had eight tackles and forced a fumble.
• Freshman Mason Banbury,seeing his first action on the defensive line, had four tackles and a sack.
• Pena led Brown with his 112 rushing yards and four short touchdowns, while quarterback Marcus Fuller tossed for 312 yards and two touchdowns.
• Alex Jette was his favorite target, hauling in nine passes for 157 yards and the 59-yard score in the game's first minute.


 
SOME NOTES TO KNOW
• Senior running back Luke Hagy boosted his career rushing yards total to 2,001 against Sacred Heart, becoming the seventh rusher to reach 2,000 career yards at Cornell.
• Hagy also sits seventh on the school's all-purpose yardage list with 3,529 yards.
• He is 52 receiving yards away from becoming the first Ivy League player to surpass 2,000 career rushing yards and 1,500 career receiving yards.
• Hagy is the 29th player in school history to reach 1,000 career rushing yards and the first to hit the century mark in both rushing and receiving at Cornell.
• Hagy is one of just six players in school history to throw, pass and catch touchdown passes in their career. He joins Derrick Harmon '84, John Tagliaferri '86, Steve Lutz '89, Luke Siwula '08 and Ryan Houska '12 on that exclusive list.
• Junior punter Chris Fraser has earned first-team All-Ivy honors in each of his first two seasons. The last Cornellian to earn back-to-back first-team all-league accolades was Kevin Boothe '05.
• Fraser, who ranks first nationally in punting average (46.6 yards per punt), has led the Ivy League in punting average by at least two yards per kick in each of his first two seasons. He's more than three yards clear of his opposition through six games.
• Fraser's 46.6 yards per punt ranks sixth in all of college football — he ranks behind only FBS punters Michael Carrizosa of San Jose State (49.0), Drew Kaser of Texas A&M (49.0), Tom Hackett of Utah (47.2), Tennessee's Trevor Daniel (47.1) and West Virginia's Nick O'Toole (46.8).
• Fraser was named to the STATS FCS Preseason All-America third team, joining fellow Ivy Leaguers Seth DeValve (Princeton, wide receiver) and Cole Toner (Harvard, offensive line) on the third team as the lone representatives from the conference.
•Sophomore Jake Jatis earned five starts under center a year ago, becoming the second Cornellian to earn a start at quarterback as a freshman, joining all-time Ivy leading passer Jeff Mathews '13.
• Cornell has had the last two Ivy League Rookies of the Year (Chris Fraser in 2013, Nick Gesualdi in 2014). No Ivy team has ever crowned Rookie of the Year three years in a row.
• The Big Red will play its 98th career game against Princeton and will later player its 99th game vs. Dartmouth. It played its 97th game against Colgate earlier this year.
• The Big Red offense hasn't been shut out in 55 games, with the last coming against Penn (34-0 to close out 2009).
• The last time Cornell was picked to finish eighth in the preseason media poll (2004), the Big Red became the second Ivy League team ever to go from an 0-7 campaign to a winning league record (4-3) in the span of a year.
• Since taking over the program, head coach David Archer '05 is 3-1 in the trophy series games against Columbia (Empire Bowl, 2-0) and Penn (Trustees' Cup, 1-1).
• Cornell reached 23,000 points in school history in its season opener against Bucknell. The program enters the weekend having scored 23,087 points over 1,170 games — an average of 19.7 points per game.
 
HAGY NOMINATED FOR GOOD WORKS TEAM
• Senior running back Luke Hagy has been nominated for the 2015 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, the most esteemed off the field honor in college football.
• The Good Works Team recognizes college football players from across the country who exemplify a superior commitment to community service and volunteerism.
• Hagy is one of just two Ivy League players nominated, along with Yale's Sebastian Little.
• Comprised of 11 players from the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision and 11 players from the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision, Divisions II, III and the NAIA, the final roster of 22 award recipients will be unveiled in September.
• In order to meet the criteria set forth by Allstate and the AFCA, each player must be actively involved with a charitable organization or service group while maintaining a strong academic standing.
 
THE WILSON PROJECT
• Junior tight end Nick Bland initiated "The Wilson Project" this fall as a way to give other members of the program an experience similar to his after having a ball signed for a family friend whose father passed away suddenly.
• Realizing the power of his simple gift of a football, he arranged to have 150 footballs for his teammates and staff to sign and provide to someone who has had a great effect on their life or someone they thought could use a positive influence.
• The players and staff had the balls signed by everyone in the program and then shipped or hand delivered, along with a note as why the recipient was getting the ball.
READ MORE ABOUT THE WILSON PROJECT HERE


 
FOOTBALL GETS NCAA RECOGNITION (AGAIN)
• Football has been publicly recognized by the NCAA for its Academic Progress Report (APR) score being in the top 10 percent nationally each year since the scores were first tabulated in 2004-05.
• Three Cornell sports (football, men's golf and women's soccer) have been publicly recognized each year since the APR was first released and are among just 129 teams across the country with that accomplishment.
• Cornell's score of 986 (out of 1,000) this past year is tied for its third-highest ever, behind only the 987 it had scored the previous two years.
• Only six FCS schools have been honored each year in football (Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Penn and Yale), with five coming from the Ivy League.
• The APR measures semester-by-semester records for every individual team in Division I with regard to each team members' continuing eligibility, retention and progress toward graduation.
 
STATING THE STATES
• Cornell's 108-player roster is made up of student-athletes from 28 states, as well as Canada, South Africa and two from the District of Columbia.
• A team-high 15 players come to Cornell from California, while another 12 attended school in bordering Pennsylvania, 11 come from the home state of New York and 10 reside in Texas.
• Seven players are from Michigan, six players are from Maryland and five apiece come from Georgia and Virginia.
 
CORNELL FOOTBALL AT 128 YEARS
• This is the 129th year since the start of Cornell football, but it will be the 128th season.
• The first official Big Red football team was formed in 1887, and Cornell has sponsored a squad every year since except 1918 during World War I.
• The Big Red has an overall record of 631-505-34 (.554) in its 128 years of football.
• The program's 631 wins rank 12th among all FCS schools.
• Over the years, Cornell has taken on 89 different opponents, with its most frequent opponent being Penn (121 meetings).
 
CORNELLIANS IN THE PROS
• Cornell currently has four active players in professional football — two in the NFL (Bryan Walters, Jacksonville Jaguars; JC Tretter, Green Bay Packers) and two in the CFL (Jeff Mathews and Luke Tasker, Hamilton Tiger-Cats).
• Walters is having a career year with 19 catches for 228 yards in six contests (one start) for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• In 27 career games, Walters has 28 catches for 312 yards for San Diego, Seattle and Jacksonville and has also returned kicks (six for 123 yards - 20.5 yards per return) and punts (40 for 276 yards - 6.9 yards per return).
• Tretter has played in 14 career contests with the Green Bay Packers on the offensive line.
• He is also on the hands-team on special teams, recovering a pop-up kick in the 27-20 win over the San Diego Chargers two weekends ago.
• Mathews is starting at quarterback for former head coach Kent Austin in Hamilton and has completed 69 percent of his passes for 1,298 yards and six touchdowns with six interceptions and has scored six times on the ground.
• He is coming off a 22-of-32 day for 270 yards and two touchdowns in a 40-13 lossto British Columbia last Friday.
• Tasker, in his third season with Hamilton, has caught 60 passes for 844 yards and six touchdowns.
• Tasker caught five passes for 93 yards and a touchdown in the loss to British Columbia.
 
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
• Cornell holds claim to five national titles in its storied football history.
• The Big Red claimed at least a share of the 1915 (Helms Athletic Foundation, Houlgate System, National Championship Foundation and Parke Davis), 1921 (Helms, Houlgate, National Championship Foundation and Parke Davis), 1922 (Helms, Parke Davis), 1923 (Sagarin) and 1939 (Litkenhous, Sagarin) titles.
• All five teams went undefeated and dominated their opponents.
• The 1915 team was 9-0 and outscored its opponents 287-50 with four shutouts.
• The 1921, 1922 and 1923 squads each went 8-0 and outscored their opponents 392-21, 339-27 and 320-33, respectively.
• The teams allowed more than one touchdown in a game just once during that 24-game span while scoring 40 or more points 14 times.
• The 1939 team was 8-0 and defeated Syracuse, Penn State and Ohio State.
 
60TH SEASON OF IVY LEAGUE ATHLETICS
• Throughout the 2015-16 season, the Ivy League will be celebrating its 60th season with impactful content across IvyLeagueSports.com, The Ivy League Digital Network and the League's social media outlets.
• Be on the lookout for the #IvyAt60 hashtag to keep up the coverage of the League's 60th season.
 
NEXT UP
• Cornell will play its second Friday night contest of the year when it visits Dartmouth on Friday, Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. in Hanover, N.H.
• The Big Red trails the all-time series 57-40-1 dating back to the first meeting in 1900.
• It will be the 99th meeting between the teams.
• The Big Green has won six consecutive games in the series.