QUICK HITS
• Cornell will host a rare Friday evening game at Schoellkopf Field when the Big Red welcomes Central New York rival Colgate on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m.
• The game will be the first ever played on a Friday night at Schoellkopf Field and the first for a Big Red team anywhere on a Friday since Oct. 26, 2007 when Cornell dropped a 34-31 contest at Princeton in a game broadcast on ESPNU.
• The Big Red will play an additional Friday night game to the list when it travels to Dartmouth on Nov. 6.
• Cornell is coming off a pair of heartbreaking losses to open the season and are looking for a breakthrough performance against a Colgate team that has had their number for much of the last two decades.
• The Big Red took a 26-7 lead over 2014 Ivy runner-up Yale last weekend, but for the second week in a row, the Bulldogs were able to mount a second half comeback to remain unbeaten. The first comeback was part of a 29-28 win at Colgate on Sept. 19.
• Despite its 0-2 start, Cornell has played plenty of good football against two teams that won eight games apiece last year (Bucknell and Yale).
• The Big Red had fourth quarter leads against both the Bison and the Bulldogs built on a stout defense and a balanced offense.
• Senior tailback Luke Hagy paces the Ivy League in rushing yards (111.0 per game) and brings a stretch of five consecutive 100-yard games into the weekend dating back to last season.
• Junior quarterback Robert Somborn has been efficient in his two starts, completing 60 percent of his passes for 390 yards and four touchdowns against just two interceptions.
• His favorite target has been classmate Collin Shaw who has eight catches for 155 yards and two scores, while Hagy has seven catches.
• The defense ranks second in the conference in fewest yards allowed per play(4.0) and is third in both rushing defense (110.0 ypg.) and pass efficiency defense (130.0).
• Sophomore Nick Gesualdi, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, leads the Big Red with 16 tackles, a mark that ranks him in the top 10 in the Ancient Eight.
• Junior punter Chris Fraser, the 2013 Ivy Rookie of the Year, continues to showcase himself as the conference's top punter. He ranks second in the league with his 44.3 yard punting average.
 • 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 (4-18 overall, .182; 3-12, Ivy, .200).
• 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
• Cornell and Colgate will be meeting for the 97th time dating back to the first contest in 1896 with the Big Red holding a narrow 48-45-3 lead.
• The Big Red owned the early series, going 13-0-1 in the first 14 games (1896-1911), while also posting nine and seven-game win streaks before 1951.
• Colgate has had the better of the series since 1975, capturing 29 of the last 36 meetings, including 10 straight (1993-2005) before the Big Red commenced on a two-game win streak.
• The Raiders have won six consecutive contests by a combined score of 230-108 (38.3-18.0), including a 27-12 Colgate win last season in Hamilton.
 
ABOUT COLGATE
• Colgate enters the contest with a 1-3 record after picking up its first win of the season, a 31-14 triumph at home against Patriot League foe Holy Cross.
• The Raiders and Big Red share one common opponent, Yale. Colgate lost 29-28 at home, while Cornell dropped a 33-26 decision at Yale. Both Cornell and Colgate held a double-digit lead into the second half.
• Dual-threat quarterback Jake Melville is averaging 151.8 yards per game in the air with three touchdowns and just one interception, and rushes for more than 50 yards per game with one score.
• The Raiders were picked to finish third in the preseason Patriot League poll after returning 45 letter winner and 15 starters, including nine of the offensive side of the ball.
• Colgate is coming off a 5-7 season in 2014, its first under longtime assistant coach Dan Hunt.
 
A WIN OVER COLGATE WOULD ...
• give Cornell its first win of the season, making them 1-2.
• even the Big Red's non-conference and home record at 1-1.
• snap a three-game losing streak overall, as well as a six-game skid against Colgate.
• extend Cornell's lead in the all-time series to 48-45-3.
• be the 632nd in program history (12th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).
 
CORNELL VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
• Cornell has a 130-79-7 record against the seven current members of the Patriot League football conference, including a 48-45-3 edge over Colgate.
• The Big Red has advantages over Bucknell (42-13), Fordham (4-3-0), Georgetown (2-1-0), Holy Cross (5-0-0), Lafayette (14-8-2) and Lehigh (15-9-2).
• This is the last of its two non-conference games against Patriot League opponents this season. The Big Red dropped its season opener to Bucknell 19-14 on Sept. 19. 
 
LAST TIME OUT
• For one team, it was its second straight fourth quarter comeback. For the other, it was the second straight weekend of fourth quarter heartbreak.
• Cornell came out on the short side of a 33-26 decision against last season's Ivy League runner-up Yale at the Yale Bowl in front of nearly 16,000.
• With Cornell seemingly in control throughout, Yale battled back to tie the game with 1:12 left after blocking a 42-yard field goal attempt that likely would have put the game on ice.
• Instead, the Bulldogs took the momentum, forced a three-and-out after the kickoff and used a 52-yard pass play from Morgan Roberts to Sebastien Little with 0:32 left to take its first lead of the game.
• The turn of events soured what was Cornell's second consecutive outstanding effort against one of the top teams in the region.
• After giving up a fourth quarter lead a week ago to a Bucknell team that finished second in the Patriot League a year ago, this effort came against the Ivy League runner-up from 2014, and a team that had topped the Big Red 51-13 last fall.
• Cornell built that lead on the legs of senior Luke Hagy (23 carries, 117 yards and a touchdown), who posted his fifth straight 100-yard game on the ground.
• Junior Collin Shaw caught seven passes for 114 yards, his second career 100-yard game, as the favorite target of junior Robert Somborn.
• Somborn completed 20-of-30 passes for 238 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.
• Senior fullback Julian Gallo also caught a touchdown pass in the loss.
• The Big Red's defense did outstanding work for most of the contest against one of the most explosive offenses in the nation.
• Yale led the nation in scoring offense a season ago, but Nick Gesualdi (10 tackles), Jarrod Watson-Lewis (four tackles, two pass breakups) and the middle linebacking tandem of Miles Norris and Jackson Weber (nine combined tackles, two sacks) were instrumental in keeping Cornell in control throughout.
• Roberts led Yale with a 25-of-47 passing day for 371 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for a fourth.
• Little caught four passes for 100 yards and his score, one of three Yale receivers to catch a touchdown on the day.


 
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
• Cornell will be playing its second-ever Friday night game (dating back to the Ivy League's formation in 1956) and its first under the lights at Schoellkopf Field.
• The Big Red is 0-1 on Friday, dropping a 34-31 decision to Princeton on Oct. 26, 2007 in a game that was televised by ESPNU.
• In total, Cornell is 5-4 in nine games played on days other than Saturday since the official formation of the Ivy League.
• Cornell played Penn on Thanksgiving in Philadelphia eight times between 1956 and 1989, going 5-3 in those Thursday contests.
• That is part of a much longer tradition of Cornell and Penn playing on Thanksgiving that dated back as far as 1895.
 
SOME NOTES TO KNOW
• Senior running back Luke Hagy enters the weekend with a streak of five consecutive 100-yard rushing games. He is looking to become the first Cornellian to run for more than 100 yards in six straight contests since Chad Levitt '97 during the 1996 campaign. The school record is 10 games set by Ed Marinaro '72 over the final 10 games of his storied career.
• Hagy boosted his career rushing yards total to 1,844, passing Pete Larson '67 (1,751) and Joe Holland '79 (1,755) to move into eighth place all-time at Cornell.
• He also moved from ninth to seventh on the school's all-purpose yardage list, surpassing Scott Oliaro '93 (3,260 yards) and Gary Wood '64 (3,337 yards). He ended the day with 3,345 yards.
• With his six catches, Hagy jumped to 10th all-time at Cornell in receptions (129).
• 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.
• Hagy has at least one catch in all 31 varsity games. If he makes a catch in all 10 this season, he would tie the school record for consecutive contests with a catch (39), currently held by Keith Ferguson '03.
• Senior fullback Julian Gallo's 7-yard touchdown catch to open the scoring wasn't just his first career catch and his first career score, but it also came on his second varsity touch. He previously had one carry as a sophomore against Harvard.
• Freshman running back Chris Walker earned his first varsity playing time and picked up a 4-yard carry.
• Junior tight end Nick Bland, who entered the game with one career catch, caught three passes for 34 yards, including a career-long 26-yard catch.
• Senior Debo Sodeke's blocked PAT in the second quarter was his first career block.
• 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 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.
• The Big Red will play its 99th all-time game vs. Dartmouth this season, its 98th against Princeton and its 97th vs. Colgate.
• The Big Red offense hasn't been shut out in 51 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.
• 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.
• Walk-on defensive back Eric Sade played for two seasons on the men's ice hockey team before joining the Big Red on the gridiron.
• 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 will meet Sacred Heart in non-conference action, its 89th opponent all-time. Among active Division I football schools (BCS and FCS), Cornell has also played exactly one game against Albany (1-0), Cincinnati (0-1), Michigan State (1-0), New Hampshire (1-0), Stanford (0-1)and Virginia Tech (1-0).
• Cornell reached 23,000 points in school history in its season opener against Bucknell. The program enters the weekend having scored 23,036 points over 1,166 games — an average of 19.8 points per game.
 
BIG RED INVOLVED IN STORIED RIVALRIES
• The Big Red is involved in three of the top 20 most-played rivalries in college football.
• The Cornell-Penn series ranks fifth in most games played, a total that will reach 122 this season.
• The 102 meetings between Cornell and Columbia ranks 12th, while the Cornell-Colgate rivalry stands 17th with 96 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 96 years. They trail only the Lafayette-Lehigh series, which has been played every year since 1897.
 
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.
 
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 631-501-34 (.556) in its 127 years of football.
• The program's 631 wins rank 12th among all FCS schools.
• Over the years, Cornell has taken on 88 different opponents, with its most frequent opponent being Penn (121 meetings).
 
CORNELLIANS IN THE NFL
• Two Cornellians were on NFL opening day rosters in 2015.
• Bryan Walters '10, one of the Big Red's all-time greats at wide receivers, begins his sixth NFL season overall and first with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• He spent the last three seasons with his hometown Seattle Seahawks with a Super Bowl ring to his name in 2014.
• He previously had spent time with the San Diego Chargers and the Minnesota Vikings.
• Walters has played in 23 career games with one start.
• He has caught 13 passes for 129 yards, returned two kickoffs for 43 yards and returned 35 punts for 252 yards.
• Third-year offensive lineman JC Tretter '13 was an FCS All-American before being drafted in the fourth round of the NFL Draft by the Green Bay Packers in 2013.
• Tretter suffered an injury during official team activities (OTA) and missed his first NFL season, and was slated to be the Packers' starting center in 2014 before a preseason injury.
• He appeared in eight contests as a reserve for the Packers in 2014 once getting healthy, seeing action at both tackle spots and left guard.
 
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.
 
PETE GOGOLAK '64 EARNS 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.
 
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 welcome defending Ivy League champion and 2015 Ancient Eight preseason favorite Harvard to Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 12 p.m.
• The game will be broadcast live on the American Sports Network.
• The Big Red and the Crimson will be meeting for the 80th time dating back to the first meeting in 1890, with Harvard winning 13 of the last 14 games to lead all-time 44-32-2.