ITHACA, N.Y. — The sprint football team will try to move to .500 on the season when it travels to Army West Point on Friday night at 7 p.m.. Cornell's third ranked rushing offense will try to crack Army and a defensivee that has posted two shuouts so far in 2016.
GAME INFORMATION
GAME #4: Cornell Big Red at Army West Point
WHEN: Friday, Oct. 7, 2016, 7 p.m.
WHERE: West Point, N.Y.
2016 RECORDS: Cornell 1-2, Army West Point 2-1
LIVE STATS: GoArmyWestPoint.com
VIDEO: GoArmyWestPoint.com
ABOUT THE BIG RED
Last week against Chestnut Hill, Cornell fought back from a 16-point deficit and took a one point lead in the fourth quarter but saw the Griffins score a waning-minute touchdown to win, 29-24. Freshman
Will Griffen had a big game, rushing for 74 yards and catching nine balls for 103 yards. Senior quarterback
Rob Pannullo had another productive game behind center, throwing for 235 yards and two touchdowns and running for 17 yards and a touchdown. The Cornell defense got stellar performances from
John Zelek (10 tackles and one forced fumble) and
Marcus Weeks (six tackles). … The Big Red rushing offense is averaging 147.0 yards per game, which is third overall in the league... Cornell entered the game against Chestnut Hill coming off of its first win of the season against Mansfield, 30-12. It was the Big Red's 13th straight victory over the Mountaineers. Cornell Red dropped the season-opener to Navy, 40-7, at home.
ABOUT ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH TERRY CULLEN
Terry Cullen, The
Terry Cullen Head Coach of Sprint Football, has been the patriarch of the program at Cornell for 53 years after joining his father, former head coach Bob Cullen, in 1964. In his 53-year tenure,
Terry Cullen has an overall record of 234-215-11 and his record as head coach is 175-150-7. Cullen has had two undefeated seasons (2006 and 1982) and won six league championships. His title was endowed in 2001 and, in 2008, he requested to relinquish some of his everyday coaching duties to co-head coach
Bart Guccia.
ABOUT CO-HEAD COACH BART GUCCIA
This is Guccia's 12th season as a member of the sprint football staff and his eighth as a co-head coach. Since Guccia joined the Big Red staff in 2005, the team is a combined 44-34. As co-head coaches, Guccia and Cullen have amassed a 31-28 record.
PRODUCTIVE PUNTER
Punter
Ryan Jackson currently sits atop the CSFL statistical board with an average of 36.1 yards per punt. Against Chestnut Hill, the senior punted six times for an average of 36.8 yards per punts and had a season-high 49 yard punt in the third quarter. Jackson had a strong start to the season, booting the ball five times for a total of 179 yards against Navy, and then followed that up by averaging 35.0 yards per punt against Mansfield.
CAPTAIN QUINTUPLE
Cornell will be led by five senior captains during the 2016 season. The offense will be represented by quarterback
Rob Pannullo, running back
Kevin Nathanson and lineman
Caleb Minsky. On the other side of the ball, defensive back
Ryan Jackson and linebacker Chris D'Ambrosio will lead the defensive charge. All five players have been members of the sprint football team every year since their arrival at Cornell in the fall of 2013.
FRESH FACES
The sprint football program may have graduated 23 seniors after last season, but they also added 25 new faces to the roster this fall. Co-head coach
Bart Guccia says that the 14 freshmen, five sophomores, five juniors and one senior will be critical in filling out the depth chart behind the plethora of returning starters.
BIG RED REWIND
Cornell finished the 2015 season with a 4-3 record, its first season over .500 since 2012, and finished fourth overall in the CSFL standings. …
Rob Pannullo returns at the quarterback position for Cornell and will look to build off of his junior year when he accounted for 1,045 yards, throwing for 605 and running for another 440. He was fourth overall in the CSFL for total offense in 2015. … On defense, Cornell returns nine starters from 2015. Seven of the top 10 tacklers are back, including 2015 All-CSFL second team honoree linebacker Chris D'Ambrosio, whose 40 tackles and three sacks both led the Big Red last year, is back for his senior season.
ABOUT ARMY WEST POINT
The defending CSFL champions are coming off of a 58-0 win over Mansfield in week three. The Black Knight defense forced a season-high five turnovers (one fumble recovery and four interceptions). … Army's offense is ranked second overall in both points per game (35.0) and yards per game (356.3). Brady Miller and Keegan West have been splitting time at quarterback for the Black Knights. Miller has completed 43.3 percent of his passes for 257 total yards and two touchdowns while West has connected on 47.4 percent of his throws for 196 total yards and two scores. West has also rushed for 150 yards and two touchdowns, second to Marqus Burell's 163 yards and two touchdowns. Jaylen Collier has 107 yards and one touchdown. … Army has the top ranked defense in the CSFL. It's held opponents to 187.7 yards per game – and just 17.3 rush yards per game – and has given up just two touchdowns through three games. Matthew Tamburri leads the Black Knights with 20 tackles and one interception. Curtis Jerzerick has 18 tackles while James Scroggins has 13 tackles and three sacks. As a team, Army has recorded six interceptions. … The Black Knights lost to Penn, 14-9, in week two. It was the first time that Army lost to a non-service academy since Cornell beat the Black Knights, 20-10, back in 2010.
THE SERIES WITH ARMY WEST POINT
The Black Knights spoiled Cornell's home opener last season with a 33-0 victory, their fifth straight win against Cornell. The win bumped their overall lead in the series to 58-18. Four of Cornell's wins over the Black Knights came between 2006 and 2010.
UP NEXT
Cornell will have next weekend off and then play its first home game in a month when it welcomes Post University to Schoellkopf Field for a 7 p.m. matchup on Friday, Oct. 21.
