QUICK HITS
• Big Red football will be front and center as part of Cornell's Homecoming celebration when the team kicks off its Ivy League opener against Yale on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 3 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
• The contest will be broadcast live on the Ivy League Digital Network and can be heard locally on WHCU 870 AM, with Barry Leonard and Jason Weinstein on the call.
• The contest will serve as the centerpiece of the weekend festivities, which includes fireworks and a laser light show on Friday evening at Schoellkopf.
• The Big Red opened the season in style, knocking off rival Bucknell in the annual "Battle of the 'Nells" 24-16 in Lewisburg, Pa. last weekend.
• The visitors struggled with penalties (11 for 85 yards), but took care of the ball (zero turnovers) and took it away from the home team (three turnovers) to earn a hard-fought win.
• Cornell rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second quarter, the first time it has come back for a win after trailing by two scores since falling behind 10-0 in the 2013 opener to Bucknell in head coach David Archer's first game — an eventual 45-13 win.
• Sophomore quarterback Dalton Banks accounted for three touchdowns (two rushing, one passing) and classmate Chris Walker ran for 141 yards to lead an offensive attack that rallied from a 10-0 deficit in the first half.
• Sophomore DJ Woullard had a pair of interceptions and junior Daniel Crochet made a career-high 11 tackles to spearhead the defense, which also got eight tackles and two pass breakups from junior Nick Gesualdi and five tackles, a sack, a fumble recovery and a pass breakup from junior Kurt Frimel.
• Sophomore place-kicker Zach Mays was perfect on four kicks (one field goal, three PATs) and put all five of his kickoffs through the end zone for touchbacks, and senior All-America punter Chris Fraser averaged 41.5 yards per punt, including a 58-yard bomb in the fourth that played a pivotal role in the win.
• Now Cornell will turn its attention to Yale while trying to earn its third 2-0 start this century and its first win in an Ivy opener since 2012.
• Yale will enter the contest after a 55-13 loss to 2015 FCS quarterfinalist Colgate in the 2016 opener and will attempt to avoid going 0-2 to start a season since 1997 (52-14 to Brown, 28-0 to Connecticut).
• Cornell's coaches will be wearing Coach to Cure MD patches on the sidelines this weekend as part of focusing the attention of the nation's sports fans on the fight to cure Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, the most prolific genetic killer diagnosed in childhood.
• Football fans can donate to life-saving research by either going online at www.coachtocuremd.org or by texting the word CURE to 90999 on their mobile phones to give $5 on the next mobile phone bill.
  • David Archer '05, the Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Cornell Football, is in his fourth season at the helm of the Big Red (6-25 overall, .194; 4-21, Ivy, .160).
• Archer is the seventh-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.

ABOUT YALE
• Yale dropped its season opener at home to Colgate, 55-13.
• The Bulldogs started the contest with a touchdown, but the Raiders scored the game's final 34 points, including three passing touchdowns by Jake Melville.
• Yale was limited to 188 yards (12 yards rushing on 21 carries) by the preseason Patriot League favorite, who rolled up 558 yards of offense on their own.
• Bulldog quarterback Rafe Chapple completed 18-of-31 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown, but was intercepted three times.
• His favorite target was Michael Siragusa Jr., who caught four passes for 61 yards.
• Defensively, Hayden Carlson had 14 tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery, while Ryan Burke notched 11 stops and one for a loss.
• Under fifth-year head coach Tony Reno, the Bulldogs return 38 letter winners from last season's 6-4 squad.

THE SERIES
• Yale leads the all-time series 47-29-2 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 11 of the last 15 meetings between the squads, though Cornell upset the 2008 preseason Ivy League favorites 17-14 at Schoellkopf Field and knocked off the Bulldogs 14-12 at the Yale Bowl in 2009.
• Yale avenged a 2012 loss to the Big Red in Ithaca with a 38-23 victory in New Haven, Conn. in 2013.
• The Bulldogs staged a late comeback to overtake the Big Red, 33-26, last season in New Haven, Conn.
 
A WIN OVER YALE WOULD ...
• make Cornell 2-0 to open a season for the first time since 2009.
• start the Big Red off at 1-0 in Ivy League play for the first time since 2012.
• narrow the Bulldogs' lead in the all-time series to 47-30-2.
• improve the team's record on Homecoming to 36-31-2 all-time and make the team 4-2 in its last six Homecoming games.
• make Cornell 28-31-2 all-time in Ivy League openers, including 6-11 against Yale.
• give Cornell a 105-62-5 (.625) record all-time in the month of September.
• be the 634th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).
 
LAST TIME OUT - CORNELL 24, BUCKNELL 16
• Game Story I Box Score I Highlights
• 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.
• Cornell built its 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-ard 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.
• 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.



 THE IVY OPENER
• Cornell opens the 61st official season of Ivy League play with a 27-31-2 record in the previous 60 conference starters.
• The Big Red has faced Yale 16 times (each of the last 16 seasons) in Ivy openers previously with a 5-11 mark.
• Included was last year's 33-26 Yale triumph in New Haven, Conn.
 
CORNELL ON HOMECOMING
• Cornell football has a 35-31-2 record dating back to 1948 in Homecoming games.
• The Big Red fell to Bucknell 19-14 last season at Schoellkopf Field on Sept. 19 in front of 16,057 fans.
 
CORNELL HALL OF FAME TO ADD TWO GRIDDERS
• A pair of Cornell football legends will be inducted into the school's Athletics Hall of Fame this weekend.
• All-American and two-time NFL Super Bowl champion Kevin Boothe '05 and top 10 all-time rusher Scott Oliaro '92 will be among 10 inductees.
• Boothe was a three-time first-team All-Ivy pick and four-year starter for the Big Red at offensive tackle.
• He became just the fourth Cornell player to earn first-team all-league honors three times.
• A sixth round pick in the NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders, Boothe played a decade in the NFL and won two Super Bowl rings with the New York Giants, including as a starter in 2011.
• One of Cornell's most versatile offensive players, Oliaro holds the single-game rushing record (288 yards) and the single-game all-purpose yardage record (395 yards), ranks seventh all-time in career touchdowns, eighth all-time in career all-purpose yards and 10th all-time in career rushing yards.
• He led the team in receptions in 1989 and 1990, points in 1990 and 1992, and rushing yards in 1992.
• Oliaro was named to the All-Ivy second team in 1990 and 1992.
• He was named one of the top 50 athletes in Vermont sports history by Sports Illustrated.

SOME NOTES TO KNOW
• Senior punter Chris Fraser will attempt to become the third player in Ivy League history to become a four-time, first-team All-Ivy League pick (Harvard linebacker Dante Balestracci - '00, '01, '02, '03; Harvard running back Clifton Dawson - 03, '04, '05, '06).
• Fraser was named to the STATS FCS Preseason All-America first team, as well as first-team All-America by Football Gameplan, Athlon and Lindy's Sports.  He is a preseason second-team pick by College Sports Madness.
• Junior Jake Jatis became just the second Cornellian to earn a start at quarterback as a freshman, joining all-time Ivy leading passer Jeff Mathews '13 with starts in five contests in 2014.
• Senior Eric Sade (men's ice hockey) and junior Ryan Weigel (track and field) have each competed in two sports for the Big Red.
• The Big Red will play its 100th all-time game vs. Dartmouth, its 99th game vs. Princeton and its 98th game against Colgate.
• The Big Red offense hasn't been shut out in 60 games, with the last coming against Penn (34-0 to close out 2009).
• In 2004, Cornell was picked to finish eighth in the preseason media poll. It bucked that trend to become 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.
• The first football game at Cornell, an intramural contest featuring 40 players per side, occurred on campus in 1869.
• Since taking over the program, head coach David Archer '05 is 4-2 in the trophy series games against Columbia (Empire Bowl, 3-0) and Penn (Trustees' Cup, 1-2).
• The Big Red roster features 14 players who stand 6-5 or taller, with sophomore offensive linemen Maximilian Gardner and Zach Strong each reaching 6-9.

MAYS NAMED IVY LEAGUE SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK • Sophomore place-kicker Zach Mays was named the Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week after an outstanding performance in the Big Red's season-opening win at Bucknell.
• Mays opened the scoring for the Big Red with a career-long 41-yard field goal and booted through all three extra-point kicks.
• Maybe even more impressive was his efforts on kickoffs. Mays booted all five of his kickoffs through the end zone for touchbacks, helping Cornell control field position in the 24-16 comeback win against the Bison.
• The Big Red joins Southern Utah as the lone teams in the country to allow no kickoff returns this season to lead the Football Championship Subdivison (FCS).

CORNELL PARTICIPATES IN "COACH TO CURE MD"
• For the ninth year in a row, college football coaches nationwide will join together in support of the Coach To Cure MD program.
• The annual effort has raised more than a $1.2 million dollars to battle Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (Duchenne).
• On the weekend of September 24th, American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) members will wear a Coach To Cure MD logo patch on the sidelines and college football fans will be asked to donate to research projects supported by Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD), the largest, most comprehensive nonprofit organization in the U.S. focused entirely on Duchenne.  
• Football fans can help support the fight to end Duchenne by either going online to www.CoachtoCureMD.org or by texting the word CURE to 90999 (a $5 donation will automatically be added to your next phone bill).
• Last year, more than 10,000 college coaches at more than 525 different institutions participated in Coach To Cure MD events.
• Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common fatal genetic disorder diagnosed during childhood and primarily affects boys across all races and cultures.
• People with Duchenne develop progressive muscle weakness that eventually causes loss of mobility, wheelchair dependency and a decline in respiratory and cardiac function.
• Currently, there is no cure for Duchenne and limited therapeutic options exist.
 
BIG RED RANKED AMONG TOP 100 COLLEGE FOOTBALL PROGRAMS IN HISTORY
• Cornell was ranked as one of the top 100 football programs of all-time according to the Associated Press in a ranking released in August 2016.
• At No. 72, the Big Red ranked ahead of a number of Bowl Championship Subdivision (BCS) schools and second among Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) programs.
• Only Penn (No. 66) placed higher among current FCS schools, while other Ivy League teams on the list included Dartmouth (No. 87), Yale (No. 90), Princeton (No. 81) and Columbia (No. 99).
• Few collegiate football programs have the storied history of Cornell.
• With more than 120 seasons of football in the books, the Big Red has claimed five national titles, won more than 600 games and  has  had  legendary  players  and  coaches  perform  on  historic  Schoellkopf Field.
• Names such as Glenn "Pop" Warner and Heisman Trophy finalist and NCAA record-breaker Ed Marinaro have suited up for  Cornell,  while  seven  College  Football  Hall  of  Famers  have  set  the  strategy  as  head  coaches.
• In all, 138 All-Americans and 11 National Football Hall of Fame members have played for the Big Red.
• The top 10 schools on the list, done to celebrate 80 years of the Associated Press poll, were Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, Alabama, USC, Nebraska, Michigan, Texas, Florida State and Florida.

YOUR 2016 FOOTBALL CAPTAINS
• Seniors Miles Norris (ILB), Ben Rogers (WR), Matt Sullivan (TE) and Jackson Weber (ILB) were elected as team captains for the 2016 season.
• Norris is the program's 17th two-year captain (Jeff Mathews '14 is the lone three-time captain).
• Norris ranked fourth on the team in tackles (48) and paced the squad in forced fumbles (two) as a junior linebacker in 2015.
• The two-year starter and three-year letter winner has posted 134 tackles with 11.0 for a loss with 5.5 sacks, three pass breakups, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovered and a blocked kick over his career.
• Rogers returns to the Big Red for a fifth season at wide receiver after ranking among the Ivy League and the nation's top all-purpose yardage leaders.
• He enters his final season within striking distance of becoming the 22nd Cornellian to reach 1,000 career receiving yards (782) and the 11th with 3,000 career all-purpose yards (2,160).
• Sullivan will begin his third season as a key cog on the offense from his tight end position.
• An excellent pass catcher and punishing blocker, he has hauled in 34 passes for 334 yards and two touchdowns over the last two seasons.
• Weber, a consistent starter at linebacker over the past three seasons, is the team's active leading tackler (148).
• A three-year letter winner, he has started 27 consecutive games and led the team with 54 tackles a season ago.

BIG RED INVOLVED IN STORIED RIVALRIES
• The Big Red is involved in three of the top 20 most-played rivalries in the FCS.
• The Cornell-Penn series ranks fifth in most games played, a total that will reach 123 this season.
• The 103 meetings between Cornell and Columbia ranks 14th, while the Cornell-Dartmouth rivalry stands 18th with 99 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 97 years. They trail only the Lafayette-Lehigh series, which has been played every year since 1897.
 
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.
• Two Cornell sports (football and men's golf) have been publicly recognized each year since the APR was first released and are among just 110 teams across the country in all sports with that accomplishment.
• Cornell's score of 991 (out of 1,000) this past year is the highest in school history (the four highest scores in program history have come over the last four years - 987, 987, 986, 991).
• Only five FCS schools have been honored each year in football (Cornell, Dartmouth, Davidson, Penn and Yale), with four 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.

BIG RED INVOLVED IN STORIED RIVALRIES
• The Big Red is involved in three of the top 20 most-played rivalries in the FCS.
• The Cornell-Penn series ranks fifth in most games played, a total that will reach 123 this season.
• The 103 meetings between Cornell and Columbia ranks 14th, while the Cornell-Dartmouth rivalry stands 18th with 99 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 97 years. They trail only the Lafayette-Lehigh series, which has been played every year since 1897.
 
STATING THE STATES
• Cornell's 115-player roster is made up of student-athletes from 31 states, as well as Canada, South Africa and the District of Columbia.
• A team-high 10 players come to Cornell from California, Pennsylvania and New York.
• Nine players are from Maryland, eight players are from Texas and seven apiece come from Michigan and Virginia.
 
CORNELL FOOTBALL AT 129 YEARS
• This is the 130th year since the start of Cornell football, but it will be the 129th 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 633-508-34 (.553) in its 127 years of football.
• The program's 633 wins rank 13th among all FCS schools.
• Over the years, Cornell has taken on 89 different opponents, with its most frequent opponent being Penn (122 meetings).
 
CORNELLIANS IN THE PROS
• Two Cornellians were on NFL opening day rosters in 2016.
• Bryan Walters '10, one of the Big Red's all-time greats at wide receivers, begins his seventh NFL season overall and second 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, a wide receiver and special teams returner, enters the season having played in 32 career games with two starts.
• He has caught 41 passes for 452 yards and a touchdown, returned six kickoffs for 123 yards and returned 43 punts for 282 yards.
• Fourth-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.
• He was named the team's starting center and has played in 24 contests with three starts entering the year.
• 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.
• Has seen action at both tackle spots and left guard as well as at center.
 
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.
 
NEXT UP
• The Big Red will make its second day trip of the year for a road game at a Patriot League foe when it visits Colgate on Saturday, Oct. 1 at 1 p.m. in Hamilton, N.Y.
• Cornell holds a narrow 48-46-3 lead in the all-time series, though the Raiders have won seven in a row.
• The Big Red's last win in the series came in 2007, a 17-14 victory at Schoellkopf Field.
• Cornell's last win in Hamilton came in 1992, a 25-7 Big Red triumph.