Seniors Take Spotlight When Football Plays Columbia For Empire State Bowl

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• The Cornell football team will attempt to cap Senior Day by returning the Empire State Bowl to Ithaca when it welcomes Columbia to town for the season finale on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1:30 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y. 
• Barry Leonard and Buck Briggs will be in the ESPN+ broadcast booth calling the action. 
• Prior to the game, Cornell will honor its 29 seniors for their dedication to the Big Red football program.   
• Once that’s over, the Big Red will try to build momentum heading into the offseason with a second straight victory to close the year that would allow Cornell to finish as high as fourth in the final standings. 
• Cornell is coming off a high, knocking off its highest ranked team in 80 years when it defeated unbeaten Dartmouth 20-17 on their Senior Day in Hanover, N.H. 
• Entering the day ranked No. 12/11, the Big Green had won 10 straight and 21 of its last 22 games, but Cornell’s touchdown with less than six minutes remaining in the fourth pushed the Big Red in to the lead for good. 
• The last time Cornell had beaten a team ranked higher than Dartmouth was in 1939 when the national champions topped No. 4 Ohio State on the road, 23-14. 
• The winner of the Empire State Bowl will have a chance to finish in the top half of the standings if Princeton defeats Penn on the road. 

LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK 
• This year’s version of the Big Red returns 14 starters (six offense, eight defense), as well as its punter, placekicker, long-snapper and return specialists from a year ago.  
• Cornell went 3-7 in 2018 with a pair of league losses to top-half teams by less than a touchdown (Yale, Columbia).  
• The Big Red defeated Harvard for the second straight season for the first time since 1999 and 2000, and hammered previously unbeaten Sacred Heart at home, 43-24.  
• Cornell rallied from a double-digit deficit at Brown for a 34-16 victory, the Big Red’s first win in Providence, R.I. since 2002 and its first consecutive victories over the Bears since 1993 - before any current member of the team was born.  
• Cornell’s seven losses came against teams that sported a cumulative 53-21 record, including four to nationally ranked opponents (Colgate, Delaware, Princeton and Dartmouth).  
• Colgate reached the national quarterfinals and Delaware earned a spot in the FCS Playoffs, while Princeton went undefeated (10-0) and joined fellow Ivy rival Dartmouth (9-1) in the final top 25 poll.  
• Cornell also faced seven of the nation’s top 20 defenses, but still had its most successful season running the ball since 2006 (156.1 yards per game).  
• Six Big Red players earned All-Ivy honors, with Harold Coles (RB) and David Jones (CB) both finding a spot on the second team.  
• The Cornell football team was picked to finish seventh in the Ivy League’s annual preseason poll.  
• For the fourth times in five seasons, the Big Red will look to surpass the prediction from the poll.  
• After being picked to place eighth in 2017, the Big Red finished tied for fifth and entered November in the thick of the Ivy race for the first time since 2000.  
• The Big Red was chosen to finish eighth in 2016, then started the year 3-0 and took sixth in the final league standings.  
• The year before it was eighth in the poll and didn’t end there either.  
• The 2017 season saw Cornell climb to fifth in the Ivy standings at 3-4 and was in contention for the Ivy title in November for the first time since 2000.  
• The team’s three Ivy wins were the most since 2011 and tied for the best Ivy record by the program in more than a decade.  
• With five more wins, Cornell will reach 650 all-time (13th all-time in FCS history).  
• With three more wins at Schoellkopf Field, the Big Red would close out 300 all-time victories at the historic facility, the fourth-oldest FCS stadium (opened in 1915). Only Penn’s Franklin Field (1895), Harvard Stadium (1903) and the Yale Bowl (1914) are older.  

ABOUT COLUMBIA
• The Lions enter Saturday’s game with a 3-6 overall record and a 2-4 Ivy League mark, identical to Cornell’s, with the winner claiming no worse than fifth and as high as fourth. 
• Columbia knocked off Harvard two weeks ago in overtime before dropping a 48-24 contest last weekend to Brown on Senior Day. 
• Ty Lenhart (1,063 yards, seven passing touchdowns) and Josh Bean (534 yards, three touchdowns) have both seen significant time under center, with Lenhart accounting for 10 total touchdowns in his four starts. 
• Ryan Young leads the rushing attack (438 yards, 4.4 yards per carry, two touchdowns), while Josh Wainwright (469 yards, four touchdowns) and Mike Roussos (349 yards, one touchdown) have been the leading receivers. 
• Defensively, the Lions’ Ben Mathaismeier has a team-vest 62 tackles and two interceptions, while Daniel DeLorenzi is the school’s all-time sacks leader with 5.0 this year and 20.5 for his career. 
• Special teams has been a strength, with Alex Felkins 8-of-13 on field goals with a pair of 50-yarders, and Drew Schmid averaging 36.4 yards per punt with 12 kicks downed inside the 20. 
• All-Ivy returner Mike Roussos paces the conference in both punt (17.3) and kickoff (24.4) returns, averages that rank third and 23rd nationally.  
• Head coach Al Bagnoli returns for a fifth season on the Columbia sidelines after a legendary career at Penn. 
• Bagnoli spent 23 years at Penn, where he totaled a 148-80 overall record and 112-49 record in the Ivy League with nine conference championships. 
• Bagnoli is 22-27 on the sidelines at Columbia and now has a 257-125 mark in 38 seasons as a collegiate head coach. 

THE SERIES 
• This will be the 107th meeting between Cornell and Columbia, with the Big Red holding a 65-38-3 lead in the series. 
• The two teams first met in 1889, a 20-0 Cornell win. 
• The squads have been evenly matched for more than two decades, with the teams splitting the last 30 games right down the middle (15-15) over the last three decades. 
• Cornell had previously won 12 straight contests, the longest streak in the series by either team.  
• The Lions have won two straight contests in the series, including a wild 24-21 contest last year in New York City on a last-minute kickoff return for a touchdown.    

THE EMPIRE STATE BOWL
• Officially established in 2010, the Empire State Bowl has been the unofficial nickname of the Cornell-Columbia series for many years. 
• Cornell leads the series 5-4. 
• The trophy currently resides in New York City following last year’s 24-21 Columbia win at home. 
• Cornell’s other wins in the series came in 2011 (62-41), 2013 (24-9), 2014 (30-27) and 2015 (3-0). 
• Columbia won the first-ever Empire State Bowl in 2010 with an exciting last-minute 20-17 victory at Wien Stadium to capture the traveling trophy. 

A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD ... 
• send the senior class out with a victory. 
• give Cornell a final record of 4-6 on the season, including 3-2 in its last five conference games. 
• close the Big Red’s Ivy record at 3-4. 
• return the Empire State Bowl Trophy to Ithaca. 
• give Cornell a 6-4 lead in the Empire State Bowl series. 
• snap a two-game skid against the Lions. 
• end the season with consecutive wins. 
• be the 646th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).  

FINAL GAME FOR BIG RED SENIORS 
• The Cornell football program’s 29 seniors will be playing their final game at Schoellkopf Field this weekend. 
• Cornell’s seniors are PK Ethan Agritelley, DL William Baker, LB Justin Bedard, LB Mo Bradford, OL Jacob Burley, TE Nic Canal, QB Mike Catanese, RB Harold Coles, TE Bennett Ensor, TE John Fitzgerald, DL Michael Gillooley, OL Jake Hogge, OL George L. Holm III, CB David Jones, CB Marquan Jones, DL Jordan Landsman, LB Malik Leary, WR Davy Lizana, PK Zach Mays, DL Cyrus Nolan, PK/P Nickolas Null, LS Frank O’Dowd, WR Dylan Otolski, WR Owen Peters, OL John Christian Riffle, LB Cameron Ryan, S Jelani Taylor, S Jake Watkins, DL Nathaniel Weber.  

TAYLOR A CAMPBELL TROPHY FINALIST 
• Senior safety Jelani Taylor has been named one of 12 finalists for the 2019 William V. Campbell Trophy it was announced by the National Football Foundation and the College Hall of Fame. 
• The award, known as the “Academic Heisman” annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. 
• Taylor and each of the other 11 finalists will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 2019 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class, presented by Fidelity Investments, and they will travel to New York City for the 62nd NFF Annual Awards Dinner on Tuesday, Dec. 10, where their accomplishments will be highlighted in front of one of the most powerful audiences in all of sports 
• Taylor is the second Cornellian (Jeff Mathews ‘14 in 2013) and 17th Ivy League player to be named a finalist. No Ivy League player, nor any player from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) have taken home the award, which was first presented in 1990. 

STEBBINS ON JERRY RICE AWARD WATCH LIST 
• Linebacker Jake Stebbins has been named one of 24 players nationally to be named to the Jerry Rice Award Watch List for the top freshman player in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).  
• A national panel of over 150 sports information and media relations directors, broadcasters, writers and other dignitaries will vote on the award following the regular season.  
• A three-time Ivy League Rookie of the Week, Stebbins is third on the team in tackles (51) and first in tackles for loss (6.5), sacks (4.5) and forced fumbles (two) in nine games at linebacker. 

FOOTBALL NAMED STATS FCS TEAM OF THE WEEK 
• Facing unbeaten and 12th-ranked Dartmouth on its Senior Day while playing for an Ivy League title was always going to be a challenge. 
• For a team like Cornell, which had been knocking of the door without breaking through, having that type of opportunity to play spoiler was plenty of motivation.
• The Big Red did more than just play with the Big Green, ending Dartmouth's 10-game winning streak and snapping its own personal 10-game skid against Buddy Teevens' squad with a 20-17 win on Saturday at Memorial Field. 
• For that, Cornell was named the STATS FCS Team of the Week on Monday.
• Cornell improved to 3-6 (2-4 Ivy) while winning for the first time in Hanover, N.H. since 2005 thanks to a rally from 14-3 late in the first half. 
• Richie Kenney found Owen Peters from 24 yards out with 5:32 to play and the defense did the rest as Cornell earned its first win over a ranked Ivy League team on the road since 1939 (No. 4 Ohio State, 23-14).

TRIO NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM 
• Seniors Harold Coles and Jelani Taylor and junior Maxton Edgerly were named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Football Team in mid-November. 
• The trio will now join the Academic All-America ballot along with 15 other Ivy League football players. 
•  Both Coles and Taylor are repeat selections on the all-district squad.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL AT 150 (#CFB150) 
• This is the 133rd year since the start of Cornell football, but it will be the 132nd 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 collected five national titles (1915, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1939), won more than 600 games and  has  had  legendary  players  and  coaches  perform  on  historic Schoellkopf Field.  
• 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.  
• Cornell is the only Ivy League school to be ranked No. 1 in the weekly Associated Press poll, holding the top ranking for three weeks (10/15-10/29) of the 1940 season.  
• The No. 1 ranking ended with the historic “Fifth Down Game” against Dartmouth.  
• 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  (including Warner,  Gil  Dobie  and  Carl  Snavely)  and  multiple-time  Super  Bowl  winner  George  Seifert  have  set  the  strategy  as  head  coaches.  
• 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 is now at 126.  
• The 106 meetings between Cornell and Columbia ranks 14th, while the Cornell-Dartmouth rivalries stand 19th with 103 games played after this week.  
• Right behind that is the series with Princeton (102 meetings) and Colgate (101 meetings), which sit right outside the top 20.  
• 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 101 years this season.  
• They trail only the Lafayette-Lehigh series, which has been played every year since 1897.  
• 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). 
• Cornell was involved in one of the most historic games in college football history, the “Fifth Down Game.” 
• Played on Nov. 16, 1940 in Hanover, N.H., the top-ranked Big Red improved to 6-0 with a 7-3 victory over Dartmouth, scoring on the game’s final play. 
• After reviewing game film on Monday, Coach Carl Snavely and acting athletic director Robert J. Kane wired Dartmouth officials to tell them Cornell scored on an inadvertent fifth down. 
• Though there were no rules compelling the outcome to be changed, in an unprecedented act of sportsmanship, the Big Red relinquished claims to the win.  
• The Big Green accepted the forfeit, winning the contest 3-0. 
• It remains the only time a collegiate sporting contest has been decided off the field after the completion of a game.   

CORNELL FOOTBALL AT 132 (#CFB150) 
• The Big Red has an overall record of 645-534-34 (.546) in its 132 years of football.  
• The program’s 645 wins rank 13th among all FCS schools.  
• Over the years, Cornell has taken on 91 different opponents, with its most frequent opponent being Penn (126 meetings).   

BIG RED 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.

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 in 13 of the 14 seasons since 2004-05, when the scores were first tabulated.  
• Cornell’s score of 987 (out of 1,000) this past year was tied for the fourth-highest in school history (the seven highest scores in program history have come over the last seven years - 987, 987, 986, 991, 988, 992, 987), but was just outside the top 10 percent. 
• The 992 APR score this year is also the 25th-highest among all Division I football schools. 
• 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. 

ACADEMIC SUCCESS 
• Cornell football had two players named to the 2018 CoSIDA Academic All-District 1 team. 
• Harold Coles ‘20 (3.48 GPA, Applied Economics & Management) and Jelani Taylor ‘20 (3.85 GPA, Hotel Administration) were both selected to represent the Big Red. 
• Cornell’s 10 members on the District 2 team over the last three years are the most of any school. 
• The Big Red has had 13 football players earn a total of 18 appearances on the CoSIDA Academic All-America team dating back to 1977. 

CORNELLIANS IN THE NFL 
• Seventh-year offensive lineman JC Tretter ‘13 will be beginning his third season with the Cleveland Browns after spending his first four pro seasons with the Green Bay Packers. 
• The FCS All-American was taken in the fourth round of the NFL Draft by the Packers in 2013. 
• He was named the Packers’ starting center in 2016 and played in 31 contests with 10 starts. 
• Has seen action at both tackle spots and left guard as well as at center during his career. 
• Tretter signed a three-year contract extension with the Bowns in November of 2019.

CORNELLIANS IN PRO FOOTBALL 
• Kevin Boothe ‘05 – TitleDirector, Football Development and Strategy, NFL. 
• Buck Briggs ‘76 – Vice President for Arbitration and Litigation, NFL (Retired). 
• Zac Canty ‘09 – Northeast Area Scout, Arizona Cardinals 
• Andrew Johnson ‘15 – Scout, Cincinnati Bengals 
• Jeff Mathews ‘14 – QB, Toronto Argonauts, CFL 
• Ty Siam ‘11 – Football Operations Analyst, New York Giants 
• Luke Tasker ‘13 – WR, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, CFL 

CORNELL ATHLETICS HALL OF FAME ADDS FORD '09 
• Nathan Ford ‘09 was among 10 new members that were inducted into the Cornell University Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 5.  
• Ford captained both the football and baseball teams, earning All-Ivy League honors in both sports.  
• He was an honorable mention All-Ivy pick as a senior.  
• The three-year starter at quarterback led the Ivy League in both passing (281.5 yards per game) and total offense (284.9 yards per game), ranking 12th and eighth nationally in those categories, respectively, in his final season.  
• Set school records for completion percentage in a career (.607), consecutive completions (17) and single-game completion percentage (.833, 25-of-30 vs. Dartmouth).  
• Ford had four career 300-yard games and two 400-yard efforts, including a 39-of-63 passing day for 438 yards and two scores in the comeback win at Lehigh, finding teammate Jesse Baker in the end zone from 20 yards out as time expired to win the game.  
• His 6,266 passing yards ranked eighth in Ivy history and second at Cornell, while his 6,707 yards of offense places him ninth in the Ancient Eight.  
• Ford accounted for 37 career touchdowns (26 passing, 11 rushing). 

NEXT UP 
• The 2019 season is complete. 
• Cornell hits the gridiron for the first time in 2020 when Marist visits Schoellkopf Field on Saturday, Sept. 19. 

Photos by Columbia Athletics, Dave Burbank, Mike Corsey, Erik Drost, Madison Epperson, Eldon Lindsay, Mark Risley, Patrick Shanahan and Darl Zehr