Football Eyes Historic Win When It Visits Ivy Favorite Yale

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS 
• After a season-opening road win, an energized Cornell football team will face one of its toughest challenges of the year when it visits preseason Ivy League favorite Yale on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn. 
• The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Josh Hess (play-by-play) and Jack Ford (color) on the call. 
• Coming off a 21-7 win at Marist last weekend, the Big Red will now attempt to do something it has never done — open a season 2-0 with both wins coming on the road. 
• In fact, dating back to Cornell’s first season of football in 1887, the Big Red has played consecutive road games to open a season just four times prior (1998, 2014, 2015, 2017), though it will do so for the fourth time in the last six years. 
• Though it’s just one game in the books, the matchup will pit Cornell’s top-ranked defense against a powerful Yale offensive contingent that returns all 11 starters, including Ivy Player of the Year candidates Kurt Rawlings (QB), Zane Dudek (RB) and Reed Klubnik (WR). 
• Both the Big Red and the Bulldogs rank in the top 10 nationally in rushing per game, while both defenses are in the top 20 in the FCS against the run. Through one week, Cornell and Yale rank 1-2 or tied for first nationally in seven categories. 

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 seven more wins, Cornell would reach 650 all-time (13th all-time in FCS history).  
• With four wins at Schoellkopf Field in its five-game schedule, 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.  
• The Big Red’s home opener at Schoellkopf against Georgetown, which doubles as Homecoming, will be the 500th game in the history of the facility. 

ABOUT YALE
• The Bulldogs opened its 2019 season by avenging a 2018 loss with a 23-10 victory over Holy Cross at the Yale Bowl. 
• Yale’s offense piled up 507 yards of offense and limited the Crusaders to just 237 yards and 11 first downs in the win. 
• Kurt Rawlings accounted for two touchdowns, one on the ground and another through the air, and Zane Dudek was one of four players with at least 30 rushing yards, leading the Yale attack with 96 and a touchdown. 
• Spencer Matthaei led a strong defensive effort with six tackles, including three for a loss and a sack. 
• Yale was picked first in the Ivy League preseason media poll thanks in large part due to its 21 returning starts (11 on offense, 10 on defense). 
• The Bulldogs are coming off a 5-5 season that included a 3-4 Ivy campaign, good for a fourth-place tie in the final conference standings. 
• Eighth-year head coach Tony Reno has lifted Yale back to the top of the Ivy League, claiming the school’s first outright conference title in 37 years in 2017. 
• Reno is 38-32 overall and was the Division I football Coach of the Year in 2017 by the New England Football Writers and the Gridiron Club of Boston. 

THE SERIES 
• Yale leads the all-time series 49-30-2 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 13 of the last 18 meetings between the squads, though Cornell upset the 2008 preseason Ivy League favorites 17-14 at Schoellkopf Field. 
• Yale leads 7-3 over the last 10 meetings, with the Big Red’s last win a 27-13 victory the last time the two teams met in Ithaca (2016). 

THE IVY OPENER
• Cornell opens the 64th official season of Ivy League play with a 28-33-2 record in the previous 63 conference starters.  
• The Big Red has faced Yale 19 times (each of the last 19 seasons) in Ivy openers previously with a 6-13 mark.  
• Included was last year’s 30-24 Big Red loss in Ithaca.  

A WIN OVER YALE WOULD ... 
• make Cornell 2-0 to start a season for the first time since 2016. 
• give the Big Red consecutive road wins to start a season for the first time ever. 
• make Cornell 29-33-2 in Ivy openers, including 7-13 against Yale. 
• be Cornell’s first victory in New Haven, Conn. since Sept. 26, 2009 (14-12 Big Red win). 
• give Cornell a 108-67-5 (.614) record all-time in the month of September. 
• be the 644th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).  

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 will reach 126 this season.  
• The 106 meetings between Cornell and Columbia ranks 14th, while the Cornell-Dartmouth rivalries stand 19th with 102 games played.  
• Right behind that is the series with Princeton (101 meetings) and Colgate (100 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 99 years.  
• 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 643-528-34 (.548) in its 132 years of football.  
• The program’s 643 wins rank 13th among all FCS schools.  
• Over the years, Cornell has taken on 91 different opponents, with its most frequent opponent being Penn (125 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. 

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 will be among 10 new members that will be 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 
• Cornell will open up its home schedule when it will welcome Georgetown to Ithaca for a 3 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, Oct, 5 at Schoellkopf Field. 
• The Big Red will be celebrating its Homecoming weekend. 
• Cornell has won two of the three meetings between the teams, including victories in two straight contests by a combined 112-14 (57-7 in 2005 and 45-7 in 2007).

Photos by Eldon Lindsay, , Marist Athletics, Patrick Shanahan, Yale University Athletics and Darl Zehr