Cornell, Colgate Renew Gridiron Rivalry On Friday Night At Schoellkopf

David Archer '05
The Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Cornell Football

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• After three straight weekends on the road, the Cornell football team returns home for a Friday night battle with Central New York rival Colgate. 
• The non-conference finale for both teams will kick off at 7 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field and sets up the stretch run with both teams looking to build some momentum heading into the final five weeks. 
• Barry Leonard and Jason Weinstein will be in the broadcast booth with the call on ESPN+.
• For the Big Red, its trying to get into the win column after starting 0-4 with losses to a pair of ranked teams and a third that was receiving votes. 
• Colgate is looking to regain its footing after having its two-game win streak snapped last weekend at Brown. 
• They also want to gain bragging rights - the series, after 101 meetings, is tied at 49-49-3. 
• By Saturday morning, one team will be at 50 wins all-time against the other.
• Both teams will also be looking for their first non-league win of 2021.
• The matchup will be the first between two head coaches, former opponents on the gridiron, representing their alma maters.
• Cornell head coach David Archer was a three-year starter on the offensive line for Cornell, graduating in 2005 — the same year Stan Dakosty earned his degree from Colgate after two seasons on the varsity.
• This will be just the eighth Friday contest in more than 130 years of Cornell football, although it will be the first of two on this coming home stand.
• Cornell last won on a Friday when it defeated the Manhattan Athletic Club on Nov. 18, 1892 on the road — nearly 129 years ago. Its last win at home on a day other than Saturday — Oct. 9, 1916 vs. Gettysburg.
• The Big Red defense has given it a chance all season, ranking in the top 30 in third-down conversion defense (fourth, .255), red zone defense (ninth, .667), tackles for loss (17th, 7.5), rushing defense (19th, 104.5) and total defense (No. 29, 334.8). 

LOOKING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK
• The Big Red finished the 2019 season with a 4-6 overall record (3-4 Ivy) and earned an upper division finish for the first time since 2006 with a fourth place finish. 
• Cornell defeated Ivy co-champ and 12th-ranked Dartmouth on the road and trailed the other Ivy champ, Yale, 20-16 with under two minutes to play while two of its losses came by a single point. 
• Cornell played its first football game in 665 days when it met #22 VMI on Sept. 18, its second-longest drought without a game since the introduction of the program in 1887 (674 days from Nov. 29, 1917 - Oct. 4, 1919).
• The 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• This year’s version of the Big Red returns 14 starters (six offense, eight defense), as well as its placekicker and long-snapper from 2019. 
• Eight Big Red players earned All-Ivy honors in 2019, including returners Hunter Nourzad (OL) and Jake Stebbins (LB) on the second team. 
• A total of 21 fifth-year seniors return in 2021, combining with 30 four-year seniors to give the program 51 total seniors — the most in any season in school history.
• With four wins, Cornell will reach 650 all-time (13th all-time in FCS history). 

A WIN OVER COLGATE WOULD...
• give the Big Red its first win of 2021 and improve its record to 1-4 on the season.
• snap a three-game Colgate win streak in the series and a four-game skid overall.
• even its home record at 1-1.
• end a four-game non-conference losing streak.
• take a 50-49-3 lead in the all-time series against the Raiders.
• make Cornell 133-86-7 all-time vs. Patriot League teams.
• give Cornell a 310-247-14 (.555) record all-time in the month of October.
• be the 647th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision). 

ABOUT COLGATE
• The Raiders are off to a 2-4 start after last weekend’s 31-10 loss at Brown.
• That loss snapped a two-game win streak, both in Patriot League contests.
• Colgate had opened the season with three straight losses against a treacherous schedule that included contests against BCS Power Five foe Boston College (51-0) and home games vs. Stony Brook (24-3) and William & Mary (27-7).
• Quarterback Grant Breneman has piled up more than 900 yards of total offense in five contests and paces the team in rushing and passing.
• Garrett Oakley has been the favorite target of the Colgate quarterbacks, hauling in 21 passes for 290 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
• Not far behind are Max Hurleman (19 catches, 200 yards) and Myles Bradley (19 catches, 199 yards, one touchdown). 
• Defensively, Milton Braasch paces the team in tackles (51), tackles for loss (8.5), sacks (3.0) and forced fumbles (2).
• The Raiders played just two games in a pandemic-shortened spring season, going 0-2 with losses to Lafayette (24-10) and Fordham (40-8).
• First-year head coach Stan Dakosty, a 2005 Colgate graduate, has been a part of seven Patriot League championship teams as a player or assistant coach.

THE SERIES
• Cornell and Colgate will be meeting for the 102nd time dating back to the first contest in 1896 with the series tied 49-49-3. 
• 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 32 of the last 41 meetings, including 10 straight (1993-2005) before the Big Red commenced on a two-game win streak. 
• The Raiders had won seven consecutive contests prior to the Big Red’s epic 39-38 comeback in Hamilton, N.Y. in 2016, the Big Red’s first road win at Colgate since 1992.
• The Raiders have won three straight since, including a 21-20 Colgate victory in Ithaca in 2019.

CORNELL VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
• Cornell has a 132-86-7 record against the seven current members of the Patriot League football conference, including a 49-49-3 split with Colgate.
• The Big Red has advantages over five of the other seven conference schools: Bucknell (43-15), Fordham (4-3-0), Holy Cross (5-0-0), Lafayette (14-8-2) and Lehigh (15-9-2).
• The series with Georgetown (2-2) is also even.
• This is the last of two scheduled matchups with Patriot opponents in 2021, with the Big Red having lost at Bucknell 21-10 on Oct. 2.

• Schoellkopf Field has been an indelible mark of Cornell football since it opened in 1915. 
• Schoellkopf Field is the fourth-oldest FCS stadium, opening in 1915. Only Penn’s Franklin Field (1895), Harvard Stadium (1903) and the Yale Bowl (1914) are older. 
• A gift from Willard Straight ‘01 and the family of Henry (Heinie) Schoellkopf ‘02 made the construction possible for the current stadium. 
• The Big Red’s first year on the field was one of its best, going 9-0 and winning the national championship. 
• In 1915, General Electric Company completed work on a flood searchlight system for the field, and in 1924 a construction project was completed to bring capacity from 9,000 to 21,500 by adding the famed Crescent. 
• In 1947 that capacity was increased to 25,597 and a press box was added. 
• In 1971 a gift was made to put artificial turf on the field, and it was resurfaced three times, the last time in 1999. 
• A new press box was built in 1986.
• The 2008 season saw installation of FieldTurf synthetic grass to replace the artificial turf. 
• In 2016, the West Stands were demolished and the field was moved 15 feet toward the Crescent while replacing the FieldTurf to ready for more construction at the site, lowering the capacity to 21,500 in the process.
• The Big Red’s all-time record at Schoellkopf Field is 303-194-15 (.606).

Few collegiate football programs have the storied history of Cornell University. With more than 130 seasons of football in the books, the Big Red has collected five national titles, won nearly 650 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 (including Warner, Gil Dobie and Carl Snavely) and multiple-time Super Bowl winner George Seifert have set the strategy as head coaches. Now, with David Archer '05 leading the program, there’s little doubt that history will continue to be made.

• With non-conference season complete, the Big Red will kick off its five-game Ivy League sprint when it hosts Brown on Saturday, Oct 23 at 1 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field.
• The Bears lead the all-time series 37-29-1, though the Big Red has won three straight - its longest against Brown since the 1990-93 seasons. 
• Cornell won a wild meeting in 2019, with Nickolas Null kicking a 41-yard field goal with 0:09 on the clock for a 37-35 victory.