Football Hosts Unbeaten, Nationally-Ranked Tigers Friday on ESPNU

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

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• Cornell will have a chance to get its season back on track in a big way when undefeated and No. xx ranked Princeton visits Schoellkopf Field on Friday, Oct. 29 at 7 p.m.
• The game will be televised on ESPNU with Eric Frede and Jack Ford on the call.
• Cornell and Princeton are each coming off emotional weekends and wild games with totally different results. For the Big Red, it traded the lead nine times -- including five times in the game’s final 7:34 -- in a 49-45 loss to Brown. 
• For the Tigers, it remained unbeaten and took control of the Ivy League race with an 18-16, five-overtime victory in front of a Homecoming crowd at Princeton Stadium. 
• Coming into a short week and a nationally-televised contest, this Friday night contest is set up to feature more wild moments. 
• With the last quarter-century of series history and with Halloween days away, we’d expect nothing different.
• Princeton will be the third nationally ranked opponent for Cornell this fall, with previous losses to No. 22 VMI (31-21) and No. 22 Harvard (24-10). 
• Some fresh faces have lifted the Big Red offense in the last two weeks, helping Cornell average 39.5 points per game.
• Freshman Jameson Wang has posted 185 rushing yards with two scores and has thrown for three more scores as part of a four-quarterback rotation.
• Rookies Eddy Tillman and Matt Robbert have also scored touchdowns to bolster a cadre of upperclassmen  that comprise the offensive attack.
• Prior to last week, when Brown scored 49 points and piled up 588 yards of offense, the Big Red defense had been its calling card, 
• This will be the third consecutive week for the Big Red where the two opposing head coaches will represent their alma maters on the sidelines.
• Cornell head coach David Archer was a three-year starter on the offensive line for Cornell, graduating in 2005 — with Bob Surace a 1990 Princeton grad that was a first-team All-Ivy selection on the 1989 Ivy championship team.

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 three wins, Cornell will reach 650 all-time (13th all-time in FCS history). 

A WIN OVER PRINCETON WOULD...
• move the Big Red’s record to 2-5 on the season and 1-3 in Ivy League play.
• snap a two-game skid against Princeton.
• even its home record at 2-2.
• cut the Big Red’s deficit in the all-time series to 63-38-2.
• give Cornell a 311-248-14 (.555) record all-time in the month of October.
• be the 648th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision). 

ABOUT PRINCETON
• Princeton is a perfect 6-0 (3-0 Ivy) after last weekend’s epic 18-16, five-overtime thriller over Harvard in a battle of nationally-ranked unbeatens.
• Princeton is averaging a robust 37.3 points per game, scoring more than 30 points in four of its wins.
• Collin Eaddy has scored 10 times on the ground and has piled up 411 yards, the only Princeton rusher over 100 yards this season.
• Quarterback Cole Smith is completing 66 percent of his passes for 1,721 yards and 10 scores, with the trio of Jacob Birmelin (41 catches, 565 yards, two touchdowns), Andrei Iosivas (24 catches, 504 yards, five touchdowns) and Dylan Classi (20 catches, 352 yards, two touchdowns) the primary targets. 
• While the Tigers feature a high-powered offense, it’s almost overshadowed as Princeton also features one of the best defensive units.
• Princeton surrenders just 15.5 points and 15 first downs per contest, allowing opponents just 253.8 yards of offense through six games with two shutouts.
• It’s been a brick wall against the run, surrendering just 53.3 yards on 1.8 yards per carry and giving up two rushing scores.
• Jeremiah Tyler paces the team with 39 tackles and had added 5.5 for a loss, while Uche Ndukwe (9.5 tackles for loss, 6.0 sacks), Samuel Wright (6.0 tackles for loss, 5.0 sacks) and Cole Aubrey (5.5 tackles for loss, 5.0 sacks) have combined for 16 of the team’s 24 sacks.
• Special teams features punter Will Powers (46.8 yards per punt) and Jeffrey Sexton (11-of-14 field goals with a long of 46, 22-of-23 on PATs).
• Head coach Bob Surace, a four-time finalist for FCS Coach of the Year honor, sports a 62-44 record, though it is 60-24 over the last nine years after going 2-20 in his first 22 games on the sidelines.

THE SERIES
• This will be the 103rd meeting between Cornell and Princeton, with the Tigers holding a commanding 63-37-2 advantage. 
• The two teams first met in 1891, a 6-0 Princeton win. 
• In all, 16 of the last 24 meetings have been decided by a touchdown or less. 
• The Big Red snapped Princeton’s four-game win streak in the series with a 29-28 comeback win in New Jersey in 2017, but the Tigers earned payback a year later in a 66-0 win as part of a 10-0 season.
• Princeton won the 2019 meeting 21-7 at Schoellkopf Field.

WILDEST SERIES IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL?
• Peppered with last-second finishes, crazy endings and upsets galore, nine of the last 16 contests have been decided by a touchdown or less, with that stretching to 12 of the last 20 meetings and 19 of the last 30. 
• Fourteen games have been decided by a field goal or less or in overtime during a 30-season span. 
• During that three-decade span, an amazing run of exciting games have been played between the teams. 
• Since 2000, when the series moved to Halloween week ...
2000 — Cornell blocked a PAT with 11 seconds left to win by one.
2002 — a Princeton rally from a 25-10 deficit in the fourth quarter ended with a 32-25 Tiger win.
2004 — a blocked Tiger PAT late in the fourth gave the Big Red a win.
2005 — Derek Javarone of Princeton booted a game-winning field goal in OT to set an Ivy League record for career field goals.
2006 — Cornell handed Ivy champ Princeton its only league loss in 2006.
2007 — a Peter Zell 47-yard field goal fell short at the horn in a 37-34 Tiger win. 
2008 — the Big Red nearly rallied from a 12-point deficit in the final 45 seconds, with a pass into the end zone falling incomplete as time ran out in a 31-26 loss. 
2009 — Tommy Wornham connected with Trey Peacock for a 78-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter to give Princeton a 17-13 win. 
2010 — Emani Fenton broke up a two-point conversion that would have tied the game in the fourth quarter and then intercepted a pass with the Tigers in chip-shot field goal position with 23 seconds remaining for a 21-19 Big Red win.
2011 — Cornell won 24-7, but even that was in a rare October Nor’easter than dropped eight inches of snow during the game.
2012 — John Wells connected on a 23-yard field with 50 seconds left after missing a game-tying PAT attempt earlier in the fourth quarter for a 37-35 Big Red win.
2013 — the Ivy champions were too much for the Big Red in a 53-20 Tiger victory that saw Tiger quarterback Quinn Epperly set an NCAA FCS record by opening the game with 29 consecutive completions and finished the day with six total touchdowns.
2014 — the teams combined for 65 points, 897 total yards (including 681 yards through the air) in a 38-27 Princeton victory 
2015 — those numbers were even bigger — 68 points and 908 total yards — in a 47-21 Tigers win.
2016 — en route to Ivy League Player of the Year honors, John Lovett accounted for seven touchdowns - four passing, two running, one receiving - and Princeton’s defense bottled up Cornell all day in a 56-7 triumph.
2017 — Cornell erased a 12-point fourth quarter deficit, with Nickolas Null kicking a 43-yard field goal with 28 seconds left for a 29-28 win at Princeton. 
2018 — The Tigers pour it on for a 66-0 victory at Princeton Stadium.
2019 — Cornell holds No. 12 Princeton to 20 points and 136 yards below its season averages, but the Tigers pick up a 21-7 win.

CORNELL VS. NATIONALLY RANKED OPPONENTS
• Cornell will be playing its third ranked opponent of the season and its seventh in the past three seasons when it meets No. xx Princeton.
• The Big Red fell to No. 22 VMI 31-21 on Sept. 18 at home and at No. 22 Harvard 24-10 in its season opener. 
• The last time the Big Red topped a ranked opponent was in 2019 when Cornell handed Ivy champ Dartmouth, ranked No. 12, its only loss of the year to claim its first Ivy road win against a ranked team in nearly seven decades.
• Dating back to 1936, the Big Red is 14-51-2 against teams ranked in the top 25.
• The highest ranked win Cornell has had was when it topped No. 4 Ohio State 23-14 on Oct. 28, 1939 in Columbus, Ohio.
 

• 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 304-195-15 (.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.

• After a three-game home stand, Cornell returns to the road to face Penn at Franklin Field on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 1 p.m.
• It will be the 127th all-time meetings between the teams with the Quakers in the lead 75-46-5. 
• The series is the fifth-most played in college football history.
• The game will be played for the Trustees’ Cup, with Penn leading 18-7 for the trophy.