Football Out To Even Ivy Record When It Visits Unbeaten, Nationally-Ranked Harvard

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

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• Cornell football will have quite the task trying to earn its first win of the season, as undefeated Harvard will be the opposition on Saturday, Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. at Harvard Stadium.
• While the Big Red has won two of the last three meetings between the programs, those victories both came at Schoellkopf Field. 
• Cornell will be looking for its first win over the Crimson in Cambridge since 2000. 
• The Big Red will be out to snap that road skid and post its third Ivy win in its last four contests dating back to 2019.
• Cornell is 0-3 after last weekend’s 21-10 defeat at Bucknell, as four turnovers doomed the Big Red despite limiting the Bison to 243 yards of offense.
• The Big Red defense has done yeoman’s work over the team’s first three games, ranking fourth in the Ivy League in rush defense (99.0 yards per game) and second in opponent’s third-down conversion percentage (.244).
• The offensive line has also been solid in the passing game, as the Big Red ranks second in the conference in passing offense (282.3 ypg.), but first in fewest sacks allowed per game (1.0).
• Harvard is 3-0 and 1-0 in conference play with convincing wins over Georgetown (44-9), Brown (49-17) and No. 24 Holy Cross (38-13).
• Head coach Tim Murphy set the Ivy League record for career wins two weeks ago in a Friday night win over Brown, and his victory over No. 24 Holy Cross added to that total, bringing him to 181 over 28 seasons with nine Ivy titles.

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 HARVARD WOULD...
• give the Big Red its first win of 2021 and improve its record to 1-3 on the season.
• even its Ivy League at 1-1
• narrow the Crimson’s lead in the all-time series to 48-35-2.
• be the third Big Red win in its last four contests against Harvard.
• make Cornell 3-1 in its last four games against Ivy opponents.
• snap a three-game losing streak 
• give Cornell a 310-246-14 (.556) record all-time in the month of October.
• be the 647th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision). 

ABOUT HARVARD
• Harvard is off to a 3-0 start with convincing wins over Georgetown (44-9), Brown (49-17) and No. 24 Holy Cross (38-13).
• The Crimson is averaging 43.7 points and piling up 423.7 yards of offense per game, including 239.0 yards on the ground on 5.8 yards per carry.
• The defense has been stingy against the run, allowing just 149 total yards on the ground (49.7 yards per game), good for fourth nationally.
• Aaron Shampklin leads the offense with 125.3 yards per contest on 8.0 yards per carry and has found the end zone four times, while Aidan Borguet is posting 5.7 yards per carry with three scores.
• The offensive line, while blocking for a top run game, have also allowed just three total sacks with both Jake Smith and Charlie Dean splitting snaps under center.
• His top target in the air has been Kym Winberly, who has 12 catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns.
• Defensively, James Herring (22) and Jordan Hill (20) are the team’s leading tacklers with Khalil Dawson grabbing a pair of interceptions, but a total of 21 players have been in on at least one tackle for loss this year.
• Place-kicker Jonah Lipel is 2-for-2 on field goals and 17-of-18 on PAT kicks, with Jon Soot punting and averaging 39.3 yards with nine of his 16 kicks placed inside the 20.
• Head coach Tim Murphy is in his 28th season directing the Harvard program. 
• He has won 181 games on the Crimson sidelines, the most of any coach in Ivy history, and has guided Harvard to nine conference crowns.

THE SERIES
• Cornell and Harvard will be meeting for the 85th time dating back to the first meeting in 1890.
• Harvard leads the all-time series 48-34-2.
• The Crimson owned the early series, capturing the first 10 games (1890-1913), while Cornell 11 won straight from 1986-1996. 
• Harvard has won 16 of the last 19 contests, though the Big Red has won two of three — both wins in Ithaca — and snapped the Crimson’s 11-game win streak in the process. 
• The Crimson won the last meeting, a 35-22 contest in Cambridge, in 2019.

CORNELL VS. RANKED OPPONENTS
• Cornell will be playing its second ranked opponent of the season and its sixth in the last three seasons when it visits No. 22 Harvard.
• The Big Red fell to No. 22 VMI 31-21 on Sept. 18, 2021 at Schoellkopf Field 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 14-50-2 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 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.

• Cornell returns home for the first of two Friday evening games at Schoellkopf Field when it welcomes Central New York rival Colgate to Ithaca on Friday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.
• The two teams have met 101 times with a dead-even split in the series, 49-49-3. 
• Colgate has had the better of the series since 1975, going 32-9 in the last 41 contests, including 10 straight victories (1993-2005) before the Big Red commenced on a two-game win streak.