Football Seniors Out To Retain Empire State Bowl Against Columbia on Saturday

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

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• Cornell will honor its 51 seniors who will take the field for the final time with their eyes focused squarely on one goal - retaining the Empire State Bowl. 
• The Big Red will attempt to sweep the trophy series after topping Penn earlier this season for the Trustees’ Cup for just the third time ever and the first season since 2013 when it meets Columbia on Saturday, Nov. 20 at 1 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field. 
• Barry Leonard and Buck Briggs ‘76 will be in the ESPN+ broadcast booth calling the action.
• Prior to the game, Cornell will honor its 51 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 and close the season 3-3 after beginning the year 0-4.
• A win for Columbia would guarantee itself a top-half Ivy finish, just like the Big Red did in 2019 when it topped the Lions in the season finale, 35-9.
• A triumph for the Big Red would mean it would finish sixth, two rungs ahead of its eighth-place preseason finish.
• One senior-laden position that will be in the spotlight will be the offensive line, where four seniors and a junior who rank ninth in the country in fewest sacks allowed (0.9 per game) will attempt to protect against a Lions’ defense that ranks in the top 25 in both sacks and tackles for loss.
• Junior linebacker Jake Stebbins enters the final game of the season atop the Ivy League tackles list with 86 (the most by a Big Red player since 2013) and his 10.0 tackles for loss (tied for most since 2011).
• Quarterback Jameson Wang is also on the record watch list, as his eight touchdowns accounted for (four rushing, four passing) is one off the school record for a freshman.

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

A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD...
• close the season with a 3-7 record (2-5 Ivy League) and a finish of no worse than sixth in the final conference standings.
• retain the Empire State Bowl with its second straight win over Columbia .
• extend the Big Red’s lead in the all-time series to 67-38-3.
• make Cornell 3-3 in its final six games.
• give Cornell a 235-225-15 (.511) record all-time in the month of November.
• be the 649th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision). 

ABOUT COLUMBIA
• The Lions enter the season finale with a 6-3 record (3-3 Ivy), including a win over nationally-ranked Dartmouth.
• Columbia can finish fourth in the final standings with a victory and has already clinched its third winning season in the last four years after Saturday’s 23-17 victory over Brown.
• Led by 40 seniors that will graduate as the school’s winningest group since the official formation of the Ivy League in 1956, Columbia snapped its two-game skid despite falling behind 14-0 and sitting through an hour lightning delay on its Senior Day.
• Freshman quarterback Joe Green has had an impressive rookie season under center, throwing for 1,507 yards and eight touchdowns with just a pair of interceptions.
• Dante Miller (747 yards, three touchdowns) and Ryan Young (454 yards, three touchdowns)make up an impressive two-headed rushing duo, while Ernest Robertson leads three receivers with more than 200 yards with 14 catches for 280 yards and a touchdown.
• Defensively, the Lions’ Ben Mathaismeier has 43 tackles and three interceptions, while Cam Dillon has 46 stops with 12.5 for a loss, 8.0 sacks and two forced fumbles.
• Special teams has been a strength, with Alex Felkins pacing the Ivy League and ranking ninth nationally with his 14-of-22 field goal kicking, while Drew Schmid second in the conference averaging 40.0 yards per punt with 16 kicks downed inside the 20.
• All-Ivy returner Mike Roussos is in the top 20 nationally in both kick (18th, 26.2 ypr.) and punt (19th, 9.1 ypr.) returns. 
• Head coach Al Bagnoli returns for a seventh year 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 28-31 on the sidelines at Columbia and now has a 262-129 mark in 39 seasons as a collegiate head coach.

THE SERIES
• This will be the 108th meeting between Cornell and Columbia, with the Big Red holding a 66-38-3 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 nearly splitting the last 31 (Cornell leads 16-15) over the last three decades.
• Cornell had previously won 12 straight contests, the longest streak in the series by either team. 
• The Lions had their two-game win streak snapped in 2019 when the Big Red ran away with a 35-9 victory at Schoellkopf Field in the last game prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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 6-4.
• The trophy currently resides in Ithaca following its 35-9 victory over Columbia in 2019.
• 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.

• 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 304-196-15 (.605).

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.

• The 2021 season is complete.
• Cornell opens the 2022 campaign when it visits VMI on Saturday, Sept. 17 in Lexington, Va.