Football Returns On East Hill With #22 VMI In Its Sights

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

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• It’s been a long four weeks as the Cornell football team watched teams all over the country kick off. Actually, it’s been a long two years.
• When the Big Red and No. 17/19 VMI kick off on Saturday, Sept. 18 at 2 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field as part of Homecoming Weekend, it will be the first game for Cornell on the gridiron since a 35-9 win over Columbia on Nov. 23, 2019 — a span of 665 days (or 57,456,000 seconds; 957,600 minutes; or 15,960 hours).
• In fact, since Cornell played its last football game, VMI has played 10 games (7-3 over that span).
• Barry Leonard and Jason Weinstein will be in the ESPN+ broadcast booth calling the action.
• The matchup with the Keydets, who earned a spot in the FCS championship tournament this past spring, will be the first-ever between the programs and the first contest with a Southern Conference team for the Big Red.
• Cornell enters the season on a two-game win streak after concluding the 2019 campaign with victories at Ivy champ and 12th-ranked Dartmouth (20-17) and at home vs. Columbia (35-9) for the Empire State Bowl. 
• The Big Red roster includes 51 seniors, the most in a season in school history — 21 of them return for a fifth year in 2021. 
• Despite the veteran team, the late season success and the momentum for the program, the Big Red was chosen eighth in the Ivy League media preseason poll.
• While the preseason poll doesn’t matter, it’s been particularly poor in rating the Big Red, who have finished ahead of their predicted finish in each of the past five seasons, including taking fourth in 2019 after being chosen seventh.

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 will play its first football game in 665 days when it meets VMI, the second-longest span 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. 
• With four wins, Cornell would reach 650 all-time (13th all-time in FCS history). 

A WIN OVER VMI WOULD...
• make Cornell 1-0 for the second straight season follow 2019’s 21-7 win at Marist.
• extend the Big Red’s win streak to three games overall, including a pair of wins over top 25 teams.
• improve Cornell’s record in season openers to 94-35-4, including 4-4 under Archer.
• give the Big Red its first-ever win over the Keydets and against a Southern Conference opponent.
• give Cornell a 108-68-5 (.610) record all-time in the month of September.
• be the 647th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision). 

BIG RED ON HOMECOMING
• Cornell football has a 37-33-2 record dating back to 1948 in Homecoming games. 
• The Big Red fell to Georgetown 14-8 on Oct. 5, 2019 in its last Homecoming contest.
• Cornell is 9-6 on Homecoming in the last 15 seasons and 3-4 under head coach David Archer ‘05.

ABOUT VMI
• The Keydets bring a 1-1 record into the weekend after opening the season with a 45-24 win over Davidson followed up by a 60-7 loss at FBS foe Kent State.
• VMI is picked to finish third in a loaded Southern Conference after winning the conference this past spring and earning a bid to the FCS playoffs.
• The Keydets had a storybook spring, going 6-1 in SoCon play to grab its first-ever FCS national ranking, first FCS playoff appearance and first league title in more than four decades.
• It was also VMI’s first winning season in exactly 40 years (1981).
• Headlining the defense is 2020-21 SoCon Defensive Player of the Year Stone Snyder. The preseason pick for the same honor led the league in tackles per game (11.0) along with 9.5 tackles for loss, eight sacks and four QB hurries. 
• Snyder, wide receiver Jakob Herres and long snapper Robert Soderholm are preseason All-Americans entering the fall season. 
• Herres was the 2020-21 Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year after posting 80 catches for 978 yards and eight touchdowns over just eight games.
• Seventh-year head coach Scott Wachenheim, the Eddie Robinson Award winner as national coach of the year in the FCS this past spring, has an 18-48 overall record.

THE SERIES
• This will be the first-ever meeting between Cornell and VMI on the gridiron.

CORNELL VS. THE SOUTHERN CONFERENCE
• This will be the first-ever meeting between Cornell and a team from the Southern Conference in football.
• Cornell has never faced Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Furman, Mercer, Samford, The Citadel, VMI, Western Carolina or Wofford. 

• 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 303-193-15 (.608).

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 opens Ivy League competition when it visits Yale on Saturday, Sept. 25 at 12 p.m. at the Yale Bow in New Haven, Conn.
• The Big Red and the Bulldogs meet for the 83rd time in program history (Yale leads 50-30-2) with Yale having won three straight, including a 27-16 home win in 2019.