Football Eyes First Win As It Heads To Bucknell For the Battle of the 'Nells

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

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• Two teams looking for their first win of 2021 will square off when Cornell and Bucknell meet in the Battle of the ‘Nells on Saturday, Oct. 2 at 3:30 p.m. at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium in Lewisburg, Pa. 
• Doug Birdsong and Kevin Herr will be in the ESPN+ broadcast booth calling the action.
• After opening the season with consecutive games against defending conference champions (VMI in the Southern, Yale in the Ivy), the Big Red will be playing a Bucknell team that won its division this past spring and played in the first-ever Patriot League championship game.
• Cornell has had its chances in each of the first two weeks before eventually falling to No. 22 VMI (31-21) and Yale (23-17).
• Cornell’s rush defense is surrendering just 100.0 rushing yards per game (No. 19 nationally) on 3.2 yards per carry
• The Big Red’s offensive line has shone brightly early in the season, ranking second in the Ivy League in fewest sacks allowed and tackles for loss allowed with five seniors (Will Swope, Robert Fatovic, Jack Burns, Joe Kelly and Hunter Nourad) leading the way.   
• Senior wide receiver Thomas Glover leads the Ivy League and is fourth nationally with his 7.5 receptions per contest.
• Bucknell is 0-3 and has been outscored 106-9 in losses at Sacred Heart (21-0) and Villanova (55-3) and at home vs. Penn (30-6) after a 2-2 spring under third-year head coach Dave Cecchini.
• The Bison are coming off a bye weekend where they could regroup and ready for their Homecoming Weekend.

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 BUCKNELL WOULD...
• give the Big Red its first win of 2021 and improve its record to 1-2 on the season.
• even its non-conference and road records at 1-1
• extend the Big Red’s lead in the all-time series against the Bison to 44-14.
• move to 133-85-7 all-time vs. Patriot League opponents.
• snap the Big Red’s three-game losing streak vs. non-league foes and extend Bucknell’s skid against non-Patriot opponents to 13 contests.
• make Cornell 1-1 against non-conference opponents in 2021.
• make the Big Red 3-2 in its last five games, with its lone losses to defending conference champions No. 22 VMI (Southern) and Yale (Ivy) after a COVID-19 hiatus of 665 days.
• give Cornell a 310-245-14 (.557) record all-time in the month of October.
• be the 647th in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision). 

ABOUT BUCKNELL
• Bucknell is 0-3 and coming off a bye week after loss at Sacred Heart (21-0), No. 11 Villanova (55-3) and Ivy foe Penn (30-6) by a combined score of 106-9.
• Four All-Patriot League players return to the Bison, including first-teamers in running back Jared Cooper and defensive back Gavin Pringle.
• Danny Meuser is coming off a career-best 90-yard rushing game with a touchdown on 20 carries against the Quakers his last time out.
• The contest will serve as Bucknell’s Homecoming game.
• Bucknell enters the contest with a 12-game losing skid against non-conference opponents.
• Head coach Dave Cecchini was voted Patriot League Coach of the Year during the abbreviated spring season that saw the Bison earn a spot in the first-ever Patriot League Championship game after being picked last in the preseason poll.
• He also helped Bucknell to a third-place finish in 2019.

THE SERIES
• This will be the 58th meeting between Cornell and Bucknell, with the Big Red holding a 43-14 lead in the series. 
• The two teams first met in 1888, a 20-3 Cornell win. 
• The Big Red won the first three meetings before Bucknell claimed a 4-0 victory in 1891. 
• It would be 88 years and 24 games before the Bison would win its next contest against Cornell. 
• Bucknell snapped a seven-game losing streak against Cornell with a 20-7 victory over the Big Red in Lewisburg, Pa. on Sept. 27, 2014 and has won three of the last four meetings overall. 

CORNELL VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
• Cornell has a 132-85-7 record against the seven current members of the Patriot League football conference, including a 43-14 edge over Bucknell.
• The Big Red has advantages over five of the other seven conference schools: Bucknell (43-14), Fordham (4-3-0), Holy Cross (5-0-0), Lafayette (14-8-2) and Lehigh (15-9-2).
• The series with both Colgate (49-49-3) and Georgetown (2-2) are even.
• This is the first of two scheduled matchups with Patriot opponents in 2021, with the Big Red set to meet Colgate at home on Friday, Oct. 15.

• 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 completes its three-game road swing when it visits Harvard on Saturday, Oct. 9 at 1 p.m. at Harvard Stadium.
• The Crimson leads the all-time series 48-34-2, though the Big Red has won two of the last three meetings.
• The last time they met, Harvard earned a 35-22 victory in Cambridge despite 135 receiving yards and a touchdown by Phazione McClurge ‘20.