Big Red and Bison Face off in 59th All-Time Meeting

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

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• Cornell is in pursuit of its second consecutive season with a winning recors against nonconference opponents when it hosts Bucknell on Saturday, Oct. 14 at 1 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y. for the teams 59th meeting all-time.
• The game will be broadcast on ESPN+, with Nick DeLuca and nick Quartaro on the call.
• The Bison enter the contest searching for their second win of the season. Bucknell defeated VMI, 21-13, in the second week of the season. The Bison fell to Ivy opponent Penn, 37-21, the week after VMI.
• Last season, the Big Red had an undefeated out of conference slate, defeating VMI, Lehigh, and Colgate.
• The Big Red is coming off a record-breaking weekend, where senior tightend Manny Adebi set the school’s all-time record for blocked kicks, tallying his sixth and seventh against Harvard.
• Picked to finish seventh in the Ivy League preseason media poll, Cornell seeks to again surpass expectations after turning a last-place preseason selection in 2022 into a sixth-place finish and .500 record.
• Cornell’s captainship is held by two this year, seniors Micah Sahakian and Jake Stebbins. Each game will have a third game captain. The game captain for Lehigh and Yale was senior Holt Fletcher. Jackson Kennedy served as game captain against Colgate. Manny Adebi was the game captain at Harvard.
• Stebbins is a three-time All-Ivy honoree including a first-team selection in 2021. Sahakian earned an honorable mention All-Ivy nod.
• The Big Red returns 18 starters, boasting one of the most experienced line-ups in the Ivy. The two-deep consists of 24 seniors, 16 juniors, eight sophomores, and five freshmen.

A LOOK BACKWARDS
• The Big Red finished the 2022 season with a 5-5 overall record (2-5 Ivy). 
• Two of the five losses were by a single touchdown.
• The five-win season marked the best record for the Big Red since 2011, when the team also went 5-5.
• The 2022 season saw a 3-2 road record, the best for the Big Red since the 2016 season.
• Cornell put 12 student-athletes on All-Ivy teams, a mark matching the 2005 total, which was the most since 1995 when the team boasted 14.
• The Big Red return 18 of the 28 starters from last season, including a three-time All-Ivy honoree in Jake Stebbins, who is back for his fifth season in the Carnellian and White.
• Stebbins will serve as a two-time captian for the team after being one of four last season.
• Another returner to note is junior quarterback Jameson Wang, who passed for over 1,600 yard in 2022, while also scoring eight rushing touchdowns.
• Other All-Ivy returners include Jackson Kennedy (PK), Davon Kiser (Ret.), Paul Lewis III (DB), Connor Henderson (LB), Matt Robbert (TE), and co-captain Micah Sahakian (OL).

A WIN OVER BUCKNELL WOULD...
• be the second consecutive season that the Big Red tallied a nonconference record above .500..
• improve the all-time mark against Patriot League opponents to to 137-87-7.
• up Cornell’s record in the all-time series to 44-15.
• give Cornell a 314-252-14 (.554) record all-time in the
month of October.
• break a two game slide against the Bison.
• be the 656th in program history (15th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).

ABOUT BUCKNELL
• Bucknell enters the week 1-4 with losses to James Madison, Penn, Holy Cross and Lafayette. The Bison beat VMI in Week 2. 
• Bucknell’s offense is second in the Patriot League in passing yards per game (236.2). 
• Running backs Coleman Bennett (160 yards) and Rushawn Baker (164 yards) lead the Bison in rushing. Bennett leads the team with two scores.  
• Junior quarterback Ralph Rucker has passed for 1,124 yards with nine touchdowns and two interceptions. 
• Sophomore wide receiver Eric Weatherley has caught 18 passes for 284 yards (fifth in the Patriot League) and four touchdowns (tied for third in the Patriot League). 
• Senior linebacker Blake Leake has a team-leading 51 tackles (third in the Patriot League). He has 3.5 tackles for a loss. 
• Bucknell ranks fourth in the Patriot League with nine sacks. Two players — linebacker Brad Jamison and defensive lineman Connor Carretta — have 2.5. 
• Bennett has returned 16 kicks for 349 yards, the third most in the Patriot League. He had a 61-yard return against Lafayette.

THE SERIES
• Cornell is 43-15 in the series, which began in 1888. 
• Cornell has lost four of its last five against Bucknell after winning seven straight from 2007-13. 
• Bucknell has won the last two games in the series. The Big Red has never lost more than two in a row to the Bison. 
• Cornell is 34-7 against Bucknell in Ithaca.

THE LAST MEETING WITH BUCKNELL
• Four turnovers by Cornell, including three in the second half and two in the red zone, allowed Bucknell to celebrate a 21-10 Homecoming win at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.
• Bucknell turned a 10-7 deficit entering the third into its first lead of
the game two plays into the fourth when Christian Spugnardi caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from Nick Semptimphelter.
• The quarterback then took it in himself six minutes later to make it
a two-score game.
• Cornell had a chance to get within a score, but a fumble on the goal-line ended the Big Red’s comeback chances.
• The Cornell defense limited Bucknell to 243 yards of offense, with 153 yards of it coming on two scoring drives.
• Jake Stebbins had a game-high 12 tackles, including one for a loss, while fellow linebacker Lance Blass had six stops, including 1.5 for a loss.
• The senior quarterbacking tandem of Ben Mays (19-of-28 for 256 yards) and Richie Kenney (5-of-11 for 50 yards) combined for 306 yards, but all four turnovers.
• Curtis Raymond III had a pair of catches for 89 yards, with both catches going for more than 40 yards.
• Delonte Harrell had the lone Big Red touchdown, his second of the year.
• Special teams was a highlight in the loss, with Scott Lees booting a field goal and making his lone PAT, while Koby Kiefer averaged 40.8 yards on four punts.
• Javonni Cunningham had four kickoff returns for 111 yards, including a 45-yard return that gave Cornell a chance late in the fourth.

LAST TIME OUT
RECAP I BOX SCORE I HIGHLIGHTS I GALLERY I POSTGAME NOTES
• The Big Red appeared on ESPN2 for the first time in program history, falling to the Crimson, 41-23.
• The promotion from ESPNU to ESPN2 marked the first time Cornell has appeared on one of the two primary ESPN networks since 1990.
• Senior Manny Adebi’s two blocked kicks give him a school record for blocks in a career with seven, surpassing the previous mark of six by Joel Sussman ‘05.
• Adebi blocked two kicks in the contest, both PAT attempts, to become the first player in school history to block multiple kicks in multiple games during a career. He also blocked two kicks at Princeton on Oct. 29, 2022.
• Freshman Samuel Musungu caught a 12-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, the first of his career. He became the first Big Red freshman to catch a touchdown pass since Eric Gallman II at Delaware to kick off the 2017 campaign.
• With 1,115 rushing yards for his career, Jameson Wang moved into 28th place on the school’s career list. Next up in 27th is former Big Red fullback Moose Miller ‘51 (1,138)
• Wang has upped his career scoring total to 106 points after becoming the 24th player in Cornell history to surpass 100 for a career and the first since Harold Coles ‘20.
• Senior place-kicker Jackson Kennedy is 15-of-20 on field goals over the past two seasons. His .750 field goal percentage is second among all Big Red kickers with at least 15 career made field goals (Nickolas Null ‘20 at .762 is first).
• Matt Robbert’s five catches give him 51 for his career, making him the 55th player in school history to record 50 career catches.
• The 15 penalty yards surrendered are the fewest in a game by the Big Red since being whistled just once for 7 yards at Penn in 2017.

HALL OF FAME FIGURES
• Over Homecoming weekend, Cornell honored the 2023 Cornell Hall of Fame honorees with an on-field ceremony.
• From football, J.C. Tretter ‘13 was inducted in this years class. During his time at Cornell, the offensive lineman was named a unanimous All-Ivy First Team selection. At the time, he protected Jeff Matthews’ blindside, helping the Big Red to set a new Cornell and Ivy passing record. Tretter’s protection also earned him a second-team All-American recognition. He was the 25th pick of the fourth round of the 2013 NFL Draft, where he was selected by the Green Bay Packers. He also spent time with the Cleveland Browns. In the spring of 2020, Tretter was named the President of the NFL Players Association.
• A “special category” inductee alongside Tretter is the former Meakem Smith Director of Athletics & Physical Education, Andy Noel. Noel was the head of Cornell athletics for 24 years. Under him, the Big Red won 106 Ivy League team titles and 37 national championships. Nearly, 2,300 athletes earned All-Ivy honors, including 850 first-teamers and 400 All-Americans.
• 13 other inductees were honored alongside Tretter and Noel.
 

HUDDLE TOGETHER FOR MENTAL HEALTH
• This past week, the Big Red is using its athletics platform to help promote mental health awareness.
• The week long celebration began with the Homecoming football game when Cornell hosted Colgate on Schoellkopf Field.
• Throughout the week, the Cornell community is invited to participate in sessions geared towards promoting positive mental health.

RED WEEKLY HONORS
• After week one, Big Red punter and placekicker, Jackson Kennedy, was named the Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week.
• Kennedy earned the nod after booting the second longest punt in school history (81 yards). He also went 2-for-2 in field goals in the fourth quarter, providing the winning points for the Big Red. He was the only player in the Ivy League to kickoff, punt and placekick in the opening weekend.
• In week two, Kennedy repeated with the Special Teams POTW award, and he was joined by Connor Henderson, who was named the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week.
• Kennedy drilled the winning field goal from 37 yards out as the clock expired to life Cornell over Yale for the first time since 2016. He went 3-for-3 on field goals, while also securing both extra points and punted his first-career I20 punt.
• Henderson matched his career-high in solo tackles with five, and added two assists for a season-high seven. He tallied his second-career interception and returned it for five yards at the perfect time,  preventing Yale from marching down the field, holding the Bulldog lead to 14-3 at halftime. Henderson headlined a Cornell defense that held the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, Nolan Grooms, to his second-lowest completion percentage of his collegiate career (38.9%). The senior linebacker and the rest of the defense held Yale to just 301 yards, over 60 yards less than what the Bulldogs put up against #5 Holy Cross.
• Kennedy was the first back-to-back Cornell awardee since 2019.
• Week two marked the first time since 2017 that the Big Red had multiple honorees in the same week since October 30, 2017 when Nick Gesualdi and Nickolas Null were named Defensive and Special Teams Players of the Week, respectively.

The Class of 2023

• Schoellkopf Field has been an indelible mark of Cornell football since it opened in 1915 and this year will be the 107th season at the home field. 
• 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.

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 over 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.

NEXT UP
• The Big Red stays home next weekend when it hosts Brown for the first home Ivy action of the year. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Schoellkopf Field. Fans at home can catch the game on ESPN+.