Cornell Chases First 2-0 Ivy Start Since 2000 When it Travels to Harvard

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

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• Cornell is seeking is first 2-0 Ivy League start since 2000 in the team’s 87th contest against Harvard. Kickoff is set for Friday, Oct. 6 at 2 p.m. at Schoellkopf Field in Ithaca, N.Y.
• The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU, with Eric Frede and Jack Ford on the call.
• The Crimson enter the contest ranked at #21/19 nationally. it is the first matchup against a ranked opponent since cornell faced Princeton in 2022. 
• 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.
• 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.
• The Meakem Smith Director of Athletics & Physical Education, Dr. Nicki Moore, will get the chance to celebrate her first Big Red Homecoming this weekend, and it is against her former school. Under Dr. Moore, who’s leadership began in January of 2023, Cornell is 5-2-1 against the Raiders.

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 HARVARD WOULD...
• be the first 2-0 Ivy League start since 2000 when the Big Red defeated both Harvard and Yale, and went on to finish the year with a 5-2 record in Ivy League action.
• improve the all-time mark against Ivy League opponents to to 193-265-5.
• up Cornell’s record in the all-time series to 35-50-2.
• give Cornell a 314-251-14 (.554) record all-time in the
month of October.
• mark the second consecutive win against an Ivy League opponent, and mark the first time the Big Red won two straight Ivy contests since the team defeated Dartmouth and Columbia in back-to-back weeks to conclude the 2019 season.
• be the 656th in program history (15th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).

ABOUT HARVARD
• Harvard, ranked 19th in the FCS, improved to 3-0 on Saturday with a 38-28 victory over Holy Cross, which fell from No. 5 to No. 12 in this week’s poll. 
• Harvard leads the Ivy League in scoring (39 points per game), rushing yards (241.7 per game) and rushing touchdowns (8) through three weeks. 
• Junior running Shane McLaughlin (330 yards) and junior quarterback Charles DePrima (300 yards) lead the Crimson’s rushing attack. McLaughlin has three touchdowns; DePrima has two.
• DePrima has thrown for 446 yards with six touchdowns and two interceptions. 
• Senior tight end Tyler Neville, a first-team All-Ivy League performer last season, has caught eight passes for 123 yards and two scores. Sophomore wide receiver Cooper Barkate has 16 receptions for 232 yards and two touchdowns. 
• Harvard leads the league in total interceptions (5) and interceptions returned for touchdowns (2). The Crimson snagged three of those picks against Holy Cross. 
• Safety Ty Bartrum has a team-leading two interceptions. The sophomore also leads the Crimson with 24 tackles. 
• Senior defensive lineman Thor Griffith, named to the Reese’s Senior Bowl watch list before the season, has two tackles for a loss and 1.5 sacks. He finished second on the Crimson in those categories en route to first-team All-Ivy League recognition last season. 
• Xaviah Bascon has returned five kicks for 193 yards, the most in the Ivy League. 
• Cali Canaval is 2 of 3 on field goals, with both makes coming from at least 40 yards out. His longest make came from 43 against St. Thomas. 

THE SERIES
• Harvard, winners of the last three meetings, has a 50-34-2 advantage in the series, which began in 1890. 
• Cornell is 29-17 on the road against Harvard.
• Cornell hasn’t won in Cambridge since October 2000. It has only won three games in the series since, with all those victories coming in Ithaca.

THE LAST MEETING WITH HARVARD
• Sophomore Jameson Wang accounted for four touchdowns and the Cornell football team gave Ivy League preseason favorite Harvard all it could handle, but fell short in a 35-28 decision under Friday Night Lights in front of a national television audience on ESPNU at Schoellkopf Field. 
• Wang threw for 185 yards and a touchdown and posted 61 yards on the ground with three scores to lead the never-quit Big Red. 
• His favorite target, Thomas Glover, hauled in eight passes for 66 yards and a touchdown to become the 25th player in school history to surpass 1,000 yards in the air. 
• Jake Stebbins notched a season-high 13 tackles, recovered a fumble and broke up a pass to lead the defense, with Paul Lewis III making seven stops with two pass breakups. 
• Anthony Chideme-Alfaro also had a pair of pass breakups in the loss.
• Cornell owned an advantage in time of possession (33:48-26:12) and kept the game at its pace most of the way, but special teams miscues gave Harvard points that the home team couldn’t counteract by forcing turnovers. 
• A 13-point second quarter shifted the momentum to the visitors, and even after the Big Red momentarily secured a second half lead, Harvard stole it right back.
• Harvard’s defense posted nine tackles for loss, with Truman Jones in on four behind the line of scrimmage with one pass knockdown. 
• Aidan Borguet rushed for 163 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries to lead the Harvard rushing attack, with Charlie Dean completing 15-of-29 passes for 208 yards and two scores - one each to Tyler Neville and Scott Woods II - in directing an offense that piled up 385 yards.

LAST TIME OUT
RECAP I BOX SCORE I HIGHLIGHTS I GALLERY I POSTGAME NOTES
• Fifteen tackles from Noah Taylor and a 100-yard receiving game by Nicholas Laboy was not enough to lift the Big Red over Colgate. The Raiders controlled the fourth quarter, outscoring Cornell 21-8.
• The Big Red held the lead at the end of the first half, and played a scoreless third quarter.
• The raiders responded with back-to-back touchdowns to jump back out in front and secure a lead they never surrendered.
• Laboy’s 104 yards receiving was a career-high, marking his first 100-yard performance.
• With his effort, Laboy surpassed 500 career receiving yards (584) and now has four receiving touchdowns with scoring receptions in each of his past two games.
• Senior Noah Taylor made a career-best 15 tackles, moving his all-time total to 99.
• Taylor’s 15 tackles were the most by a Big Red player in a single game since Lance Blass ‘19 also recorded 15 against Dartmouth in 2018.
• Junior wide receiver Luke Malaga had his first career catch, a 21-yarder.
• Junior linebacker Luke Banbury was credited with a career-high seven tackles, while classmate Damon Barnes posted a career-best five stops. 
• With 1,090 rushing yards for his career, junior Jameson Wang moved into 29th place on the school’s career list, Next up in 28th is former All-Ivy quarterback Ryan Kuhn ‘06 (1,110).
• Wang also upped his career passing yardage total to 2,674 yards, good for 14th at Cornell.
• His 22 passing touchdowns moved him into a sixth-place tie with Mark Allen ‘74, four behind Nathan Ford ‘09 for a top five mark.
• Wang’s second career two-point conversion made him the 16th player in school history with multiple two-point conversions. The school record of four was set by Rick Furbush ‘71.
• Wang has upped his career scoring total to 94 points and is now one touchdown away from becoming the 24th player in Cornell history to surpass 100 for a career and the first since Harold Coles ‘20.

HALL OF FAME FIGURES
• At halftime this past weekend, Cornell honored the 2023 Cornell Hall of Fame honorees with an on-field ceremony.
• From football, J.C. Tretter ‘13 is set up to 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 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 is set to close out the nonconference slate when it hosts Bucknell for the team’s second home game of the year. Kickoff is at  1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 14 at Schoellkopf Field. Fans at home can catch the game on ESPN+.