Football Embarks on 135th Season When it Visits Lehigh

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

STREAKS, STORYLINES & SIDEBARS
• Cornell embarks on the programs 135th season at Lehigh for the teams’ 28th meeting all time. Kickoff is set for Saturday, September 16, at 12 p.m. in Bethlehem, Pa.
• The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
• Lehigh has already commenced its 2023 season, sitting at 1-1 after falling to Villanova (38-10) in its season opener and defeating Merrimack last weekend on the road (14-12).
• The Big Red went perfect in 2022 against non-conference opponents, defeating a ranked VMI, Colgate, and Lehigh.
• Picked to finish 7th in the Ivy League preseason media poll, Cornell seeks to again surpass expectations after turing a last place preseason selection in 2022 into a sixth place finish and .500 record.
• Cornell’s captainship is held by two this year, Micah Sahakian and Jake Stebbins.
• Stebbins is a three-time All-Ivy honoree including a first-team nod in 2021. Sahakian earned an honorable mention All-Ivy nod.
• The Big Red will return 18 different 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 freshman.

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 one 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 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 8 rushing touchdowns.
• Other All-Ivy returners include Jackson Kennedy (PK), Davon Kiser (Ret.), Paul Lewis III (DB), Connor Henderson (LB), Matt Robbert (TE), and captain Micah Sahakian (OL).
 

A WIN OVER LEHIGH WOULD...
• Mark the fourth consecutive season where the Big Red open the year with a win.
• extend Cornell’s win streak over Patriot League opponents to four and improve the all-time mark to 136-86-7.
• snap a two-game road skid.
• extend the non-conference win-streak to five.
• up Cornell’s lead in the all-time series to 16-9-2.
• extend the Big Red’s lead in the all-time series to 67-39-3.
• give Cornell a 105-68-5 (.607) record all-time in the
month of September.
• be the 654th in program history (15th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).  

CORNELL VS. THE PATRIOT LEAGUE
• Cornell has a 135-86-7 record against the seven current members of the Patriot League football conference, including a 16-9-2 edge against Lehigh.
• The Big Red has advantages over five of the other seven conference schools: Bucknell (43-15), Colgate (51-49-3), Fordham (4-3-0), Holy Cross (5-0-0) and Lafayette (14-8-2).
• The series with Georgetown (2-2) is even.
• This is the first of three scheduled matchups with Patriot opponents in 2023, with the Big Red scheduled to host Colgate (Sept. 30) and Bucknell (Oct. 14).

ABOUT LEHIGH
• Lehigh enters week three with a 1-1 record after edging past Merrimack this past weekend following a season-opening 38-10 defeat to Villanova.
• First-year head coach Kevin Cahill won’t soon forget his first win as a collegiate head coach, as the longtime Yale assistant picked up a 14-12 victory over Merrimack this past Saturday at Harvard.
• The game was moved from Merrimack to Harvard after Friday storms cut power and damaged the Merrimack campus, with a lightning delay during warmups delaying the game for 2:15.
• The Mountain Hawks have done most of their damage on offense through the air, averaging 233.0 yards per game with all three touchdowns coming by way of the pass.
• Brayten Silbor has thrown for 466 yards and three touchdowns while completing 55 percent of his passes.
• Connor Kennedy has caught seven passes for 66 yards and two scores, with Geoffrey Jamiel hauling in a team-best 10 passes for 99 yards.
• Lehigh’s pass defense has been exceptionally strong, surrendering just 109.0 yards in its first two games, good for fifth in FCS.
• The Lehigh defense has limited opponents to 2-for-24 on third down (.083), a mark that ranks atop the FCS and among the top 10 in all levels of college football.
• Captain Mike DeNucci has 17 tackles with three for a loss, while Nick Peltekian has aso recorded double-digit stops with 13.
• Special teams includes punter Ben Banks-Altekruse, who is averaging 42.7 yards per punt with seven of his 18 kicks downed inside the 20 and five going at least 50 yards.

THE SERIES
• Cornell and Lehigh have met 27 times on the gridiron (Cornell leads 16-9-2).
• The two programs first played in 1887, the Big Red’s second game in program history. 
• Cornell earned a 19-15 decision over the Mountain Hawks last October, clinching the Big Red’s first unbeaten non-conference season since 2007. 

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 6-5.
• The trophy currently resides in New York City following Columbia’s 34-26 victory last fall in Ithaca.
• Cornell’s other wins in the series came in 2011 (62-41), 2013 (24-9), 2014 (30-27), 2015 (3-0) and 2019 (35-9).
• 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.

THE LAST MEETING WITH LEHIGH
• The win helped secure Cornell’s first perfect 3-0 non-league season since 2007 and its fifth all-time since the Big Red started playing its 10-game seasons in 1980.
• The team extended its non-conference win streak to four games, its longest since winning seven straight from 2006 to 2008.
• The team also pushed its win streak over Patriot League opponents to three games.
• Cornell snapped a five-game home losing skid, its longest since it dropped the final home game of 2016 and the first four contests of 2017.
• The contest was the 700th home game in program history and the 450th win in front of its Ithaca fans. 
• The Big Red surpassed its 2021 win total (2-8) with the triumph.
Cornell’s nine pass breakups ranks as the 12th-most in a single game in school history.
• Four of the Big Red’s nine drives went for 10 or more plays, the most 10-play drives in a game since it also posted four 10-play drives in a 2017 win at Princeton.
• Cornell rallied from a halftime deficit to win a game for the first time this year, the seventh time under head coach David Archer ‘05 and the 77th time in school history (77-401-4, .164).
• The Big Red is now 21-3 when it gains more that 300 yards of offense and 14-5 when it allows opponents fewer than 20 points under Archer.
• The game featured just two combined punts, the fewest in a game since • Cornell didn’t punt and Brown had a pair at Brown on Nov. 10, 1962.
• The second half shutout of the Mountain Hawks was the first time Cornell held an opponent without points in a half since the second half of a 21-7 victory over Marist on Sept. 21, 2019.

LAST TIME OUT
RECAP I BOX SCORE I HIGHLIGHTS I GALLERY I POSTGAME NOTES
• Cornell posted its sixth consecutive game with at least 100 rushing yards as a team - the first time it hit that milestone since the final six contests of 2019.
• With two successful PAT kicks against Columbia, the Big Red has now converted 60 consecutive attempts.
• With 14 sacks allowed this season, Cornell’s offensive line surrendered its second-fewest since the stat was first kept in 1996. Only last season, with nine, saw fewer. 
• Cornell’s average of 33:32 in time of possession is the most in school history - just ahead of the 2005 squad that averaged 33:27 per game.
• On average, Cornell’s 33:32 time of possession per game was nearly two minutes longer than any other team in the Ivy (Princeton, 31:44). 
• The Big Red converted its first two-point conversion since 2021 when Jameson Wang threw to Thomas Glover, the second time that season the two connected after a touchdown.
• It was the 84th successful two-point conversion in school history dating back to 1958.
• Cornell had three players with at least 40 points scored (Jameson Wang 50, Jackson Kennedy 46, Thomas Glover 42) for the first time since 2012 (Luke Hagy 54, Luke Tasker 50, John Wells 46) and just the fourth time this century (2000, 2005, 2012, 2022).
• Cornell has led its opponent in time of possession for five straight games, the longest streak since the final four games on 2006 and the first of 2007.
• The 2006 season was also the last that saw the Big Red hold a time of possession edge in eight contests.
• Fifth-year senior Thomas Glover caught two touchdown passes in a game for the second time this month and third time in his career.
• Jameson Wang threw three touchdowns, becoming the first Cornell QB to pass for three scores in a game since Dalton Banks at Brown on Oct. 20, 2018.
• Wang is now responsible for 30 career touchdowns, the 10th most of any player in Big Red history. 

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 remain on the road next week to open the conference slate against Yale. The match up is set for Saturday, September 23, at 12 p.m. in New Haven, Conn.
• The Big Red open their home campaign agaisnt Colgate on Saturday, September 30, at 2 p.m. in Ithaca, N.Y. as the team celebrates Homecoming 2023.