ITHACA, N.Y. - Go beyond the box score of Saturday's 2026 season opener against Colgate. 

Team Notes

• Cornell's all-time record now stands at 663-568-34 (.538), including 95-39-4 in season openers.
• The Big Red sports a 111-76-5 (.591) record all-time in the month of September.
• With the win, Colgate took a 53-51-3 lead in the all-time series after its fourth straight victory against the Big Red.
• The 107 meetings between the programs ranks tied for fourth among all Big Red opponents, even with Princeton - the Big Red and the Tigers will meet for the 108th time later this season (ahead of them: Penn 131, Columbia 112, Dartmouth 108).
• This is the first of three games this season against Patriot League foes (Lehigh and Georgetown).
• After giving up an 85-yard touchdown pass on the game's second play, the Big Red defense allowed just 289 yards on 73 plays and created a pair of turnovers with four sacks and zero points allowed in the game's final 30:55.
• The Big Red's 87-yard touchdown drive was its longest in a season opener since going 91 yards on three plays in the 2011 contest against Bucknell that ended with an 87-yard strike from Jeff Mathews to Kurt Ondash.

Individual Notes

• Senior Tommy MacPherson is the first Cornell football player to post double figure tackles with at least two for a loss, an interception and a forced fumble in a single game since defensive stats were first tracked in 1983.
• MacPherson now has interceptions in consecutive games played, having ended the 2025 campaign with his first career pick vs. Columbia.
• Junior Cooper Cameron posted a career-best nine tackles, more than doubling his previous best of four against UAlbany in 2025.
• Senior Ian Wall also had a career-best nine tackles in the contest after coming into the game with 13 for his career.
• With his seven stops against Colgate, senior Johnny Williamson surpassed 75 career tackles (76).
• Williamson has a team-best string of 13 consecutive starts from his spot in the defensive backfield.
• Senior Alan Zhao drilled his only PAT attempt and is now 39-of-41 for his career and now has 84 kicking points.
• With his four catches for 32 yards against Colgate, senior tight end Ryder Kurtz upped his career totals to 84 (tied for 26th all-time at Cornell) for 996 yards. He is on the verge of becoming the 29th 1,000-yard receiver in Cornell history and the first tight end to reach that milestone.
• Kurtz has multiple catches in his past 18 games played dating back to the 2024 season and 19 straight contests with at least one reception.
• In his first game back after missing the 2025 season due to injury, senior receiver Sam Musungu caught four passes for 27 yards and upped his career totals to 112 receptions (No. 14 all-time at Cornell) for 1,194 yards (No. 21 all-time at Cornell - 15 yards from the top 20).
• Junior Jordan Triplett's six career touchdowns are the most by any Big Red running back since Harold Coles '20, who had 16 from 2016-19.
• Junior punter Caden Lesiewicz averaged 45.8 yards on 4 punts (long of 51) - his best multi-punt average since a 46.0-yard average on 7 punts at Brown in 2024.
• First career starts for TJ Hamilton (WR) and Seyi Akinbola (OL) on offense and Saeed Moghaddam Adames (DL), Gage Homola (DL), Dalten Phelan (DL), Cooper Cameron (LB), Ian Wall (LB) and Darius Wise Jr. (CB) on defense.