Archer is in his sixth season at the helm of the Big Red (15-44 overall, .254; 11-30, Ivy, .268) ... Archer was the youngest Division I head football coach in the country when he was hired ... he had been an assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at his alma mater for six years ... Archer was hired as head coach on Jan. 3, 2013.
• The Cornell football team’s 131st season will come to an end with the Empire State Bowl on the line when the Big Red visits Columbia at Wien Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 1:00 p.m.
• The game will be televised on ESPN+ with Lance Medow and Sal Licata on the call, while WHCU 870 AM/97.7 FM will also be live with Barry Leonard and Buck Briggs ‘76 in the booth.
• With the Ivy League schedule change this fall, Cornell and Columbia will meet in the final game for the first time in 106 all-time meetings (Big Red leads 65-37-3.
• The two teams will play for the Empire State Bowl for the ninth time (Cornell leads 5-3), with the Lions attempting to keep the traveling trophy on Morningside Heights.
• The winner of the game could finish in the top half of the Ivy standings if Princeton also tops Penn, and would otherwise take fifth.
• Cornell’s 25 seniors will take the field for the final time today after being honored last weekend in a pregame ceremony.
• Cornell’s six losses this year have come to teams that have a cumulative 44-11 record, including four to nationally ranked opponents (Colgate, Delaware, Princeton and Dartmouth).
• In all, Cornell will have played seven of its 10 games against defenses ranked in the top 20 nationally.
• The Big Red has been balanced offensively, averaging 154.0 rushing and 177.6 passing yards per game.
• Despite the consistent thread of playing against nationally ranked defenses, the Big Red is having its most successful season running the ball since 2006 (182.1 yards per game).
• Junior running back Harold Coles surpassed the 1,000-yard career rushing mark earlier this season and has eight total touchdowns this season, the most by any Cornell player since All-American Grant Gellatly ‘14 scored nine times in 2013.
• Senior quarterback Dalton Banks has thrown nine touchdowns and has run for another, climbing into the top four in nearly every Cornell career passing category.
• Defensively, junior Jelani Taylor (68 tackles, six pass breakups), senior Reis Seggebruch (53 tackles 4.0 tackles for loss) and sophomore Lance Blass (49 tackles, 6.0 tackles for loss) lead in tackles and junior David Jones has three interceptions.
• Jones has also excelled as a returner, averaging 21.9 yards on kickoffs and 9.0 yards on punts.
• Head coach David Archer ‘05 is in his sixth year directing the Big Red and had Cornell in the Ivy title race in November for the first time since 2000 last fall.
• A victory over the Lions would be the third consecutive season the Big Red would have increased either its overall or Ivy League record over the previous season.
ABOUT COLUMBIA
• Columbia is 5-4 on the season and coming off a 42-20 win over Brown last weekend.
• With a win, the Lions would post consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1961-62 (went 8-2 in 2017).
• Dante Miller leads the Lions’ rushing attack with 317 yards and a touchdown while averaging 5.2 yards per carry, and Kyle Castner (38 catches, 370 yards) and Ronald Smith (33 catches, 362 yards, two touchdowns) have been the go-to receivers.
• Four different Columbia quarterbacks have thrown at least 25 passes, with Josh Bean (670 yards, four touchdowns) and Ty Lenhart (619 yards, one touchdown) both over 100 attempts.
• Place-kicker Chris Alleyne has had an All-Ivy season, going 14-of-17 on field goals, including 6-of-7 from beyond 40 yards, and 21-of-21 on PAT kicks for a team-high 63 points.
• Ryan Gilbert (77 tackles, two interceptions) and Sean White (71 tackles) are among the conference’s leading tacklers and Daniel DeLorenzi has a league-leading 8.5 sacks.
• Head coach Al Bagnoli returns for a fourth season on the Columbia sidelines after a legendary career at Penn.
• Bagnoli spent 23 years at Penn, where he totaled a 148-80 overall record and 112-49 record in the Ivy League with nine conference championships.
• Bagnoli is 18-21 on the sidelines at Columbia and now has a 271-119 mark in 37 seasons as a collegiate head coach.
THE SERIES
• This will be the 106th meeting between Cornell and Columbia, with the Big Red holding a 65-37-3 lead in the series.
• The two teams first met in 1889, a 20-0 Cornell win.
• Columbia snapped Cornell’s four-game win streak in the series last fall with an 18-8 victory in New York City.
• The squads have been evenly matched for more than two decades, with Cornell holding a narrow 15-14 lead over the last quarter century.
• Cornell had previously won 12 straight contests, the longest streak in the series by either team.
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 5-3.
• The trophy currently resides in New York City following last year’s 18-8 Columbia win at Cornell’s Schoellkopf Field.
• Cornell’s other wins in the series came in 2011 (62-41), 2013 (24-9), 2014 (30-27) and 2015 (3-0).
• 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.
A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD ...
• send the Big Red home with the Empire State Bowl.
• make Cornell 6-3 in the Empire State Bowl series.
• complete Cornell’s season with a 4-6 overall record and a 3-4 Ivy mark.
• send the senior class out with a win in their final game.
• guarantee the Big Red no worse than a fifth-place finish in the Ivy standings (and as high as fourth).
• end Cornell’s season with a win for the first time since 2013.
• extend Cornell’s lead in the series to 66-37-3.
• be the 643rd in program history (13th-most in the Football Championship Subdivision).
LAST TIME THEY MET
• The Columbia defense kept Cornell in check most of the afternoon and did just enough on the other side of the ball to hold off Cornell 18-8 on at Schoellkopf Field.
• The Lions held the Big Red to 179 yards of offense before ending the game with a 78-yard scoring drive for the team’s first points of the night.
• Senior Josh Sweet, one of 25 seniors honored prior to their final home game, went the final 7 yards for his second touchdown of the season.
• Fellow senior Hayes Nolte caught a shovel pass for the two-point conversion with 1:09 remaining, but the Lions recovered the on-sides kick and ran out the clock to keep their dream of an Ivy title alive.
• The late touchdown was emblematic of the Big Red’s efforts the last two weekends against the league’s two teams that share second place in the conference standings - plenty of fight, but a couple plays short.
• The Big Red defense held strong, allowing no points in three possessions that Columbia took over with a short field and surrendering just three field goals over the first 56:32.
• Senior Nick Gesualdi had nine tackles and a pair of pass breakups, sophomore Jelani Taylor was credited with nine as well and seniors Seth Hope and Dan Crochet each forced fumbles.
• Junior Dalton Banks completed 14-of-26 passes for 134 yards through the air, while sophomore Harold Coles was credited with a team-high 62 rushing yards on 10 carries.
• On special teams, three-time reigning Ivy League Special Teams Player of the Week Nickolas Null averaged 45.2 yards on five punts.
• Columbia’s Chris Schroer compiled 183 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries on the ground to lead the offense.
• Josh Wainwright (nine receptions, 140 yards) was the favorite target of quarterback Anders Hill (21-of-31, 206 yards) in the passing game.
• Oren Millstein made 3-of-4 field goals and scored 10 of the team’s 18 points.
• Connor Heeb had two tackles for a loss, including the third quarter safety that put the Lions in the driver’s seat.
FINAL GAME FOR BIG RED SENIORS
• The Cornell football program’s 25 seniors will be playing their final game this weekend.
• Cornell’s seniors are DL Mason Banbury, QB Dalton Banks, TE Oscar Boochever, WR Zack Brienza, LB Malcolm Chaka, WR Garrett Cloer, OL David D’Amelio, OL Maximilian Gardner, CB Austin Holmes, OL J. Edward Keating, DL Christian Kelley, OL Mason Manning III, PK Zach Mays, LB Maxwell McCormick, DE Curt McLeod, DL Victor Olapinsin, WR Lars Pedersen, RB J.D. PicKell, LB Reis Seggebruch, OL Henry Stillwell, OL Zach Strong, RB Chris Walker, S Jake Watkins, DL Chase Wickenheiser and CB DJ Woullard.
BIG RED INVOLVED IN STORIED RIVALRIES
• The Big Red is involved in three of the top 20 most-played rivalries in the FCS.
• The Cornell-Penn series ranks fifth in most games played with 126.
• The 105 meetings between Cornell and Columbia ranks 14th, while the Cornell-Dartmouth rivalry stands 19th with 102 games played (after this weekend).
• Right behind that is the series with Princeton (101 meetings) and Colgate (100 meetings), which sit right outside the top 20.
• The Cornell-Dartmouth and the Cornell-Penn series are the second-longest uninterrupted active series, as the teams have met every season since 1919, a span of 99 years.
• They trail only the Lafayette-Lehigh series, which has been played every year since 1897.
NEXT UP
• The 2018 season is complete and the Big Red will kick off 2019 with a road contest at Marist on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019.