Dartmouth-Cornell Pregame Notes

  • The game will be broadcast on the Ivy League Digital Network, while local listeners can tune in to WHCU 95.9 FM/870 AM to listen to Barry Leonard and Brandon Roth.
  • Cornell will attempt to buck history, as the Big Green has won seven straight meetings between the teams.

Series Notes

  • Cornell-Dartmouth series is tied with the Cornell-Penn are the second-longest uninterrupted active series in the Football Championship Subdivision, as the teams have met every season since 1919, a span of 97 years.
  • The two teams have met 47 times in Ithaca, with Cornell holding a slim 24-23 lead (Dartmouth has won three straight).
  • Cornell and Dartmouth have also had match-ups at the old Polo Grounds and Fenway Park, and in areas as seemingly random as Troy, N.Y. and Buffalo, N.Y.
  • It’s the 76th anniversary of the famous Fifth-Down Game, played on Nov. 16, 1940 in Hanover, N.H. It remains the only time a collegiate sporting contest has been decided off the field after the completion of a game.
  • A win over the Big Green would also be the fourth time this season Cornell has avenged a 2015 loss and would give the Big Red wins over defending champions from both the Ivy League (Dartmouth) and the Patriot League (Colgate).

Offensive Player Notes

  • Senior captain Ben Rogers needs 339 yards from scrimmage to become the 11th Cornellian to surpass 3,000 all-purpose yards in a career.
  • Rogers has caught 16 passes for 274 yards (17.1 yards per catch) with five touchdowns over his last five games.
  • Senior wide receiver Collin Shaw is 68 receiving yards short of 1,000 for his career—he would be the 23rd player in school history to reach that milestone. Rogers reached the 1,000-yard mark at No. 16 Harvard.
  • Senior Chris Fraser needs 53 punting yards to take over Cornell’s all-time lead in that category (the current record-holder is Mike Baumgartel ’05 with 8,774).

Defensive Player Notes

  • Senior captain Jackson Weber needs one tackle to become the 23rd player in school history to record 200 career stops.
  • Junior Nick Gesualdi needs nine tackles to reach 175 for his career.
  • Gesualdi has 10 career interceptions, good for seventh all-time at Cornell. An 11th would move him into third in Cornell history.

Special Teams Notes:

  • Cornell’s kickers have put 23-of-29 kickoffs into the end zone this season. In all, 18 of the 19 kickoffs have been touchbacks.
  • The Big Red is 5-of-6 on field goals this season after making just 4-of-11 attempts in 2015.
  • Senior Chris Fraser has averaged at least 40 yards per punt in 22 of his last 23 games.
  • Jelani Taylor has six special teams tackles to lead the coverage unit.