This is not yet Cornell's year in Ivy football but the outcome of the Harvard game shows Cornell isn't terrible. Leading Harvard 24-20 in the third period and then closing to a 10-point deficit for the final 41-31 margin shows improvement. Just putting up 31 against Harvard, picked for second in the Ivy poll (http://www.cornellbigred.com/news/2011/8/9/FB_0809115056.aspx) isn't bad. Jeff Matthews looked pretty good passing again. He got decent protection most of of the time. On the down side, Harvard's offense on the long pass was more than equal to our defensive secondary. We gave up 414 yards to passing and Harvard's offensive line really clicked against Cornell late in the third and in the fourth.
So we're 0-2 in the Ivies, 2-2 overall, but the two losses are to the teams picked for 2-3 in the Ivies. If the poll is correct, we don't have a chance against consensus #1 pick Penn in the season-ender at Penn, but we could do well against the rest of the league. Is [edit, remembering the Ancient Eight can only play 7 Ivy opponents]: 4-3 possible? Could we dream of 5-2?
What a gorgeous day for football: mid-70s, cloudless. Too bad that all Cornell could draw was 6,471 (Box score (http://www.cornellbigred.com/documents/2011/10/8/2011_FB_Harvard.pdf?id=4082)). I got to see the new video scoreboard in person. Most of the comments posted here seem on target. It's big and bright; I wish it was even bigger, like you just bought a 40-inch flat panel TV and that's all you could afford when your neighbors are getting 55s. It's the perfect size for all the ads and house ads, not big enough to dazzle you showing replays unless there's a real good closeup shot. All in all, a nice improvement. There's work to do on sound levels. The ads play a lot louder than the Cornell promos (e.g. for Red Hot Hockey), loud enough to be annoying, not loud enough to make you run up to Andy Noel at the top of the Crescent and say, "Geez, Andy, we gotta fix this like right now." The other downside is that with all the manufactured scoreboard cheers, the Big Red Band plays less, or so I thought. I'd rather hear the band than see video clip art of dancing chickens (is that what they were)? You play dancing chickens, no matter how well rendered the shading, and Harvard has ammunition for several years of aggie jokes.
Nice weekend. Nice to be back in Ithaca. A little sad to see all the Cornell artificial turf fields that effectively say, "Students, keep out!" Old alumni will still regret the desecration of Upper Alumni Fields (used to be, what, nine playing fields side by side by side?) with things such as academic buildings, but okay, there is an academic side to Cornell. Just remember Bear Bryant: "It's kind of hard to rally around a math class." I was a little surprised to pull into the parking garage just before the game started and still find the top level available and half of level 4. For a game so lightly attended, the snack lines were too long. The prices on caps and sweatshirts were pretty good, better than the campus store.
Cornell can't get a break attendance-wise......they play a great game and steamroll Wagner, an NEC opponent that doesn't pique the interest of the casual fan, and it comes on a lousy weather day.......then they get perfect weather and play Harvard tough, but it comes when students are away on fall break.....
From the Cornell Athletics Facebook page, it seems like Bill Murray paid a visit to Schoellkopf yesterday.
Saw the game on Redcast -- production quality much improved, including nice replays. But the "director" (if there was such a thing) apparently has never watched football before. Virtually the entire game was shown from a low angle from the defensive side of the ball, so it was impossible to get a perspective as to down and distance. More annoying, they kept showing crowd shots, often as the play was going on.
Hopefully they will get the hang of things -- the potential exists for a nice service.
Quote from: scoop85Saw the game on Redcast -- production quality much improved, including nice replays. But the "director" (if there was such a thing) apparently has never watched football before. Virtually the entire game was shown from a low angle from the defensive side of the ball, so it was impossible to get a perspective as to down and distance. More annoying, they kept showing crowd shots, often as the play was going on.
Hopefully they will get the hang of things -- the potential exists for a nice service.
I thought it was just a direct tap on the scoreboard feed. Hence all the animated cheer derp.