No. 22 Dartmouth Hosts Cornell for Senior Day

Saturday, November 13

Hanover, N.H.

1:30 PM

Dartmouth College

Cornell

The senior class along with fifth-year seniors and graduate student-athletes

Photo by: Gil Talbot

No. 22 Dartmouth Hosts Cornell for Senior Day

11/11/2021 12:00:00 PM | Football

Saturday, Nov. 13 ESPN+Audio Broadcast Live Stats Teevens TeleTeaser @DartFootball Dartmouth Notes Cornell Notes Series HIstory

The Big Green need a win to remain atop the Ivy League standings

By: Rick Bender

#22 Dartmouth (7-1, 4-1) vs. Cornell (2-6, 1-4)
Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021 | 1:30 PM | ESPN+
Memorial Field | Hanover, N.H.

Back in the Saddle
With a convincing 31-7 victory over then-16th-ranked Princeton last Friday, Dartmouth controls its own destiny, needing to win its final two games to earn at least a share of the Ivy League title. But the Big Green are plenty wary about getting ahead of themselves after faltering two years ago in a 20-17 loss to this Cornell team, costing Dartmouth a shot at a perfect season and an outright conference crown.

The Big Green were firing on all cylinders against the Tigers, cutting through the Princeton defense with lethal efficiency on offense while swarming to the ball on defense, keeping the visitors from gaining much traction on either side of the ball. Derek Kyler was on all night, completing 16-of-19 passes for 193 yards and a season-high-tying three touchdowns. Second in the FCS in completion percentage, Kyler is on the verge of breaking into Dartmouth's top five in total offense, needing just 123 more yards to place himself into that elite group.

Kyler spread the wealth around, utilizing nine different receivers for those 16 completions, led by Dale Chesson, who has quickly become a prime target after missing the first six games with an injury. The junior caught five throws for 61 yards and his first career TD, with other scoring strikes going to leading receiver Paxton Scott to start the scoring and Jonny Barrett.

Going up against another stout defense against the run, the Big Green managed once again to gobble up chunks of yards at a time with Noah Roper going for 56 on a mere five carries and Zack Bair picking up 44 more on seven runs. And with QB Nick Howard, Dartmouth has three reliable runners to carry the load and keep defenses off-balance.

On the other side of the ball, the Green feature LB Jalen Mackie, who was added to the Buck Buchanan Award Watch List this week, which is given to the FCS defensive player of the year. All the Ivy League leader in tackles did against Princeton was make a season-high 13 stops, 2.5 for a loss, with an assisted sack. DE Shane Cokes, LB Marques White and DE Mick Reese combined for the other 5.5 sacks, keeping the Tigers QB on the run all night.

But the biggest play of the game came just before the end of the third quarter when CB Isaiah Johnson picked off a pass and returned it 73 yards for a touchdown. That gave Dartmouth a 31-7 lead, essentially putting the game away. It was Johnson's first career interception and the Big Green's first pick-six since All-American Isiah Swann had a 69-yard touchdown in 2019 against … Cornell.

This is not only Senior Day, giving Dartmouth fans to recognize the contributions of the 38 seniors, fifth-years and graduates on the team, but also the 104th meeting between these two teams and. They had played each other for 101 consecutive years prior to the pandemic; only the Lafayette-Lehigh series has had a longer continuous stretch in the FCS (124 years and counting).

Scouting the Big Red
Cornell is coming off its first Ivy victory of the season, beating Penn on the road, 15-12. Freshman QB Jameson Wang, part of an emerging tandem behind center, ran for both Big Red touchdowns and finished with 10 carries for 55 yards while completing 4-of-7 passes for 55 more.

Richie Kenney has handled the majority of the passing duties this year, throwing for 1,344 yards and five touchdowns but only completed 47.8 percent of his throws (108-of-226). The offensive front has done a good job protecting all the Big Red quarterbacks having surrendered just seven sacks all season.

Wang has been Cornell's most dangerous rusher with a team-best four TDs and 304 yards, including 101 against Brown on just nine carries. The Big Red will also turn to Devon Brewer (54 carries for 208 yards), S.K Howard (48 for 182) or Delonte Harrell (46 for 156) to keep opposing defenses guessing where the ball is going.

Among the receiving corps, there are three players most likely to be targeted, notably Thomas Glover who is second in the Ivy League with 659 receiving yards on 47 catches, four of which ended in the end zone. Curtis Raymond III is the top deep threat, averaging 21 yards on 23 hauls, while Alex Kuzy has grabbed 35 passes for 481 yards.

The defense has been solid, particularly against the run, yielding 128.1 yards a game on the ground. Linebacker Jake Stebbins is generally everywhere on the field and has made 77 tackles, one behind Dartmouth's Jalen Mackie for the league lead. Eight of those stops have been for a loss with a team-high two sacks, and he's broken up three passes and forced a fumble for good measure. Lance Blass gives Cornell a strong 1-2 punch at linebacker with 46 tackles, 6.5 for a loss, and the secondary has intercepted seven passes, two courtesy of safety Eric Diggs.

Punter Koby Kiefer helps to flip the field, averaging just over 40 yards a punt. The place-kicking duties are handled by Scott Lees, who is 4-of-7 on field goals with a long of 36 and has converted all 18 PATs.

Cornell is led by The Roger J. Weiss '61 Head Coach of Football David Archer, a 2005 graduate of the university. The former Big Red captain was the youngest Division I head coach in the country when hired before the 2013 season and has led the team to a 21-57 record in eight seasons at the helm.

The Series
• Dartmouth is 61-41-1 all-time versus the Big Red.
• Buddy Teevens is 14-6 against Cornell in his two stints at Dartmouth.
• Until the pandemic, this was tied for the second longest continuous series amongst FCS teams having played each other for 101 consecutive years, the second-longest such streak for any FCS series.
• Dartmouth had a 10-game winning streak against the Big Red halted in 2019. It was the longest in the series for either team since Dartmouth won 11 in a row from 1968-78.
• The Green are 32-14-1 all-time at Memorial Field against Cornell.

Back on Top
With Dartmouth's 31-7 victory over No. 16 Princeton on Nov. 5, the Big Green moved into a three-way tie for first place atop the Ivy League standings with the Tigers and Yale, both of which the Big Green have beaten this season. And with two weeks still to go in the season, any number of scenarios could play out. One thing is for certain — for Dartmouth to hold on to its first-place standing, it has to beat Cornell since Yale plays at Princeton this week, so one of those two will improve to 5-1 in league play. There is still a possibility of an unprecedented four-way tie, but the Green would have to lose once in that scenario, so we'll just ignore that for now. In the previous 64 seasons of Ivy play, there have only been four three-way ties. Only one team has been involved with all four of those stalemates — Dartmouth.

Return to the Rankings
Dartmouth was nationally ranked in each of its last two seasons, finishing as high as 15th in 2018 and 21st in 2019. After beating then-23rd-ranked New Hampshire back on Oct. 16, the Big Green made their debut in the STATS Perform poll at No. 25, only to drop back out following their loss to Columbia. Now, having defeated three ranked opponents in the last four weeks, Dartmouth shows up in both polls — tied for No. 22 in the STATS Perform poll and No. 23 in the AFCA Coaches poll. Since the FCS formed in 1978, the Big Green have been ranked in the final polls five times — 1990 (17), 1996 (17), 2015 (23), 2018 (15) and 2019 (21).

Quality, Not Quantity
Over the past two seasons, Dartmouth has had three games in which it ran no more than 46 plays of offense. How rare is that? Since 1969, it has happened just five other times. The more amazing aspect is that Dartmouth won all three of those recent games, and by wide margins: 42-10 over Yale in 2019, 41-3 over Sacred Heart and 31-7 over Princeton this season. The Big Green opponents averaged nearly 77 plays in those games and had the ball more than 12 minutes longer on average, yet Dartmouth rolled to victory in each instance.

Player of the Week
Senior CB Isaiah Johnson took home some hardware after the 31-7 win over No. 16 Princeton on Nov. 5, being named not only the Ivy League Defensive Player of the Week but also the Gold Helmet Award winner as the top Division I player in New England that week. What did he do to deserve such accolades you ask? Well, he had six tackles, one helping out on a loss, and broke up a pass. Oh, he also intercepted a pass late in the third quarter and returned it 73 yards for a touchdown, the first interception of his career, essentially sealing the game by boosting the Big Green lead to 31-7. It was the first pick-six for a Dartmouth player since Isiah Swann '20 brought back a Cornell pass 69 yards in 2019, and it is the seventh-longest interception return in program history. As a team, Dartmouth has had six Ivy Players of the Week, half coming on defense.

On Pace for FCS Record
The Dartmouth defense has allowed opponents just 8.58 yards per completion, which is a pretty low figure. How low you ask? The FCS all-time record is 8.81 yards, held by East Tennessee State, but that was set last year in a shortened six-game season due to the pandemic. The previous mark was 8.88 yards per completion, set by the 2008 Yale Bulldogs. Either way, Dartmouth is on pace to break that mark.

Kyler Hits 4,000
When Derek Kyler connected with Jonny Barrett for a 23-yard touchdown late in the third quarter against No. 16 Princeton, he pushed his way into elite territory at Dartmouth — 4,000 career passing yards. Kyler is just the eighth player to reach the milestone, but he will need to average more than 200 yards in the last two games to go any higher. His 4,012 yards are 401 behind former Pittsburgh Pirate and New York Met Mark Johnson '90. And with an average of 250 yards per game, he could jump to as high as fifth, just ahead of Conner Kempe '12 at 4,499. Kyler should pass Kempe in total offense in this game, needing just 123 yards to jump ahead of the latter's 4,435 to move into fifth place. Looking at season totals, Kyler is second in the FCS in completion percentage (69.5) and ninth in passing efficiency (157.46) this year.

Four Seasons Record
No, I'm not talking Frankie Valli here, and not even Vivaldi, but rather the fact that over the last four seasons, Dartmouth has won 33 games, the most victories over any four consecutive seasons in program history. The previous record was 32 from 1969-72. A victory over Cornell would also give the Green at least eight wins in each of those four years — something it has never accomplished — as well as six of the last seven seasons. Since the start of the 2014 season, Dartmouth is 54-14, easily the best record in the Ivy League in that span (Princeton is 48-20), while going 34-13 in league play (four games better than Harvard, Princeton and Yale).

Chesson Makes His Moves
Junior WR Dale Chesson was expected to be in the starting receivers corps but missed the first six games with an injury. When he returned at No. 21 Harvard, he showed he hasn't lost a step, catching five passes for a team-high 72 yards in the 20-17 victory. The next week, he led Dartmouth with five more grabs for 61 yards and his first career touchdown in the 31-7 win over No. 16 Princeton.

Spreading the Wealth
While Chesson caught a TD pass against Princeton, so did Paxton Scott and Jonny Barrett, the latter of whom could be called Jonny Touchdown with three of his seven receptions ending in the end zone. No fewer than nine receivers caught passes in the 31-7 win, the third time this season the Big Green have utilized at least that many to haul in tosses.

Sack Attack
The Dartmouth defensive front has been known more for applying pressure in the backfield than sacking the quarterback this year. But against No. 16 Princeton, the Big Green brought down the Tiger QB six times, led by Shane Cokes with a career-high 2.5. Both DE Mick Reese and LB Marques White had 1.5 sacks, while LB Jalen Mackie helped out on one as well. Mackie and White also recorded personal highs in tackles with 13 and 10, respectively.. The only game in which Dartmouth registered more sacks was against Sacred Heart (7), and White leads the team with 5.0 on the season.

Last of the Punt Returns
Sounds like a Daniel Day Lewis movie, doesn't it? Nope, just noting that Dartmouth was the last team to allow an opponent to return any punt this season when Princeton scooped up a kick and gained the grand total of three yards. What are the fewest number of punt returns against Dartmouth from seasons past? That would be eight in 2018.

Let's Go Streaking
Despite the 19-0 loss to Columbia, Dartmouth still has an enviable winning streak in road games that sits at 10 games following the 20-17 triumph at No. 21 Harvard. That is the longest such streak among all FCS teams. Princeton held the longest streak at a dozen games, but the Big Green's 31-7 win over the 16-ranked Tigers on Nov. 5 put a stop to that. The last time Princeton had lost on the road was … at Memorial Field in 2017.
The Big Green also have won 19 straight games against non-conference opponents, a streak that won't be contested again until next season. It is the longest such win streak for Dartmouth in the Ivy League era. You would have to go back to the 1922-28 seasons to find a longer win streak against teams that did not eventually form the Ivy league (26).

Getting Defensive
The Big Green defense has been excellent all year, ranking in the top five in the FCS in scoring defense (third), pass defense (third) and total defense (fifth). Only one team has scored 20 or more points (UNH, and just barely at 21). And Harvard managed to gain a mere 223 yards, its fewest against Dartmouth in 26 years.