It’s official: football season has arrived. ESPN aired its first college football broadcast last night, and local football fans will get their first chance of the year to see the Cornell team in intersquad action tomorrow at noon on Schoellkopf field when the Red will play a scrimmage against Hobart College. In last week’s intrasquad scrimmage, head coach Jim Knowles and his staff polished up the team’s depth chart and shed some light on the ongoing position battles of the preseason. Senior Ben Ganter was named the team’s starting quarterback at the first practice of the preseason, and it appears that senior Randy Barbour will be the team’s featured back for the second year in a row.

After graduating 33 players in 2009, including 11 starters, the Red football team knew it had some big holes to fill. Apparently, the media is also aware — Cornell was picked to finish sixth, tied with Columbia, in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll.

BETHLEHEM, Penn. — “See you in the end zone,” was all wide receiver Jesse Baker ’09 had to say to his quarterback as they were breaking up the huddle.

About 10 seconds later, that’s exactly where the two met, celebrating Cornell’s 25-24 victory over Lehigh that had seemed almost impossible merely seconds earlier.

“It really was a dog fight,” said head coach Jim Knowles ‘87, trying to sum up the back-and-forth, rollercoaster feel of the entire afternoon. Seven lead changes, four fourth-quarter touchdowns and a leaping catch by Baker in the front corner of the end zone that won the game with three zeroes on the clock — nothing short of a classic.

Replacing a starting quarterback is not always an easy task, especially if he was an established three-year veteran. Throw in the fact that he led the Ivy League in passing yards last year and ranks as the second all-time passing leader in school history, and then it nearly becomes impossible. (Oh yeah, he was also mentioned in an episode of “The Office”).

The candidates to replace Nathan Ford ’09 include rising senior Ben Ganter, sophomore Adam Currie and junior Ty Siam. Ganter, the early favorite, may also split time with rising senior receiver/quarterback Stephen Liuzza when the Red employs an NFL-style “Wildcat” offense.

Let’s not kid ourselves. While the name Ivy League came from an early sports conference, these days “Ivy” conjures thoughts of academia, not athletics.

But that doesn’t mean that an Ivy League school cannot produce some of the finest athletes in the world.

In fact, Cornell itself has produced a prominent list of professional athletes.

One famous Cornellian is running back Ed Marinaro ’72. As great a runner as Marinaro was, he is probably better known for his time on television than for his time on the gridiron.

Wacky Wednesday sounds more like a first grade teaching technique than a weekly ritual for the Cornell football team. It evokes images of coloring outside the lines, opposite day and goofy hats — not sweating, bleeding college football players hitting each other.

But there was certainly nothing goofier and more colorful than head coach Jim Knowles ’87 on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

To rumbling laughter, Knowles came jogging out of the locker room stooped over, head bent down, carrying one of defensive line coach Pete DeStefano’s trademarks — a pole with a fake football attached to the end, used in a myriad of defensive drills. Wacky Wed­nesday was in full force for the Red. Knowles even had a thick unibrow and mustache painted on his face.

Those inside the Cornell sports world recognize him as the second all-time passing leader at quarterback in school history and a first-team all-Ivy third baseman. Those outside of the Cornell sports world know him as that guy from Cornell who was mentioned in an episode of “The Office.”

Whether he was heaving last-second touchdown passes into the end zone at Lehigh or helping the baseball team post its first winning season and capture its first division title since 2005, senior Nathan Ford has done it all.

The football team took the first step to turn the page on a somewhat disappointing 2008 season that opened with a promising 3-0 start and saw the Red drop six of its final seven contests. The task of rebuilding is made that much more daunting by the challenge of filling the void left by the 33 seniors who graduate this year. Some expectations were confirmed and some surprises emerged during the last three weeks of spring football practices. These practices culminated in the annual Red-White spring football game on Saturday as the Red team shut out the White team 17-0.

Cornell was a stone’s throw away from hosting the New York Jets for their summer training camp, but officials announced yesterday that the National Football League team chose to spend the summer at SUNY Cortland instead, according to the Associated Press.

Apart from Cornell, Utica College and Marist College in Poughkeepsie were also on the shortlist of possible summer training camp for the football franchise. The team may also plan some public sessions at their Florham Park center in New Jersey and former preseason home on Long Island, the A.P. reported.

“Cortland acted quickly and had all the ingredients to make it really doable here,” Jets owner Woody Johnson told reporters at a news conference.

Raheem Morris, a former Cornell defensive backs coach and special teams assistant, was named head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this past Saturday. Morris, who spent the past two seasons as the Bucs’ defensive backs coach, has been with the team a total of six seasons in two stints. Under Morris, Buccaneer defenders have been named to the Pro Bowl 16 times and the defense has finished in the top-5 in the NFL in five of his six seasons.