It was a forgettable season in 2008 for Cornell thanks in large part to a game that most of the returning players cannot forget. Last year the Red traveled to Cambridge, Mass., to challenge Harvard. Cornell entered the contest with a spotless 3-0 record thanks to an upset victory against Yale and a last-second touchdown at Lehigh the previous week. The senior-laden team was primed for its best season yet, but a 38-17 drubbing in the national spotlight on VERSUS sparked a four-game losing skid for the Red.

This year Cornell will look to return the favor as it welcomes the preseason Ivy favorite Crimson to Schoellkopf Field tomorrow for a 12:30 p.m. kickoff. The Red is anxious to reverse recent history, which has seen the Crimson capture seven of the last eight head-to-head matchups.

“We’re just going to try to come and play our game,” said senior linebacker Chris Costello. “We kind of got a little overconfident after three games last year, so we just want to take it one game at a time this year. We’re just looking at Harvard. We’re not looking at the bigger picture. I think last year we definitely looked a little bit ahead to if we had won that game and things to come. This year we have a new focus with everything on the Harvard game.”There’s no sin in seeking redemption: Cornell welcomes preseason Ivy favorite Harvard to Schoellkopf Field tomorrow, seeking to avenge its 38-17 loss to the Crimson last year.

“The mindset is really that they’re just the next game,” said head coach Jim Knowles ’87. “We’re really focused on living in the moment. It was a turning point last year; in a negative way. I think we put a lot of emphasis into [that game last year]. We did that with Yale last year, too. That game we won, but at Harvard we didn’t and things went sour. We’re just emphasizing getting better every week this year. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing or where we’re playing. We’re taking a much more level approach.”

Another difference from last year is both squads enter the gridiron battle saddled with a loss. Cornell (2-1, 1-0 Ivy) suffered its first defeat of the campaign last weekend at Colgate, where the Raiders controlled the football nearly twice as long as the Red. Colgate’s 45-23 margin of victory was the largest deficit suffered by Cornell since 2002. Harvard (2-1, 1-0 Ivy) dropped a 27-20 contest at Holy Cross in week 1.

“We have to get off the field on third down,” Knowles said. “In order to do that, you can’t have second-and-two. We have to prevent the big plays — a run over 15 yards and a pass over 20 yards — on defense as well. That’s a goal for us every week. The first two games we did great. Even though Colgate controlled the game, we should have still been able to keep them contained enough and stop the run. Those are important things to controlling a ballgame.”

“We have to play much better defense against the run, third down and big plays. Once you do that, everything else can fall into place,” Knowles added. “We’ve got guys on special teams who can make plays. We’ve got skill guys on offense who are going to be able to make plays. It’s up to the defense to set the tone.”

Last year Cornell had trouble stopping the Harvard offense, which struck for big plays in the air and on the ground. At the outset a 67-yard touchdown pass from the Ivy League Player of the Year Chris Pizzotti to Adam Chrissis on its opening series served to set the tone for a disappointing performance by the Red defense. The Crimson has replaced Pizzotti with junior Collier Winters, a smaller, more mobile quarterback.

“They have a good running game,” Costello said. “They have a good offensive line. Their quarterback is a little different than the one they had last year. He’s a smaller guy, but he’s very shifty and likes to run a lot, so if we can contain him and keep him in the pocket, I think we’ll do a good job.”

While the defense struggled to get off the field last week, the offense looked impressive in its brief stints with the ball. Senior signal caller Ben Ganter has shown flashes of a strong arm and managed the game quite effectively for Cornell in the early portion of the schedule. In the first three games, Ganter has completed 41 of 76 pass attempts for 426 yards and three touchdowns while suffering only two interceptions. His former roommate, senior Bryan Walters seems to be his favorite downfield threat. Last week Walters hauled in four receptions for 96 yards and leads the Red with 222 receiving yards on 10 catches and two trips to the end zone.

“Ganter has been stepping up and taking control of the offense,” Walters said. “He’s been doing really well and it’s just easy to work with a quarterback who knows what he is doing and knows what is going on. It kind of just happens with him finding the holes and just making sure I’m in the holes.”

While Walters is only 32 yards away from breaking the Ancient Eight’s career punt return record of 902 yards held by Penn’s Mark Fabish in 1996, senior tailback Randy Barbour needs a mere 33 rushing yards to become Cornell’s 28th 1,000-yard rusher. However, all individual milestones will be of little consequence as the Red seeks retribution for last year’s pounding, which sent its season into a tailspin from which the team never recovered.