The last time the football team took on Colgate, it marked the official beginning of the post-honeymoon portion of 2008. With Cornell coming off a loss to Harvard, its first of the season, the Raiders treated Schoellkopf Field like their personal treadmill, logging 345 rushing yards despite losing their top running back in the second quarter. Colgate’s dominance on the ground opened up the passing lanes for quarterback Greg Sullivan, who totaled 255 passing yards and a touchdown despite completing just 8-of-17 attempts. Sullivan, now averaging 161 yards per game as a junior, also scrambled for a touchdown, but the real hero of the rushing game was Nate Eachus. Eachus was a freshman linebacker who had an impressive first quarter on the defensive side of the ball, with three tackles and a sack.

What he did on offense was even better. Eachus came in for Jordan Scott, then the leading rusher in the Football Championship Subdivision, and carried the ball 37 times for 241 yards and three touchdowns. Colgate won, 38-22, but it wasn’t nearly as close as the score made it seem. After the game, head coach Jim Knowles ‘87 called the effort “embarrassing.”

But despite what transpired last year, defensive coordinator Clayton Carlin insisted that tomorrow’s 1 p.m. kickoff in Hamilton, N.Y., carries no special significance for the Red, no circled date on a calendar.

“We’re so much different this year than last year in every way, shape and form,” he said. “We don’t circle any game. ... The focus is on us and how we can get better.”Big stop: Cornell’s defense will have a tough task in stopping Colgate, which averages 421 yards per game.

Cornell’s (2-0, 1-0 Ivy) defense held Yale to 296 offensive yards this week, but Colgate is different from the Bulldogs in every way, shape and form. The Raiders are 4-0, average 421 yards per game and score almost twice as much as their opponents (112-63). And if the Red defense thought it had caught a lucky break when Eachus went down with an injury on Sept. 5 in Colgate’s season opener, it thought wrong. Sophomore tailback Jordan McCord has been a capable fill-in, to say the least. McCord has rushed for 444 yards, averaging 4.9 per carry, in his three games as the full-time starter. Sullivan is always a threat with the quarterback keeper, and Eachus may make his return this week.

“They’re an excellent team,” Knowles said said in a teleconference. “They’re strong and physical up front on both sides of the ball. It seems like it doesn’t matter who they put in at running back, he gets over 200 yards.”

Raider senior safety Frank Morand, one of the team’s top run-stoppers, will miss his second game with a knee injury. Junior Anthony Ambrosi starred in his place last week, netting an interception that he ran back for the winning touchdown.

Cornell’s own running backs will be hoping to stretch their legs out against Colgate after the Bulldogs held them to 46 yards last week. The Raiders have allowed just under 100 rushing yards per game this season. Senior Stephen Liuzza is the Red’s leading rusher this season, with the bulk of his 78 yards coming on a 65-yard touchdown run out of the wildcat formation in the win over Bucknell. A big-play machine, Liuzza has the longest touchdown run and pass (81 yards to senior receiver Bryan Walters last week) in the Ivy League so far this season.

“Bryan had a huge play for us to open the game last week,” Knowles said. “He had a bunch of good plays in the Bucknell game. It just gives your team confidence that you have a guy like that who can change the game at any point. We’re lucky to have him.”