March 10, 2003
Complete Prospectus in PDF Format - Additional Information Available in This Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Q. What was so special about the 2002 season?
A. The Blue Jays won a school-record nine games (9-2), claimed a share of the Centennial Conference Championship for the first time in school history and made the first-ever post-season football appearance in school history.
?
Q. Was this a one-year wonder?
A. No. Johns Hopkins is 15-5 in the last two years (winningest two-year period in school history) and 51-28-1 (.644) since the beginning of the 1995 season.
?
Q. What did Johns Hopkins do twice in a span of eight days during the 2002 season that the Blue Jays hadn't done once in 32 years?
A. Johns Hopkins won a share of the Centennial Conference Championship with a 27-7 victory over McDaniel on November 16 and won the ECAC Southwest title with a 24-21 victory at Frostburg on November 23. Prior to this, Johns Hopkins had not won a football title of any kind since 1969.
?
Q. Who is Jim Margraff?
A. Jim Margraff (class of `82) is entering his 14th season as the head coach at Johns Hopkins and ranks as the all-time winningest football coach in school history with a 75-52-3 (.588) record. He is also the all-time leading passer in school history.
?
Q. What makes Margraff's success so amazing?
A. In 13 seasons, Margraff has guided Johns Hopkins to nine winning seasons and 75 victories. In the previous 19 years, Johns Hopkins posted eight winning seasons and won a total of 72 games.
?
Q. Is it all about football at Johns Hopkins?
A. Quite simply, no. Johns Hopkins had four players earn Verizon District II Academic All-America honors in 2002. No other school in the district had more than two players named to the team and the remaining six Centennial Conference schools combined for three.
?
Q. What makes senior P/PK Chris Smolyn so unique?
A. It could be that Smolyn is 6'5" and weighs 265 pounds and is a punter/place kicker. Or it could be that he punts with his left foot and handles his place-kicking duties with his right foot. Oh, he place kicks straight on and was a Second Team All-Centennial selection as a place-kicker in 2002.
?
Q. Who will start at quarterback?
A. Either senior George Merrell or sophomore Zach DiIonno. Merrell was named the ECAC Southwest MVP after throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for another in the 24-21 win over Frostburg. He accounted for nine touchdowns in the final three games of the season (five passing and four rushing).
DiIonno played in six games with four starts as a freshman and completed a 97-yard touchdown pass to Brian Wolcott against Muhlenberg, the longest pass play in the history of the Centennial Conference. He threw for a team-high 626 yards and five touchdowns.
?
Q. Do Merrell and DiIonno have anyone to throw the ball to?
A. JHU's top six pass-catchers from last season will return. Junior Brian Wolcott earned Honorable Mention All-Centennial honors in 2002 as he had 39 receptions for 715 yards and seven touchdowns. Senior Jason Lehman had 23 receptions for 294 yards and four touchdowns.
?
Q. You can't throw on every play. Are there any running backs on this team?
A. Junior Adam Cook and sophomore T.J. Lyons combined for 1,115 yards rushing last season. Lyons led the team with 568 yards and three touchdowns, while Cook added 547 and five touchdowns. Junior FB Nate Readal will also return after rushing for 268 yards last season.
?
Q. Keith Emery has been the Hopkins defensive coordinator for two years. Anything special happen in that time?
A. In Keith Emery's first year as the Hopkins defensive coordinator (2001), JHU led the nation in pass efficiency defense and became the first Division III team since 1980 to go through an entire season without allowing a touchdown pass. As an encore, the 2002 team allowed just 2.8 yards per rush and held seven opponents to 80 rushing yards or less.
?
Q. Did Adam Cook's brother do anything worth mentioning during his freshman year?
A. Brian Cook, who will be a sophomore in 2003, started at defensive end for the Blue Jays as a freshman last season and led the nation in forced fumbles with five. He added 34 tackles, including seven for losses.
?
Q. Who will lead the defense?
A. Senior nose guard Paul Smith and senior linebacker Paul Longo will serve as team co-captains in 2003. Smith posted a team-high 16 tackles for losses among his 47 tackles last season and now has 30 tackles for losses in the last two years. Longo, one of the four JHU players who earned Verizon District II Academic All-America honors last season, had a career-high 68 tackles, including nine for losses.
?
Q. Anyone back in the secondary?
A. Junior safety Matt Campbell returns after leading the team with 86 tackles last season. He added seven pass breakups, three interceptions, three forced fumbles and handled some of the punt return duties as well. Campbell was the only sophomore in the league to earn First Team All-Centennial on defense.
Senior Rich Lamour returns after leading the team with four interceptions as a first-year starter last season. He had 37 tackles and nine pass breakups to his credit.
?
Q. What are the key numbers for the Blue Jays in 2003?
A. There are many. However, Hopkins is 46-4 (.920) under head coach Jim Margraff when scoring 24 or more points and 51-8-2 (.852) when holding the opposition to 14 points or less.
?
?
Note: Athletes are listed by the year they will be during the 2003 season.
