Aug. 10, 2004
LANCASTER, Pa. -- Coming off the most successful season in school history, Johns Hopkins is the overwhelming favorite in the 2004 Centennial Conference Preseason Football Poll of head coaches and sports information director's. The Blue Jays earn the top spot in the preseason poll for the first time in school history after claiming a share of the last two Centennial titles.
Hopkins received 12 of a possible 14 first-place votes (coaches and SIDs not permitted to vote for their own team) and 72 points to easily out-distance Muhlenberg (two first-place votes / 62 points). McDaniel (49 points), Franklin & Marshall (33), Gettysburg (32), Ursinus (25) and Dickinson (21) round out the poll.
Head coach Jim Margraff counts 15 returning starters among his returning players, including nine on offense. Senior RB Adam Cook (New Freedom, PA/Susquehannock) and senior OL Matt Weeks (Landisville, PA/Hempfield) headline the returning starters to an offense that averaged 386.6 yards and 28.6 points per game last season. Cook set JHU single-season records with 1,047 rushing yards and 1,736 all-purpose yards in 2003, when the Blue Jays set a school record with 10 wins (10-1), grabbed a share of a second straight Centennial Conference Championship and won the ECAC South Atlantic title. Weeks was named a Third Team Football Gazette All-American and an Honorable Mention All-American by the Division III SIDs and he was a unanimous First Team All-Centennial selection.
Six starters will also return from the Blue Jays' nationally-ranked defense of a year ago. Hopkins led the nation in pass efficiency defense for the second time in three years, finished second in the nation in scoring defense (7.0 ppg.) and eighth in total defense (242.4) last season. The Blue Jays allowed a total of just 77 points in 11 games and didn't allow more than 14 points in any game. A streak of three straight shutouts early in the season helped vault the Blue Jays to a program-best number 13 national ranking in late October.
Senior DB Matt Campbell (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) returns after enjoying one of the finest seasons in school history. He tied for second on the team with 65 tackles and accounted for eight of JHU's national-best 28 interceptions on the year. His eight interceptions tied the JHU single-season school record. Campbell was named to the SIDs First Team All-America squad, while he was also named a Second Team Associated Press Little All-America and a Third Team d3football.com All-American. Campbell also became the third player in school history to be named the Centennial Conference Defensive Player-of-the-Year.
Juniors Adam Luke (Teague, TX/Teague), Alan Cody (North Bergen, NJ/St. Peter's Prep) and Max Whitacre (Sugarloaf, PA/Bishop Hafey) also return on defense after earning All-Centennial honors last season. Luke (LB) led the team with 71 tackles and earned Second Team All-CC status despite starting just three games. Cody (DL) and Whitacre (SS) both garnered Honorable Mention All-CC honors and fuel a defense, which could count as few as two senior starters. Cody had 50 tackles, including 10 for losses and a team-high 3.5 sacks last season, while Whitacre tied for second on the team with 65 tackles, including 12 for losses and one sack.
The Blue Jays are in the midst of the most successful run in school history. Over the last two years the Blue Jays are 19-3 and count two Centennial Conference Co-Championships and a pair of ECAC titles to their credit. Prior to 2002, when JHU posted a then school-record nine wins (9-2), no Blue Jay football team had ever won more than seven games in a season.
Johns Hopkins will open the 2004 season at home on September 4 against the University of Rochester at noon.
2004 Centennial Conference Preseason Football Poll
	Rank	School (1st-place votes)	Points
	1.	Johns Hopkins (12)	72
	2.	Muhlenberg (2)	62
	3.	McDaniel	49
	4.	Franklin & Marshall	33
	5.	Gettysburg	32
	6.	Ursinus	25
	7.	Dickinson	21
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