Sept. 1, 2004
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The Game: The Johns Hopkins football team opens the 2004 season against the University of Rochester at Homewood Field on Saturday, September 4. This will be the earliest date Johns Hopkins has ever played a football game.
The Teams: The 2003 Johns Hopkins football team concluded the most successful season in school history with a 10-1 record, a share of the Centennial Conference title and the ECAC South Atlantic Championship. Rochester posted a 5-5 record in 2003, but won three of its last four with only a 16-14 loss at Washington (MO) spoiling the last month of the season.
It?s a Record: The 10 wins for the Blue Jays last season are a school record. The previous record of nine had been set in 2002.
Title Time-I: Johns Hopkins shared the 2002 Centennial Conference title with Muhlenberg and McDaniel. This was the first Centennial championship for Johns Hopkins. It took the Blue Jays just one year to grab another as JHU shared the 2003 title with Muhlenberg.
Title Time-II: Johns Hopkins fielded a football team from 1882-2001 without playing a single playoff game. The Blue Jays have advanced to the post-season in each of the last two years as the 2002 team won the ECAC Southwest Championship, while the 2003 team won the ECAC South Atlantic title.
The High Point: Johns Hopkins was ranked 13th in the nation in the AFCA Poll that was released on October 21, 2003. This is the highest a Johns Hopkins football team has ever been ranked. Prior to the 2003 season the Blue Jays had never been ranked in the top 25, but JHU spent nine weeks in the top 25 during the 2003 season. The Blue Jays ended the year ranked 24th in the final AFCA Division III Coaches Poll.
Season-Openers: The Blue Jays have won six of their last seven season-openers and are 7-6-1 in season-openers under 15th-year head coach Jim Margraff.
Quick Starts: Johns Hopkins was 4-0 in September last season and is 13-1 in its last 14 games in the month of September dating back to the 2000 season.
More Quick Starts: Johns Hopkins? 7-0 start last season was the best in school history.
Strong Finish: Johns Hopkins enters the 2004 season riding the crest of a three-game winning streak. The Blue Jays outscored their final three opponents of the 2003 season by a combined score of 107-26.
Multi-Season Victory Record: The 19 wins in the last two years, the 25 in the last three and the 30 in the last four are all school records for those periods of time.
21-of-24: Johns Hopkins is 21-3 in its last 24 games dating back to the final two games of the 2001 season. Prior to this run the Blue Jays had won 21 games in three full seasons just once in school history (1996-98 / JHU went 7-3 in each of those years).
The Coach: Johns Hopkins is coached by Jim Margraff (JHU ?82), who is entering his 15th season as the head coach at Homewood. With the season-opening win over Washington & Lee in 2001, Margraff became the all-time winningest coach in school history and he now sports an overall record of 85-53-3 (.613). The previous record for wins by a Johns Hopkins football coach was 60 by Ray Van Orman (1920-35).
Margraff guided the Blue Jays to a then-school-record-tying seven wins in 1996, 1997,1998 before leading the Blue Jays to their first-ever playoff appearance (and victory), first-ever Centennial Conference title and a school-record nine wins in 2002. He topped that last season as JHU posted a 10-1 record with Centennial and ECAC South Atlantic Championships. Margraff?s .613 winning percentage is second among JHU coaches who have coached 30 or more games and the Blue Jays are 61-29-1 (.676) since the beginning of the 1995 season.
Cradle of Coaches: Jim Margraff is one of seven active Johns Hopkins head coaches who rank as the all-time winningest coach in school history in their respective sport.
In addition to Margraff, Bob Babb (baseball), Nancy Funk (women?s basketball), George Kennedy (women?s swimming), Bill Nelson (men?s basketball), Matt Smith (men?s soccer) and Leo Weil (women?s soccer) all rank as the winningest coach in their sport?s history at JHU.
Margraff?s Resurrection: Since taking over as the head coach prior to the 1990 season, Jim Margraff has guided JHU to 10 winning seasons and 85 wins. The 85 wins are three more than Hopkins accumulated in the previous 21 years combined (1969-89). During that time, Hopkins posted 10 winning seasons and won 82 games.
And They Shall Lead Us: The Blue Jays selected three players to serve as team captains for the 2004 season: senior DB Matt Campbell (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough), senior RB Adam Cook (New Freedom, PA/Susquehannock) and senior OL Matt Weeks (Landisville, PA/Hempfield).
Star Quality: Johns Hopkins placed a school-record 13 players on the 2003 All-Centennial Football Team and eight of those players return for the 2004 season. The six first-time selections for the Blue Jays in 2003 tied the school record for most in one year. Below is a look at JHU?s returning All-Centennial selections:
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Name Position Notes
Matt Campbell DB CC Def. POY and 1st Team All-CC / Named to three All-America Teams
Alan Cody DL HM All-CC / Led JHU?s defensive linemen with 50 tackles last season
Adam Cook RB 1st Team All-CC / School-record 1,047 rushing yards in ?03
Marc DeGennaro C 2nd Team All-CC / Latest in a long line of standout centers at JHU
Adam Luke LB 2nd Team All-CC / Led team in tackles (71) despite starting just three games
Matt Weeks OL 1st Team All-CC / Named to a pair of All-America teams
Max Whitacre LB HM All-CC / Tied for second on the team with 65 tackles
Brian Wolcott WR 2nd Team All-CC / Team highs of 45 receptions for 726 yards and nine TDs.
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It's All Academic: Johns Hopkins had seven players earn Verizon District II Academic All-America honors last season, including five who earned first team status. The seven overall selections and the five first team honorees were the most of any school in the country at any level. Below is a look at JHU?s three returning Verizon District II Academic All-Americans:
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Name Position Notes
Mike Aynardi DL 2nd Team CoSIDA District II AAA / Had 33 tackles and started eight games
Nate Readal FB 1st Team CoSIDA District II AAA / TFL just once in 112 career attempts
Ryan Sheare OL 1st Team CoSIDA District II AAA / Started nine games on a young OL
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Two Out of Three ?Aint Bad: Like the song says, two out of three ?aint bad. For the second time in three years the Johns Hopkins defense led the nation in pass efficiency defense. The 2003 Blue Jays allowed just a 61.40 efficiency rating by opposing quarterbacks as they completed just 136-of-336 attempts for 1,425 yards in 11 games. More amazingly, JHU came up with 28 interceptions, while allowing just two touchdown passes. The 2001 Blue Jays also led the nation in pass efficiency defense as JHU became the first Division III team since 1980 to go through an entire season without allowing a touchdown pass (Amherst also turned this trick in 2001).
Home Sweet Home: Since the beginning of the 1996 season, Hopkins is 32-9 (.780) at home and won 10 straight at Homewood from 1996-97. Under head coach Jim Margraff the Blue Jays are 51-17-2 (.746) at home and JHU has won eight straight and 14 of 16 at home.
More Home Sweet Home: The Blue Jays were dominant at home last season in winning all six of their games in the black home jerseys. Hopkins outscored its six opponents at Homewood Field in 2003, 214-51 for an average winning margin of just over 27 points.
The Road Most Traveled: Johns Hopkins is 12-5 in its last 17 road games. The Blue Jays were 4-1 on the road in 2002 and 2003. The Blue Jays are 9-2 in their last 11 road games since dropping back-to-back road tilts late in the 2001 season.
Going the Distance: During the 2002 and 2003 seasons the Blue Jays had 57 scoring drives that covered 51 yards or more.
Quick Strike Attack: In 11 games last season the Blue Jays had 31 scoring drives that took less than 2:50 off the clock.
Plus-Minus: In the final nine games of the 2003 season Johns Hopkins was plus 18 in turnover ratio. During that time the defense forced 34 turnovers.
Keys to Success: Johns Hopkins is an impressive 52-4 (.929) under head coach Jim Margraff when scoring 24 or more points...currently, the Blue Jays have won 39 of their last 41 when scoring 24 or more...at the same time, Hopkins is 59-9-2 (.857) when holding the opposition to 14 points or less since Margraff arrived for the 1990 season...the Blue Jays have won 24 of their last 25 games when holding the opposition to 14 points or less.
Player Notes of Interest (Included in PDF Version)
