Sept. 10, 2008

Johns Hopkins-Randolph-Macon Football Notes in PDF Format Additional Information Available in This Format

The Game: Johns Hopkins (1-0) hits the road for the first time this season as the Blue Jays head south to take on Randolph-Macon (0-1). Game time at RMC's Day Field is set for 2 pm.

A Look Back: Johns Hopkins won its season-opener for the seventh time in the last eight years and the 10th time in the last 12 as the Blue Jays knocked off visiting St. Lawrence, 34-3, at Homewood Field last Saturday. Randolph-Macon opened the 2008 season at King's and dropped a 34-13 decision to the Monarchs.

The Coaches: Johns Hopkins is coached by Jim Margraff `82, who is in his 19th season as the head coach at Homewoof. Margraff is JHU's all-time leader in games won (112) and coached (184) and he enters the game with a career record of 112-69-3 (.617). More information about Jim Margraff can be found on the second page of this week's game notes.
Pedro Arruza is now in his fifth season as the head coach at Randolph-Macon and has turned the Yellow Jacket football program into one of the top units in the rugged Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Arruza guided the `Jackets to an 8-2 record and a share of the ODAC title last season after the squad was picked to finish last in the conference's preseason poll. The six-game turnaround from 2006, when RMC posted a 2-6 record, was the largest in the nation last season.

Captain, My Captain: In vote of his teammates, junior running back Andrew Kase was selected to serve as the team captain for the Blue Jays this season. According to records in the Johns Hopkins Sports Information Office, he is the first player to serve as a solo captain for the Blue Jay football team since 1983 (Francis Mullan).

On This Date: Johns Hopkins has played four previous games on September 13 and sports a 2-1-1 record in those four games. Hopkins defeated Washington & Lee, 36-7, in its last game played on September 13 as the win over the Generals was the second of seven straight to open the 2003 season.

Road Openers: Johns Hopkins has won its first road game of the season seven straight times, including a 21-14 win at Randolph-Macon in the first road tilt of the 2006 season.

September Reign: Johns Hopkins is 22-9 in the month of Septmeber since the start of the 2000 season and 33-14 since the start of the 1995 season.

Streaking: Since the start of the 2002 season the Blue Jays sport a 46-19 (.708) record. Taking it back farther the Blue Jays are 52-22 (.703) since the start of the 2001 season and 57-27 (.679) since the begininng of the 2000 season. The 57 wins the Blue Jays have amassed this decade are already the most wins in a decade in school history. The previous record of 55 wins came in the 1990s.

Against the ODAC: Since starting a series against Bridgewater in 1996, the Blue Jays have played 22 games against teams from the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. The Blue Jays are 15-7 in those 22 games after splitting games last season against Hampden-Sydney (W/17-16) and Randolph-Macon (L/9-18).
Prior to beginning the series with Bridgewater in 1996, the Blue Jays had not played a game against a school from the ODAC since 1970, when they finished a series with Hampden-Sydney. This does not include a three-game series against Catholic from 1988-1990 (currently a member of the ODAC, but not a member at the time of the three games against JHU).

Johns Hopkins vs. the ODAC (Since 1996)

Bridgewater (3-3)
Hampden-Sydney (3-1)
Randolph-Macon (3-2)
Washington & Lee (6-1)

In the Zone: Johns Hopkins was by far the most effective offensive team in the Centennial Conference in the red zone during the 2007 season. The Blue Jays finished the year 25-of-27 (92.6%) on the year with 17 touchdowns and eight field goals to their credit. The Blue Jays cashed in on their only trip to the red zone in last week's 34-3 win over St. Lawrence.

Holding Them Out: St. Lawrence failed to get into the end zone in last week's 34-3 Blue Jay victory, while Hopkins also held McDaniel out of the end zone in a 31-3 season-ending victory last season. That's eight straight quarters the Blue Jays have held the opposition out of the end zone. Taking it back farther, the Blue Jays have allowed just one touchdown in the last 11 quarters dating back to last season (F&M scored midway through the fourth quarter of the next-to-last game a year ago).

It's Been a While: The three points the Blue Jays allowed last week are the fewest allowed in a season-opener by JHU since defeating Washington & Lee 34-3 in 2001.

Playing the Best: Johns Hopkins played the most difficult schedule in the Centennial Conference last season as the Blue Jays' 10 opponents posted a combined record of 61-44 (.581). Hopkins' two non-conference opponents a year ago (Hampden-Sydney and Randolph-Macon) combined to post a 16-5 record.

Seven's Heaven: Since the beginning of the 2003 season the Blue Jays are 37-12 when scoring more than seven points and 0-5 when they have been held to seven points or less.

It's All Academic: Johns Hopkins has earned 26 CoSIDA Academic All-District selections since 2003. JHU's 26 selections in that time are more than the other CC football-playing schools combined (22). Taking it back even farther, Johns Hopkins has earned 52 CoSIDA Academic All-District selections since 1991. During that time the other CC football-playing schools have combined for exactly 52 selections as well.
Johns Hopkins has had at least three players earn CoSIDA Academic All-District honors every year since 2001.

Youth Shall be Served: Of the 22 players who started on offense and defense last week against St. Lawrence, only seven were seniors and a total of eight were freshmen (4) and four sophomores (4).

More Youth: Of the 52 players who saw action last week against St. Lawrence, 26 were freshmen (13) and sophomores (13) and another 17 were juniors. Only nine of the 52 were seniors.

Right Up the Middle: Johns Hopkins started a total of four freshmen on offense last week, including the center, quarterback and tailback. Six of JHU's 11 starters on offense were freshmen or sophomores.

Lachman Earns Preseason Honors: Johns Hopkins sophomore place kicker Alex Lachman was named a Second Team Preseason All-American by Lindy's after establishing himself as one of the top young kickers in the nation a year ago.
In addition to earning First Team All-Centennial last season, Lachman garnered Third Team All-America honors from d3football.com.
Lachman hit 34-of-35 kicks last season as he was good on all 23 of his extra-point attempts and nailed 11-of-12 field goal attempts. His 91.7% accuracy rate on field goals tied for the national lead among players with 10 or more attempts.

Additional Information and Player Notes of Interest Included in PDF Version