Oct. 6, 2010

Johns Hopkins-Dickinson Football Notes in PDF Format

The Game: Johns Hopkins (2-2, 2-1 Centennial) plays its second straight game at home and only Friday night game of the season as the Blue Jays welcome Dickinson (1-3, 1-2 CC) to Homewood Field.

The Teams: Johns Hopkins and Dickinson are both looking to bounce back from tough home losses. The Blue Jays turned the ball over five times in a 30-27 loss to Muhlenberg last Saturday, while the Red Devils gave up 24 points to a Moravian team that had scored a total of just 31 points in it first four games and fell 24-16.

The Coaches: This week's game features the two most successful coaches in the history of the Centennial Conference. Johns Hopkins is led by Jim Margraff, who is in his 21st year as the head coach at JHU and sports a 131-77-3 (.628) record. He also ranks second all-time in CC history with 87 league victories to his credit. Darwin Breaux is in his 18th season as the head coach at Dickinson and carries a 111-67-1 (.623) record into Friday's game.

In Centennial Conference history, Margraff is second all-time with 87 league wins to his credit, while Breaux is tied for third with 77. Gettysburg's Barry Streeter leads the way with 88.

Friday Night Lights: This week's game against Dickinson continues JHU's hisory of scheduling at least one Friday night game at Homewood Field each season. Playing under the lights has been good for the Blue Jays, who sport a 27-13-1 (.671) record at Homewood Field on Friday night since playing the first such game on September 25, 1982 against Widener. Since head coach Jim Margraff took over in 1990, JHU sports a 23-9-1 (.734) record at home on Friday nights. This will be Dickinson's third trip to JHU for a Friday night game. The teams have split the previous two such meetings with DC taking a 17-7 decision in 2004 before the Blue Jays grabbed a wild 36-34 victory in 2008.

In Case You Forgot: Dickinson's last trip to Baltimore provided one of the great games in Homewood Field history. In a game featuring more than 900 yards of total offense, host Johns Hopkins sprinted out to a stuninng 33-0 lead late in the third quarter, only to have Dickinson score 34 points in just under 18 minutes to pull within 36-34. Although they never trailed, the Blue Jays needed a career-best 46-yard field goal by Alex Lachman with just under three minutes remaining to hold off the Red Devils.

Oh So Close: Johns Hopkins trailed Muhlenberg 30-13 with less than eight minutes remaining last Saturday before rallying to within 30-27. The Blue Jays had one final chance to pull out the win in the final minutes, but a turnover deep in Muhlenberg territory sealed the loss. If JHU had pulled off the comeback, it would have marked the first time JHU has erased a 17-point deficit to win since 1999, when the Blue Jays beat F&M, 35-33, after trailing 27-10 in the third quarter.

A Telling Tale: The winner of the Johns Hopkins-Dickinson game has claimed at least a share of six of the last eight Centennial Conference titles (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2009).

Tomlin Ties School Record: Junior Hewitt Tomlin moved into a tie for first place in school history in career wins by a starting quarterback with the 41-3 win at Moravian on September 26. Tomlin, who is now 19-7 in 26 career starts at Johns Hopkins, tied JHU Hall of Famer Mark Campbell's record for career wins by a starting QB. Campbell played from 1982-85 and was also an All-American pitcher for the Blue Jay baseball team.

Class Act: Without question, the current group of juniors who play defense for the Blue Jays ranks among the strongest defensive classes in school history.

Seven players from this class are scheduled to start on defense this week against Dickinson and five have already amassed 100 or more career tackles, including four who reached the mark in the first two games this season.

Below is a list of the five juniors who have 100 or more career tackles to their credit entering this week's game against the Red Devils.

Name (Pos.) Career Tackles

Tyler Brown (LB) - 135

Ryan Piatek (LB) - 121

Kale Sweeney (ROV) - 118

Sam Eagleson (CB) - 115

Mike Milano (S) - 111

Piatek, Brown, Eagleson Lead Defense vs. Muhlenberg: Juniors Ryan Piatek, Tyler Brown and Sam Eagleson paced the JHU defense last week against Muhlenberg. Piatek posted a game-high 14 tackles (one shy of his career high), while Brown added a personal-best 10 stops. Eagleson came up with two of JHU's three interceptions and moved into a tie for eighth place on JHU's career INT list (10).

Wernick Rolling: Junior Sam Wernick had a career-high 12 receptions for 107 yards and one touchdown and added 89 yards on three kickoff returns against Muhlenberg. Wernick currently leads the Centennial Conference in receptions per game (7.25), receiving yards per game (105.0) and all-purpose yards per game (171.2). He has 29 receptions for 420 yards and five touchdowns and has returned 11 kickoffs for 258 yards (23.5) .

Get Us Now: JHU graduated a large, accomplished senior class after a magical 2009 season. With that turnover in personnel, the Blue Jays became a much younger group. In last week's loss to Muhlenberg, JHU started just four seniors (two each on offense and defense).

Road Warriors: The Blue Jays posted a 6-2 record on the road last season after punching up a 4-1 record on the road in 2008. Including the win at Moravian, JHU is 16-5 since the start of the 2007 season on the road and 38-14 on the road since the start of the 2001 season.

More Road Warriors: Johns Hopkins played its final four games of the 2009 season on the road (one regular season game - three NCAA Playoff games) and opened the 2010 season with three straight away from Homewood. Johns Hopkins was one of the last teams in the nation to play a home game this season when the Blue Jays hosted Muhlenberg last Saturday.

Scoring is Up: Johns Hopkins averaged 29.8 points per game last season, the highest total for a Blue Jay team since the 1968 team averaged 34.3 points. JHU picked up right where it left off a year ago in the season opener as the Blue Jays punched up 37 points against Randolph-Macon and came back with a 29-point showing at Gettysburg, a 41-point effort at Moravian and a 27-point outburst last week against Muhlenberg. JHU has scored at least 27 points in seven straight regular season games dating back to last season and this is the first time in school history JHU has opened a season scoring 27 or more points in four straight games.

Mid-Game Surge: Johns Hopkins has been outscored 23-21 in the first quarter of its games this season, but the Blue Jays kick it in over the final 45 minutes. JHU holds decisive scoring advantages in the second (46-27) and third (33-14) quarters and a slim margin in the fourth (34-31). The large margin in the second and third quarters comes despite totaling six combined points in those quarters last week against Muhlenberg.

Streak Snapped: Johns Hopkins was held to a season-low 340 yards of total offense last week against Muhlenberg, bringing to an end a streak of six consecutive regular season games in which the Blue Jays totaled at least 400 yards on offense.

Still, despite last week's showing, JHU has punched up 400 or more yards of total offense eight times in its last 10 overall games dating back to last season.

It's a Record: The 384 yards passing for Johns Hopkins against Randolph-Macon is the most ever for JHU in a season opener. The 384 yards also rank as the fourth-best total (as a team) in JHU history.

It's Another Record: JHU got 326 passing yards at Gettysburg to follow up the 384 yards through the air in the season opener. This is the first time in school history JHU has gotten 300 or more passing yards in back-to-back games.

It's Been a While: The Johns Hopkins defense forced three turnovers in last week's game against Muhlenberg as the Blue Jays came up with three interceptions against the Mules. JHU is forcing a Centennial-best 3.0 turnovers per game and the Blue Jays are now fifth in the Centennial in turnover margin (+0.50).

The three-turnover showing for the JHU defense kept alive several impressive streaks for the Blue Jays. Consider ...

• JHU has intercepted at least one pass in 18 straight games dating back to the final game of the 2008 season vs. Catholic.

• JHU has forced at least one turnover in 20 straight games dating back to late in the 2008 season.

• JHU has forced two or more turnovers in 17 of the last 18 games dating back to late in the 2008 season.

We Are the Champions: Johns Hopkins won its fifth overall Centennial Conference title in 2009, including its second outright title. JHU had never won a CC Championship prior to 2002, but has now grabbed at least a share of five of the last eight titles. The Blue Jays shared the title in 2002, 2003 and 2004 and took the title outright in 2005 and 2009.

JHU Ties Victory Record: The 10 wins for the Blue Jays last season tied the school record for victories in a season. Previously, JHU had won 10 games in a season just once (2003).

Unchartered Waters: Johns Hopkins became the first Centennial Conference team to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals since 1985 when it knocked off previously unbeaten Hampden-Sydney and Thomas More in the first two rounds of the NCAA Playoffs last season. In addition, the two road wins for the Blue Jays in the NCAAs last season matched the total number of road victories the Centennial Conference had accumulated from 1983-2008.

One of Two: Johns Hopkins was one of just two teams in the nation to win a pair of NCAA Playoff games on the road last season. The Blue Jays won at #14 Hampden-Sydney in the first round and at #10 Thomas More in the second round. Only Albright, which won in the first two rounds on the road as well, also won a pair of playoff games away from home this season.

Streaking: Since the start of the 2002 season the Blue Jays sport a 65-27 (.707) record. Taking it back farther the Blue Jays are 71-30 (.703) since the start of the 2001 season and 76-35 (.685) since the beginning of the 2000 season. The 74 wins the Blue Jays amassed from 2000-09 are the most wins in a decade in school history. The previous record of 55 wins came in the 1990s. To put this in perspective, Johns Hopkins had never won more than seven games in a season prior to this decade. In the decade just completed, the Blue Jays averaged more than seven wins per season (7.4).

Seven's Heaven: Since the beginning of the 2003 season the Blue Jays are 56-18 when scoring more than seven points and 0-7 when they have been held to seven points or less.

Player Notes of Interest Included in PDF Version