The Game
«  Johns Hopkins (10-1) travels to fourth-ranked Mount Union (11-0) for a second round game in the 2021 NCAA Division III Football Playoffs.  Kickoff from Mount Union Stadium is set for 12 pm.

A Look Back
«  Johns Hopkins advanced to the second round of the NCAAs with a 45-20 victory at 11th-ranked Salisbury in the first round of the playoffs.
« The Purple Raiders made quick work of visiting Washington & Lee and cruised into the second round with a 52-0 win over the Generals in round one.

The Facts
«  This is the 136th season of Johns Hopkins football.  JHU first fielded a team in 1882.
«  Johns Hopkins enters this week's game with an all-time record of 573-488-58 (.538).
«  Since the start of the 2010 season, the Blue Jays are 110-18 (.859) overall and 90-9 (.909) in the Centennial Conference.
«  Overall, and including this season, JHU owns 15 Centennial Conference titles (all won since 2002) and has qualified for the NCAA Playoffs 11 times (all since 2005).

Poll Position
« Johns Hopkins will carry a pair of top-20 rankings into this week's game at Mount Union as the Blue Jays check in at #16 in the AFCA Poll and #17 in the D3football.com Poll.
« Since the AFCA Poll debuted in 1999, the  #16 ranking marks the 108th time JHU has been ranked in the top 25.  More recently, the Blue Jays are in the top 25 for the 91st time in the last 99 polls dating back to 2011.
«  Since the D3football.com Poll debuted in 2003, the #17 ranking marks the 122nd time Johns Hopkins has appeared in the top 25.

How They Got In
« Johns Hopkins earned one of the five at-large bids awarded in the 32-team NCAA Division III Football Playoff field.  This is the first time the Blue Jays have received an at-large bid to the tournament as each of their previous 10 trips were earned via the Centennial Conference's automatic bid into the field.
« Mount Union won the Ohio Athletic Conference and the league's accompanying automatic bid into the tournament.

What's Next
«  The winner of the Johns Hopkins-Mount Union second round game will take on the winner of the Muhlenberg-Delaware Valley second round game in the NCAA Quarterfinals. That quarterfinal game will be played on Saturday, December 3 (12 pm).  The location will be announced on Sunday, November 28.

Playoff Bound
«  Johns Hopkins is making its 10th appearance in the NCAA Playoffs in 11 years and 11th overall.  All 11 appearances have come since 2005.

Historically Speaking
«  This week's game at Mount Union will be the 27th post-season game in Johns Hopkins football history with every post-season game coming since 2002.  
«  The Blue Jays are 15-11 all-time in the post-season, including 10-10 all-time the NCAA Playoffs.
«  Johns Hopkins advanced to the NCAA Semifinal in 2018, the NCAA Quarterfinals in 2009 and made second round appearance in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016 before this year.
«  In addition to their 10-10 mark in the NCAAs, Johns Hopkins is 4-1 in ECAC Bowl Games and 1-0 in the Centennial-MAC Bowl Series.

The Field-33 Johns Hopkins-14
«  There are 16 teams remaining in the NCAA Division III Football Playoffs as we head to round two this weekend; 15 others plus Johns Hopkins.
«  The recently-released 2021 CoSIDA Academic All-District Football Teams included 47 players who represent one of the remaining 16 teams.
« Breaking it down, Johns Hopkins produced 14 of those 47, while the remaining 15 teams combined for 33 selections.
« Beyond JHU's national-best and school-record 14 Academic All-District honorees, only three of the other 15 teams playing this weekend had five or more (RPI-7, St. John's (MN)-5, Wheaton (IL)-5) and only one other team (Central (IA)-4) had more than two.

On This Date
«  Dating back to 1950, Johns Hopkins has not played a game on November 27.  The last recorded game the Blue Jays played on this date was in 1937, when they topped St. John's of Annapolis, 13-0.
« Game dates in the Johns Hopkins record book prior to 1950 are not all available, but it appears that this will be the seventh all-time game for JHU on this date with the first coming in 1902 against Maryland.  JHU is 2-3-1 all-time in recorded games on November 27 with all six taking place between 1902 and 1937.

Road Warriors
«  This week's game at Mount Union will be the Blue Jays' eighth road game of the season.
« Johns Hopkins is 6-1 on the road this season and 30-6 on the road (regular season and playoffs) since the start of the 2015 season.
« This is just the second time in school history that Johns Hopkins has played eight games on the road.  The previous instance came in 2009, when JHU went 6-2 on the road en route to the program's first-ever trip to the NCAA Quarterfinals.  All three NCAA Playoff games that year were on the road.
« Johns Hopkins and Wisconsin La Crosse, which plays at North Central in the second round of the playoffs this weekend, will join Springfield as the only Division III teams in the nation to play eight road games in 2021.

November Reign
«  Johns Hopkins is 3-0 this season in the month of November and has won six consecutive games in the month of November dating back to 2019.
« JHU is 10-1 in its last 11 games in the month of November dating back to 2018 with the only loss a 31-16 setback at eventual NCAA Semifinalist Muhlenberg in 2018.

Scoring Notes of Interest
« Johns Hopkins has scored 523 points in its first 11 games of the 2021 season.  The 523 points rank as the third-best single-season total in school history and mark just the third time JHU has scored 500 or more points in a season.
« In 44 quarters this season, the Blue Jays have scored 10 or more points in 26 of the 44 and 20 or more in 10 of 44.
« The school record for points in a season is 641, which JHU scored in 14 games in 2018 en route to the NCAA Semifinals.  The 2015 team scored 548 points in 12 games.
« JHU has scored 196 points in the second quarter and has outscored the opposition 123-17 in the first quarter and 123-28 in the third quarter.
« The 196 points Johns Hopkins has scored in the second quarter this season are more than 65 Division III teams scored in the entire regular season.

JHU Ranks Eighth in the Nation in Scoring
« Among Division III teams, Johns Hopkins enters this week's game against Mount Union ranked eighth in the nation in scoring offense at 47.5 points per game.  JHU is one of just nine NCAA Division III teams currently averaging more than 47 points per game.
« In addition to ranking eighth among Division III teams in scoring offense, the Blue Jays' 47.5 points per outing rank 10th among the 656 football-playing schools in the NCAA.

Quite a Run
« The Johns Hopkins defense has been on quite a run since late in the second quarter against Ursinus.  Since then, the opposition has had 132 offensive possessions.  Consider ...
« Those 132 opponent possessions have ended with 1 safety, 1 missed field goal, 10 touchdowns, 5 field goals, 15 interceptions, 13 fumbles lost, 14 turnovers on downs and 65 punts ... eight others ended with the conclusion of either the second or fourth quarter.

Talkin' Turnovers
« The Johns Hopkins defense forced five turnovers in each of the last three regular season games.  This is believed to be the only time in the last 20 seasons that Hopkins has forced five or more turnovers in three consecutive games.
« With one fumble recovery at Salisbury, the Blue Jays have now forced 31 turnovers (17 INTs, 14 FR) on the year with at least one forced turnover in 10 of 11 games, two or more in eight games and three+ in six games.
« The 31 caused turnovers are the fourth-best single-season total at Johns Hopkins in the last 20 seasons, while the 14 fumble recoveries are tied for the most in a single-season at Johns Hopkins since 2001.

30-for-30
« The Blue Jay defense has rolled up 31 forced turnovers (17 INTs / 14 FR) and 38 sacks in 11 games thus far this season.
« Johns Hopkins is one of just four Division III teams in the nation that has caused 30 or more turnovers and recorded 30 or more sacks (St. Norbert, Carnegie Mellon, Delaware Valley).
« In the last 20 seasons, this year's effort of recording 30 or more sacks and turnovers is just the second. The 2009 team recorded 41 caused turnovers and 38 sacks in 13 games en route to the program's first appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals.

Defense Among the National Leaders
« The Blue Jay defense enters this week's game ranked among the national leaders in a in a number of statistical categories.
« Through 11 games, JHU ranks third in fumble recoveries (14), sixth in turnovers gained (31), ninth in sacks per game (3.36), 14th in third-down percentage defense (.273), 18th in interceptions (17), 19th in scoring defense (12.5), 26th in red zone defense (.625) and 35th in rushing defense (92.1).

Lethal Weapon Three
«  Johns Hopkins features one of the top wide receiver trios in the nation in Harrison Wellmann, Quinn Revere and Ryan Hubley - all three rank among the top five in the Centennial Conference in receptions and receiving yards.
« Wellmann headlines the group as he has 77 receptions for 1,194 yards and 16 touchdowns, while Revere (66-1,016-9) and Hubley (71-826-5) are not far behind.
« On the year, they have 3,036 combined receiving yards on 214 receptions with 30 touchdowns.  In other words, they are averaging 19.5 receptions for 276 yards and 2.7 touchdowns per game between them!
« Breaking it down by game, they have combined for 20 or more receptions in all but three games, have rolled up more than 300 receiving yards six times and accounted for four or more touchdowns in five different games as well.
« Johns Hopkins is the only Division III team in the nation with three players with 65 or more receptions and the only team with three players with 800 or more receiving yards.

Close Calls
«  Since the start of the 2013 season, Johns Hopkins has lost a total of 12 games.  Those 12 losses have come by a total of 71 points with setbacks by five, three, five, seven, four, three, two, eight, one, three and 15 points (twice).  Translation, 10 of Johns Hopkins' 12 losses since the start of the 2013 season have come by a touchdown or less.

On a Roll
«  Johns Hopkins is 97-7 in its last 104 regular season games dating back to late in the 2010 season.
«  The Blue Jays are 107-15 in their last 122 games overall since late in the 2010 season.
«  Dating back farther, Johns Hopkins is 173-43 (.801) since the start of the 2002 season, 179-46 (.796) since the start of the 2001 season and 184-51 (.783) since the start of the 2000 season.

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