The Game
«  Johns Hopkins (6-0, 2-0 CC) welcomes Ursinus (4-2, 0-2 CC) to Homewood Field for a Centennial Conference game against the Bears.

A Look Back
«  Johns Hopkins improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the Centennial Conference with a 34-27 come-from-behind win at F&M last Saturday.
« Ursinus bounced back from consecutive one-score losses with a decisive 39-15 win at home against William Paterson last Saturday.

The Facts
«  This is the 138th 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 590-489-57 (.544).
«  Since the start of the 2010 season, the Blue Jays are 126-20 (.863) overall and 100-10 (.909) in the Centennial Conference.
«  Overall, 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 is ranked seventh in this week's AFCA Coaches Poll and 10th in this week's D3football.com Poll. Those rankings are unchanged from last week.
« This week's #7 ranking marks the 53rd time that Johns Hopkins has appeared in the AFCA's top 10; 52 of the 53 have come since 2011.
« Since the D3football.com Poll debuted in 2003, this is the 144th time Johns Hopkins has appeared in the top 25 and 40th time the Blue Jays have cracked the top 10.

6-0 ... Again
«  Johns Hopkins improved to 6-0 with last week's win at F&M.  This marks the ninth time since 2003 that the Blue Jays have won their first six games of the season.
« Prior to 2002, Johns Hopkins hadn't started 6-0 since 1931.
« A win this week would give the Blue Jays their 10th all-time 7-0 start.  The previous nine seasons in which JHU has started 7-0 have come since 2003.

Oktoberfest
«  Johns Hopkins flipped the calendar to October with the game against Gettysburg on October 6 ... and the month has been good to the Blue Jays of late.
«  Including last week's win at F&M, the Blue Jays have won 39 of their last 42 games in the month of October dating back to 2010.
«  The Blue Jays had been just 10-8 in their previous 18 games in the month of October before jump-starting the current 42-game run with a 49-24 win at Susquehanna (10-23-2010).

Nine Straight
«  Dating back to last season, Johns Hopkins has won nine consecutive games as the Blue Jays won their final three games of the 2022 season and have won six straight to open the '23 season.
« With a win this week, the Blue Jays would reach 10 straight wins for the ninth time in school history.
« Every Johns Hopkins winning streak of 10+ games has taken place since the start of the 2002 season.

A Tough Stretch
«  Including last week's game against F&M, which slipped to 4-2 with the loss to the Blue Jays, Johns Hopkins is in the midst of a four-game run against teams (F&M-Ursinus-Muhlenberg-Dickinson) that are currently a combined 19-5 on the year.
« Of the five losses those four teams have, four have come against each other and the other was F&M's loss to JHU last week.

At Home at Homewood
«  Johns Hopkins has extended its school-record home winning streak to 15 games (dating back to 2019) with wins this season at Homewood Field against Ithaca, Christopher Newport and Gettysburg.
« The 15-game home winning streak breaks the previous record of 12 straight home wins. JHU has twice (2014-15 / 2017-18) won 12 consecutive home games.
«  Since the start of the 2010 season, the Blue Jays are 62-7 (.899) at Homewood Field.

On a Roll
«  Johns Hopkins is 112-8 in its last 120 regular season games dating back to late in the 2010 season.
«  The Blue Jays are 123-17 in their last 140 games overall since late in the 2010 season.
«  Dating back farther, Johns Hopkins is 189-45 (.808) since the start of the 2002 season, 195-48 (.802) since the start of the 2001 season and 200-53 (.791) since the start of the 2000 season.

Harvey Rolling
«  Junior Bay Harvey is enjoying a strong season in his first year as the Blue Jays' starting quarterback.  Through six games, he is 110-of-157 (.701) for 1,563 yards with 20 touchdowns against five interceptions.  He has also rushed for 234 yards and a team-best three touchdowns thus far.
« Harvey currently leads the Centennial in passing yards and completion percentage and ranks second in touchdown passes and pass efficiency (189.4).
« Entering this week's game against Ursinus, Harvey has thrown at least two touchdown passes in all six Blue Jay games this season and three or more in each of the last four games.
« Harvey was 18-of-25 for 310 yards and five touchdowns and also rushed for 22 yards and another score in a 55-20 win at Rowan in late September.
« The five TD passes are a career high and the most for a Hopkins quarterback since Ryan Stevens had five against Gettysburg last season. The six touchdowns responsible for are the most by a JHU player since Stevens threw for six against Ursinus in 2021.

Talarico Into Record Book
«  Junior EJ Talarico sparked Hopkins' 34-27 win at F&M last week as he returned a kickoff a school-record 98 yards for a touchdown just moments after the Diplomats had taken a 20-13 lead.
« The 98-yard return breaks Talarico's own previous school record of 96 yards, which he had set in a 36-29 win at Ursinus in 2022.
« Talarico, who earned Centennial Conference Special Teams Player of the Week honors for his efforts at F&M (3-141-1), boosted his career kickoff return average to 25.6 yards per return with his performance at F&M (31-794-2).
« Talarico joins Harrison Bernstein (1996-99) and Harrison Wellmann (2018-21) as the only players in school history with two kickoff returns of 90+ yards.

Schuermann Named a Semifinalist for NFF's Prestigious Campbell Trophy
«  Senior defensive end Luke Schuermann was recently named a semifinalist for the National Football Foundation's 2023 Campbell Trophy.
« The Campbell Trophy recognizes an individual as the top football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.
« Schuermann is a two-time All-American, a two-time Academic All-American and counts 148 tackles, 57.0 tackles for loss and 31 sacks in his career.  He ranks first in school history in career sacks and second in career TFLs.
« Among active Division III players, Schuermann ranks first in career TFLs per game (2.04) and sacks per game (1.11).
« Among active players in all divisions of NCAA football who have played in 10 or more games, Schuermann ranks first in career sacks per game (1.11).
« Schuermann is majoring in mechanical engineering with a minor in entrepreneurship and management.  He is one of 201 Campbell nominees from all levels of college football, including one of 48 from an NCAA Division III program; he is the only player from the Centennial Conference among the 201 nominees.
« The NFF will announce 12-14 finalists on Oct. 25, and each of those individuals  will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 2023 NFF National Scholar-Athlete Class Presented by Fidelity Investments.
« John Arena (2013) and JR Woods (2022) are Johns Hopkins' two all-time finalists for the Campbell Trophy.

Instant Impact
«  Freshman Cole Crotty wasted little time making an impact on the Blue Jay football program as he shined in his career debut in the 27-17 win over Ithaca.
« Crotty had three receptions for a team-high 83 yards and two touchdowns in the win over the Bombers.  Although data is incomplete, there is no record of another freshman scoring two touchdowns in a season-opening game for Johns Hopkins dating back to 1972.
« Since the opening game against Ithaca, Crotty has rolled up at least five receptions in each of the last five games and he has at least 70 receiving yards in each of the last four games.
« On the year, he leads the team in receptions (34) and receiving yards (505) and ranks second in touchdown receptions (6).
« Crotty's six touchdown receptions are tied for second among freshmen in all divisions of the NCAA through games of October 14.

Polce Reaches 1,000
«  Graduate student wide receiver Josh Polce etched his name in the Blue Jay record book with his effort at Franklin & Marshall last Saturday.
« Polce had seven receptions for 112 yards and two touchdowns in the win against the Diplomats to run his season totals to 33 receptions for 498 yards and a team-high seven touchdowns.
« With his 112 yards receiving at F&M, Polce became the 31st player in school history to reach 1,000 career receiving yards (1,029) and he also boosted his career TD reception total to 16, which is tied for 12th in school history.

Sack Masters
«  The Johns Hopkins defense has totaled 22 sacks in six games this season, including 15 in the last three games with six in the win at Rowan, five against Gettysburg and four at F&M.
« While Luke Schuermann is the headliner on the defensive line, 13 different Blue Jays have been in on at least one sack thus far this season.
« Through games of October 14, JHU ranks seventh nationally in sacks per game (3.67).

Scoring is Up
«  After averaging 23.5 points through the first two games of the season, Johns Hopkins has nearly doubled its output in the last four games as the Blue Jays have rolled up 42 (Salisbury), 55 (Rowan), 49 (Gettysburg) and 34 (F&M) points in their last four games for an average of 45 points per game over that span.

Must be the Speech
«  There must be something to the speech head coach Greg Chimera gives in the locker room before the Blue Jays take the field for the first and third quarters.
« Through six games, JHU has outscored the opposition 62-14 in the first quarter and 62-20 in the third quarter.
« The Blue Jays are also +31 in scoring in the second quarter (75-44) to give them a 199-78 scoring margin in the first three quarters of their games to-date.

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