The Game
«  Johns Hopkins (10-0) welcomes Western Connecticut St. (7-2) to Homewood Field for the first round of the 2023 NCAA Division III Playoffs.

A Look Back
«  Johns Hopkins wrapped up the regular season with a 58-7 win over rival McDaniel last Saturday evening (Nov. 11) at Homewood Field to run its record to 10-0.
« WestConn was off last week after closing its regular season with a similarly dominant 54-0 win over Fitchburg St. on November 4.

What's Next
«  The winner of the Johns Hopkins-WestConn game will play the winner of the Delaware Valley-Union first round game on Saturday, November 25.  The location of that game will be announced on Sunday, November 19.
« The other half of the Johns Hopkins bracket features Springfield hosting Ithaca and Randolph-Macon hosting Christopher Newport.

Series History
«  This week's game between Johns Hopkins and Western Connecticut St. will be the first between the two schools in football.
« The teams did not share any common opponents during the 2023 season.
« In addition to being Johns Hopkins' first-ever game against WestConn, it will also be the first time the Blue Jays play a game against a team from the Massachusetts State Athletic Conference (MASCAC).

Poll Position
« Johns Hopkins is ranked seventh in this week's AFCA Coaches Poll and seventh in this week's D3football.com Poll.
« The AFCA Poll debuted for the 2023 season on September 18 and the Blue Jays have been ranked in the top 10 in all nine polls.
« The D3football.com Poll for 2023 started with a preseason poll; JHU has been ranked in the top 20 in all 12 polls and in the top 10 in each of the last eight.
« This week's #7 ranking marks the 57th time that Johns Hopkins has appeared in the AFCA's top 10; 56 of the 57 have come since 2011.
« Since the D3football.com Poll debuted in 2003, this is the 148th time Johns Hopkins has appeared in the top 25 and 44th time the Blue Jays have cracked the top 10.

Blue Jays Earn Record 16th CC Title
«  Johns Hopkins earned no worse than a share of its 16th Centennial Conference title with its 34-23 win at Dickinson on November 4 and locked up the outright title with the 58-7 win over McDaniel last week.
« Johns Hopkins' 16 titles are the most in league history and all 16 have come since 2002.  The Blue Jays grabbed their ninth outright title this season (2005, 2009, 2011-16, 2023).

Playoff Bound
« Johns Hopkins is making its 12th trip to the NCAAs, including its 10th since 2011.
« The Blue Jays are 10-11 all-time in the NCAA Tournament with a run to the 2018 NCAA Semifinals and a trip to the 2009 NCAA Quarterfinals highlighting their playoff history.
« In addition to the above, the Blue Jays also advanced to the second round of the playoffs in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2021.
« This week's game will be the 11th home playoff game in Hopkins history.  JHU is 6-4 all-time at Homewood Field in NCAA Playoff games.
« JHU has hosted a first round NCAA Playoff game seven times and is 5-2 in those seven games.

13 Straight
«  Last week's 58-7 win over McDaniel was Johns Hopkins' 13th consecutive win dating back to last season.
« The 13-game winning streak is the second longest in school history, surpassed only by a 15-game run that began in the middle of the 2010 season and ran through the end of the 2011 regular season.
« This is the ninth time JHU has had a winning streak of 10+ games - every Johns Hopkins winning streak of 10+ games has taken place since the start of the 2002 season.
« JHU's current 13-game winning streak is tied for the seventh-longest in the nation in all divisions of college football (NCAA only). 

A Perfect 10
«  The Blue Jays completed the sixth perfect regular season in school history with last week's 58-7 win over McDaniel.
« JHU went 10-0 for the first time in program history in 2011 and followed that with four consecutive 10-0 seasons from 2013-16 before turning the trick this season.

At Home at Homewood
«  Johns Hopkins has extended its school-record home winning streak to 17 games (dating back to 2019) with wins this season at Homewood Field against Ithaca, Christopher Newport, Gettysburg, Ursinus and McDaniel.
« The 17-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 64-7 (.901) at Homewood Field.

A Tough Schedule
«  The aggregate record of Johns Hopkins' 10 regular season opponents (not including games against JHU) was 57-33 (.633).  That ranked as the sixth most difficult schedule in the nation by opponent winning percentage.

On a Roll
«  Johns Hopkins is 116-8 in its last 124 regular season games dating back to late in the 2010 season.
«  The Blue Jays are 127-17 in their last 144 games overall since late in the 2010 season.
«  Since the start of the 2010 season, the Blue Jays are 130-20 (.867) overall and 104-10 (.912) in the Centennial Conference.
«  Dating back farther, Johns Hopkins is 193-45 (.811) since the start of the 2002 season, 199-48 (.806) since the start of the 2001 season and 204-53 (.794) 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 10 games, he is 178-of-260 (.685) for 2,401 yards with 29 touchdowns against seven interceptions.  He has also rushed for a team-high 505 yards and six touchdowns thus far.
« With 2,401 yards passing and 504 yards rushing, Harvey is believed to be the first player in school history to top 2,000 passing yards and 500 rushing yards in one season.]
« Entering this week's game against WestConn, Harvey has thrown at least two touchdown passes in eight of 10 games this season and three or more in six of 10 games.
« Harvey grabbed CC Offensive Player of the Week honors after throwing for 245 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 93 yards and another score in the 34-28 win at Muhlenberg.

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