The Game
« Johns Hopkins (1-0) hits the road for the second consecutive week to open the 2024 season as the seventh-ranked Blue Jays head to Newport News, Virginia to take on Christopher Newport (1-0). Kickoff a TowneBank Stadium is set for 5 pm.
A Look Back
« Johns Hopkins opened the 2024 season last Saturday at #19/#20 Ithaca and posted a 27-23 come-from behind win in the head coaching debut of Dan Wodicka.
« Christopher Newport also got the 2024 season off to a good start as the Captains went on the road as well and posted a dominating 42-6 win at Trine.
The Facts
« This is the 139th 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 597-490-57 (.547).
« Overall, JHU owns 16 Centennial Conference titles (all won since 2002) and has qualified for the NCAA Playoffs 12 times (all since 2005).
Poll Position
« Johns Hopkins checks in at #7 in this week's AFCA and D3football.com Polls.
« Since the AFCA debuted its poll in 1999, this week's #7 rankings marks the 132nd time in 247 polls that the Blue Jays have appeared in the top 25 and the 60th time the Jays have cracked the top 10.
« JHU has been ranked in the top 10 by the AFCA in each poll since the start of the 2023 season (12 straight).
« Johns Hopkins is one of just four teams to be ranked in the top 10 in every AFCA Poll since the start of the 2023 season (Johns Hopkins, North Central, Mount Union, Wartburg)
« Johns Hopkins drew a trio of preseason rankings as the Blue Jays checked in at #7 in Lindy's Preseason Poll and #8 in both the AFCA and D3football.com Preseason Polls.
« Christopher Newport is listed as receiving votes in this week's AFCA Poll. The Captains are not listed in the D3football.com Poll this week.
« The Blue Jays are in the D3football.com Top-25 for the 151st time in 261 polls since D3football launched its poll in 2003. This week's #7 ranking is JHU's 47th D3football.com top 10 ranking.
Comeback Jays
« Johns Hopkins erased a 17-0 second-quarter deficit to grab the 27-23 come-from-behind win at Ithaca in the season opener last week.
« The 17-point deficit is the largest Johns Hopkins has overcome to win a game since November 6, 1999, when the Jays posted a 35-33 win against F&M after trailing 27-10.
« Since 1971, last week's come-from-behind win is believed to be the sixth time the Blue Jays have come from 17 points down (or more) to win.
« The largest come-from-behind win on record for the Jays came in 1983, when Hopkins spotted Lebanon Valley a 24-0 second-quarter lead before rallying for a 35-31 victory.
Program Ties
« Two Blue Jay assistants have close ties to the CNU program as defensive coordinator BJ Hill and defensive line coach Mario (Rio) Byrd both played for the Captains.
« Hill graduated in 2018 after totaling 163 tackles, 16 PBUs and five interceptions - he was a two-time Honorable Mention All-NJAC selection during his career.
« Byrd graduated in 2020 and got his coaching career started there as well. He played in 23 games from 2017-19 and recorded 35 tackles, including 2.5 for losses, one pass breakup, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery during his career.
Wodicka's Debut
« Last week's game at Ithaca marked the head coaching debut for Johns Hopkins' Dan Wodicka.
« With the win, Wodicka became just the second Johns Hopkins head coach in the last 104 years to post a win in his debut. After Ray Van Orman picked up a 34-14 win over Mount St. Mary's in 1920, the next JHU head coach to win his first game was Greg Chimera in 2019 (17-12 at Randolph-Macon).
« A 2014 Johns Hopkins graduate, Wodicka spent the last five years (2019-23) on the Blue Jay staff including the last two years as the defensive coordinator.
« Wodicka launched his coaching career with a two-year stint as the Johns Hopkins wide receivers coach (2014-15) and made stops at Northern Michigan (2016) and Williams (2017-18) before returning to Homewood in 2019 as the special teams coordinator and defensive line coach.
« During his now 11 seasons with the program (four as a player, six as an assistant coach and this year as the head coach), Wodicka has helped Johns Hopkins to a record of 101-16 (.863), eight Centennial Conference titles and seven trips to the NCAA Playoffs.
« Wodicka graduated as Johns Hopkins' career leader in receptions with 260, which went for 3,148 yards and 16 touchdowns. He remains second in school history in receptions and is also second in receiving yards.
« Wodicka took over for Greg Chimera, who left Johns Hopkins after the 2023 season to become the offensive coordinator at Penn.
« Wodicka's ties to Johns Hopkins go beyond the football field. His father, George, is a 1982 Johns Hopkins graduate and was a classmate of Jim Margraff's. In addition, Dan's sister, Maggie, played on the Blue Jay women's basketball team and graduate in 2020.
Sweet Virginia
« Johns Hopkins has won four consecutive games and eight of its last nine games in the state of Virginia.
« Included in those nine games are five wins at Randolph-Macon (2006, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2019), two wins at Hampden-Sydney (2007, 2009) and one win at Washington & Lee (2017). The win at Hampden-Sydney in 2009 came in the first round of the NCAA Playoffs (23-7) and helped propel JHU to the NCAA Quarterfinals that year. The win at HSC in 2009 was JHU's first-ever NCAA win.
« The only loss for the Jays in Virginia since 2006 came in the 2010 season opener, when Randolph-Macon grabbed a 41-37 win over JHU. Ironically, that 2010 game was the first game of Dan Wodicka's playing career at JHU and he had two receptions for 37 yards and two carries for seven yards.
For Openers
« Including last week's win at Ithaca, Johns Hopkins has won its last 13 season openers dating back to 2011.
« During the 13-game winning streak in season openers, the Blue Jays have outscored the opposition 531-234 and only four of the 13 games have been decided by 15 points or less.
Sweet September
« Dating back to 2010, Johns Hopkins is 50-4 in the month of September.
« Also dating back to 2010, the Blue Jays are 23-1 at home and 27-3 on the road in September.
Against the NJAC
« This week's game will be just the ninth all-time for Johns Hopkins against a current member of the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC). The Jays are 6-2 all-time against current NJAC members.
« Three of the eight previous games against NJAC teams came last season in the first of a two-year scheduling agreement between the Centennial Conference and NJAC. JHU topped CNU (20-14), Salisbury (42-7) and Rowan (55-20) in its three games against NJAC teams in 2023.
« JHU's two all-time losses against NJAC teams came against Salisbury in 1975 and 1976 - those games were played before the Sea Gulls joined the NJAC for football.
Road Warriors
« Johns Hopkins went a perfect 5-0 on the road in 2023 and will carry a seven-game road winning streak into Saturday's game at Christopher Newport.
« In their last 21 road games dating back to 2019, the Blue Jays are 18-3. All three losses came against teams ranked in the top 20 at the time of the game (#6 Muhlenberg-2019 | #4 Mount Union-2021 | #18 Susquehanna-2022).
« Dating back to 2013, JHU is 50-9 overall on the road (46-5 in the regular season).
On a Roll
« Johns Hopkins is 117-8 (.936) in its last 125 regular season games dating back to late in the 2010 season.
« The Blue Jays are 130-18 (.878) in their last 148 games overall since late in the 2010 season.
« Since the start of the 2010 season, the Blue Jays are 133-21 (.864) overall and 104-10 (.912) in the Centennial Conference.
« Dating back farther, Johns Hopkins is 196-46 (.810) since the start of the 2002 season, 202-49 (.805) since the start of the 2001 season and 207-54 (.793) since the start of the 2000 season.
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