The Game
« Third-ranked Johns Hopkins (9-0, 6-0 CC) closes out the 2025 regular season as the Blue Jays head north to take on #25/#25 Franklin & Marshall (8-1, 6-0 CC).
A Look Back
« Johns Hopkins moved to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the Centennial Conference with a 42-0 win last Saturday at Homewood Field against McDaniel.
« Franklin & Marshall bumped its record to 8-1 overall and 6-0 in the Centennial with a 31-24 victory Carnegie Mellon.
The Facts
« This is the 140th 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 617-492-57 (.554).
« Overall, JHU owns 17 Centennial Conference titles (all 17 won since 2002) and has qualified for the NCAA Playoffs 13 times (all 13 since 2005).
Poll Position
« Johns Hopkins is ranked #3 by the AFCA and D3football.com in this week's national polls. The Blue Jays have held the number three spot in the AFCA and D3football.com rankings in each of the 11 polls issued thus far in 2025.
« The number three rankings from the AFCA and D3football.com are tied for the highest ever for Johns Hopkins. Dating back to last season's final poll, the Blue Jays have been ranked third by each organization in each of the last 12 sets of national rankings.
« Johns Hopkins is appearing in the AFCA Top-25 for the 153rd time in 268 polls since the poll debuted in 1999. Additionally, the Blue Jays are in the D3football.com Top-25 for the 172nd time in 282 polls since D3football launched its poll in 2003.
« Franklin & Marshall enters this week's game ranked #25 by both the AFCA and D3football.com. This is the first time the Diplomats have been ranked in the top 25 in the nation since the 2018 D3football.com Preseason Poll.
Blue Jays First NPI Rankings
« In the seesaw that is the NPI rankings, Johns Hopkins ranks first in this week's NPI rankings, the index used by the NCAA for selection to the NCAA Playoffs.
« With an NPI rating of 80.531, the Blue Jays sit just ahead of Mount Union (79.442) and Wartburg (78.470). A team's NPI rating is affected by not just its results, but the results of its opponents. With that, there are a number of games that affect a team's rating.
« The 40-team field for the 2025 NCAA Playoffs will be announced on Sunday, November 16 with first-round games slated for Saturday, November 22.
« Johns Hopkins topped the NPI rankings for games played through October 18 and slid back to number three after the games of October 25 before jumping back to the top in each of the last two rankings for games through November 1st and November 8th.
9-0, Again
« Johns Hopkins is 9-0 for the second time in three seasons (2023, 2025) and the seventh time in program history.
« Johns Hopkins first started a season with nine straight wins in 2011 and has since turned the trick in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2023 and 2025..
JHU vs. Ranked Opponents All-Time
« This week's game against #25/#25 Franklin & Marshall is Johns Hopkins' 43rd against a team ranked in the top 25 by either the AFCA or D3football.com since 1999 (when the AFCA Poll debuted ... the D3football.com Poll debuted in 2003).
« Johns Hopkins is 22-20 all-time against teams ranked in the top 25 at the time of the game, including 11-6 in its last 17 games against ranked opponents.
More Ranked
« This week's game against #25/#25 Franklin & Marshall marks the fifth time in 10 games this season that Johns Hopkins will face a team ranked in the top 25 at the time of the game.
« Using rankings at the time of the game, the Blue Jays own wins this season against #21/#20 John Carroll (27-13), #5/#4 Susquehanna (40-22), #15/#17 Carnegie Mellon (28-27) and #25/#24 Muhlenberg (47-26).
Sixth-Toughest Schedule To-Date
« Not including their games against Johns Hopkins, the Blue Jays' nine regular-season opponents are currently a combined 53-28 (.654) on the year. That ranks as the sixth-highest opponent winning percentage in the nation through games of November 8.
November Reign
« Entering this week's game against Franklin & Marshall, Johns Hopkins is 51-5 in regular season games played in the month of November this century, including 32-2 since 2010.
« JHU has not lost a regular season home game in the month of November since 2007. The Blue Jays have won 20 consecutive regular season home games in November since a 19-11 loss to F&M in 2007.
« In this century, Johns Hopkins is 26-2 in regular season home games in the month of November.
« The Blue Jays are also 18-2 in their last 20 regular season road games in the month of November dating back to 2007.
A Centennial Snapshot
« The race for the Centennial Conference title, possession of the coveted boot and the CC's automatic bid to the upcoming NCAA Playoffs has come down to two teams - Johns Hopkins and Franklin & Marshall. In short, the winner of this week's game grabs the boot and the automatic bid to the playoffs.
« In a fortuitous switch, this is the first time the teams will end the regular season against each other since the Centennial Conference was formed in 1983
A Centennial First
« The Centennial Conference was formed as a football-only league in 1983 with Johns Hopkins and Franklin & Marshall among the eight charter members of the league at that time.
« A scant 42 seasons later, and this week's game between the Blue Jays and Diplomats will mark the first time in league history that two teams will enter the final game of the regular season unbeaten in league play and meet in the final game.
A Fraternity of One
« Geoff Schroeder's 232-yard rushing performance at Muhlenberg came two weeks after Cole Crotty's 228-yard receiving effort in a 52-21 win against Ursinus.
« With those two performances, Johns Hopkins is currently the only NCAA football-playing program that has produced a player with a 225-yard rushing game and a 225-yard receiving game this season. There are two other schools (NC Wesleyan (DIII) and Sacramento St. (FCS)) that have had a 200-yard rusher and a 200-yard receiver this season, but among the 658 schools that play football under the NCAA banner at all four levels, only Johns Hopkins has a 225-yard rusher and a 225-yard receiver this season.
A Game of Runs
« Johns Hopkins has used some decisive runs during its 9-0 start to the 2025 season. Below is a look at the game-deciding runs the Blue Jays have had:
| Ithaca (W/42-12) |
Scored first 35 points of the game |
| John Carroll (W/27-13) |
21-0 run that bridged the 1st and 2nd quarters |
| Susquehanna (W/40-22) |
Outscored SU 30-0 in the 2nd & 3rd quarters |
| Dickinson (W/55-10) |
Led 42-0 at the half |
| Carnegie Mellon (W/28-27) |
Outscored CMU 21-3 in the second half |
| Ursinus (W/52-21) |
Sprinted to a 31-0 lead in first 26 minutes |
| Gettysburg (W/59-21) |
JHU led 31-0 at the half |
| Muhlenberg (W/47-26) |
Sprinted to a 20-0 lead in the first quarter |
| McDaniel (W/42-0) |
Jays led 21-0 just 19 minutes into the game |
Head Coach Dan Wodicka
« Dan Wodicka is now in his second season as the head coach at Johns Hopkins. He led the Blue Jays to a 12-2 record, the Centennial Conference title and a run to the NCAA Semifinals in his first season in 2024.
« A 2014 Johns Hopkins graduate, Wodicka spent the previous five years (2019-23) on the Blue Jay staff, including the final two of those 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 12 seasons with the program (four as a player, six as an assistant coach and two as the head coach), Wodicka has helped Johns Hopkins to a record of 121-18 (.871), nine Centennial Conference titles and eight 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. In addition, Dan's sister, Maggie, played on the Blue Jay women's basketball team and graduated in 2020.
A Hopkins Man Shall Lead Them
« For the 46th consecutive year, a Johns Hopkins graduate will lead the Blue Jay football program.
« Jerry Pfeifer, a 1965 JHU graduate, guided the Blue Jays from 1980-89 before turning the program over to Jim Margraff '82, who would become Hopkins' career leader in victories (221) over a 29-year career from 1990-2018.
« When Margraff passed away suddenly after the Blue Jays' run to the 2018 NCAA Semifinals, Greg Chimera '09 was appointed the head coach and served from 2019-2023 before Dan Wodicka took over on February 1, 2024.
Road Warriors
« In their last 35 road games dating back to the start of the 2019 season, the Blue Jays are 30-5. All five losses have come against teams ranked in the top 20 at the time of the game (#6 Muhlenberg-2019 | #22 Muhlenberg-2021 | #4 Mount Union-2021 | #18 Susquehanna-2022 | #3 Mount Union-2024).
« Dating back to the start of the 2013 season, JHU is 58-10 on the road.
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