Sept. 1, 2011

Johns Hopkins-USMMA Football Notes 

The Game: Johns Hopkins makes the 200-mile trip to Kings Point, New York, where the Blue Jays will open the 2011 season against the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA). This will be the fifth all-time metting between the two teams.

The Teams: Johns Hopkins posted an 8-3 record in 2010 and grabbed a share of the Centennial Conference title. The Blue Jays also won the ECAC South Atlantic title with a 44-14 win over Lebanon Valley. The Merchant Marine Academy posted a 4-6 record, including a 3-3 mark in the Liberty League. The Mariners won three of their last five games after a 1-4 start to the 2010 season.

Series History: Johns Hopkins will play the Merchant Marine Academy for the fifth time with the Mariners having won three of the previous four meeting, which all took place between 1997 and 2000. JHU took the last meeting, 42-6, at Homewood Field on September 23, 2000.

For Openers: This week’s game at USMMA marks the third straight year and the seventh time in the last 10 years the Blue Jays have opened the season on the road.

More Openers: Johns Hopkins is 11-9-1 in season-openers under head coach Jim Margraff and the Blue Jays have currently won eight of their last 12 openers.

Centennial Conference Champions: Johns Hopkins earned a share of its sixth Centennial Conference title since 2002 as the Blue Jays posted a 7-2 league mark and shared the title with Muhlenberg and Ursinus last season.

ECAC South Atlantic Champions: The Blue Jays grabbed their fourth ECAC title since 2002 with the 44-14 victory over Lebanon Valley in the 2010 South Atlantic Bowl.

A Grand Victory: In addition to keeping themselves alive in the race for a share of the Centennial Conference title, JHU’s win at Franklin & Marshall on November 6, 2010 will also go down in the record books as a victory in the 1,000th game in school history. JHU closed the 2010 season with an all-time record of 471-473-58 (.499).

The Coaches: Johns Hopkins is coached by Jim Margraff, who is now in his 22nd year as the head coach at JHU and sports a 137-78-3 (.635) record. He is the all-time winningest coach in school history and also ranks second in CC history with 92 league victories to his credit.
The Merchant Marine Academy is coached by Mike Toop, who is entering his seventh season at the Academy in 2011. A 1977 USMMA graduate, Toop sports an 18-42 record at Kings Point and a 35-64 overall record in 10 seasons as a college head coach.

Streaking: Johns Hopkins closed the 2010 season with five straight wins and outscored those five opponents 199-57. The five-game winning streak is the longest to a close a season at JHU since 1981, when then senior quarterback Jim Margraff guided JHU to wins in each of its last six games to finish 7-2.

Wernick Earns Centennial Offensive Player of the Year Honors: Johns Hopkins produced its second straight Centennial Conference Offensive Player of the Year recipient when wide receiver Sam Wernick grabbed the prestigious award last season.
Wernick enjoyed one of the finest seasons in school history by a wide receiver as he led the team in receptions (69), receiving yards (1,265) and touchdown receptions (17). His marks for receiving yards and TD receptions are both JHU single-season records.

125 Times Five: Senior LB Ryan Piatek will enter the 2011 season needing just seven tackles to reach 200 for his career. He is JHU’s career active leader with 193 to his credit. Piatek is one of five members of the senior class with 125 or more career tackles to their credit. Below is a look at JHU’s five active players with more than 125 career tackles.

Ryan Piatek - 193
Tyler Brown - 164
Michael Milano - 143
Kale Sweeney - 132
Sam Eagleson - 131

Blue Jays Set Scoring Record: Johns Hopkins scored a school-record 394 points scored last season. The previous record of 388 points scored was set in 13 games during the 2009 season. In addition, JHU’s scoring average of 35.8 was just shy of the single-season school record of 36.4 set in 1967.

Defense Finishes Strong: The Johns Hopkins defense allowed 50 combined points in consecutive games against Ursinus and Susquehanna in the middle of October last season, but the Blue Jays were much stingier after that. Not surprisingly, the resurrgence of the JHU defense conicided with the Blue Jays’ five-game winning streak to close the season.
The Blue Jays allowed a total of just 33 points in their last four games and those three opponents averaged just 219.8 yards per game.
In addition, JHU held its last five opponents to 282 combined rushing yards (56.4 ypg.).

Tomlin Is JHU’s Winningest QB: Senior Hewitt Tomlin became JHU’s career leader in wins by a starting quarterback with the 44-10 win against Dickinson on October 8, 2010. Tomlin, who is now 25-8 in 33 career starts at Johns Hopkins, passed JHU Hall of Famer Mark Campbell for most career wins by a JHU starting QB. Campbell played from 1982-85 and was also an All-American pitcher for the Blue Jay baseball team.

Tomlin’s Owns Numerous School Records: Senior Hewitt Tomlin will enter his final season with virtually every Johns Hopkins career passing record to his credit. The 2010 First Team All-Centennial selection set single-season school records last season for touchdown passes (24), passing yards (3,309), passing yards per game (300.8), 300-yard passing games (7) and total offense (3,377).
With a full season remaining, Tomlin owns more than two dozen school records, including career marks for completions (626), passing yards (7,798), touchdown passes (50), 200-yard passing yard games (23), 300-yard passing games (9) and total offense (7,992).

Turnovers Tell the Story: The Blue Jays turned the ball over a total of 12 times in their three losses in 2010. On the flip side, they had just nine total turnovers in their eight wins.

Road Warriors: JHU is 18-6 since the start of the 2007 season on the road and 40-15 on the road since the start of the 2001 season.

It’s Been a While: Johns Hopkins had a 24-game streak where it forced at least one turnover snapped at F&M last season as the Blue Jays failed to post an interception or recover a fumble. Still, JHU has been on quite a roll in the turnover department. Consider ...

• JHU has forced at least one turnover in 26 of its last 27 games.
• JHU has forced two or more turnovers in 21 of the last 25 games.
• JHU has at least one interception in 23 of the last 26 games.

Streaking: Since the start of the 2002 season the Blue Jays sport a 71-28 (.717) record. Taking it back farther the Blue Jays are 77-31 (.713) since the start of the 2001 season and 82-36 (.695) since the beginning of the 2000 season. The 74 wins the Blue Jays amassed from 2000-09 are the most wins in a decade in school history. Johns Hopkins had never won more than seven games in a season prior to this decade. In the decade completed in 2009, the Blue Jays averaged more than seven wins per season (7.4).

Seven’s Heaven: Since the beginning of the 2003 season the Blue Jays are 62-19 (.765) when scoring more than seven points and 0-7 when they have been held to seven points or less.

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