BALTIMORE — Expectations are through the roof this year for Johns Hopkins University football. The Blue Jays return several starters on both sides of the ball from a team that had one of the best seasons in school history.
This year they’ll look pretty much the same, with one major difference: the head coach.
Dan Wodicka takes over.
"We feel like it’s a great opportunity," he said. "We don’t look at it as having pressure on us or anything like that."
Wodicka, 32, enters his first year leading the Jays. The 2014 alum spent the last six seasons as an assistant at Hopkins, the last two as defensive coordinator.
He replaces Greg Chimera who left for the offensive coordinator job at University of Pennsylvania.
"I definitely feel honored and fortunate to be in this situation of having such familiarity," said Wodicka. "I know a lot of first-time head coaches don’t have that."
They usually don’t take over a team that a season prior won a conference title, advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals for only the third time in program history and won a program record-tying 12 games.
"[I'm] just doing my best to keep this train on the tracks, keep it going and keep raising the program to new heights," said Wodicka.
Hopkins is ranked as high as seventh in the country in the Division III preseason polls. They return nine starters on defense. The bring back eight starters on offense, including senior quarterback Bay Harvey. In 2023, his first as QB1, Harvey passed for 3,297 yards and 36 touchdowns, while leading the team with ten rushing TD’s. He set single-season program records for touchdown passes and total touchdowns and became the first player in Hopkins history to throw for more than 3,000 yards and rush for more than 500 yards in a season.
"My confidence level is very high. Obviously you never want to get cocky. You never want to underestimate opponents," he said. "It’s higher than it was last year just because we have so many known factors going into this season."
"He is a playmaker," said Wodicka. "No matter what is happening, no matter what the coverage is, no matter what pressure they are bringing he is going to put us in the best situation to make a play."
And put Wodicka in the best situation to keep winning.
Hopkins opens the season on Saturday, September 7 at Ithaca.
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