Friday Tailgate 9.29

Now the preliminaries are out of the way ... it's time for Conference play to begin ... the 24th season of Centennial Conference football begins Saturday with games in Allentown, Baltimore and Collegeville ... it's a showdown between the coaches' favorite and the fans' favorite at Homewood Field, as Dickinson visits Johns Hopkins ... the Blue Jays were the choice of the coaches and SIDs in the annual preseason poll to capture their fifth straight CC title ... the Red Devils were the pick of the fans who participated in an online poll at www.centennial.org ... Hopkins has won 14 of its last 15 Conference openers ... yards will be tough to come by on the ground, as Dickinson is allowing just 49.0 rushing yards per game (17th nationally) and JHU is surrendering only 86.7 ... Blue Jay RB Phil Roberts is ranked 15th in the country in rushing offense (123.0) ... it is the 90th meeting between Franklin & Marshall and Muhlenberg and the 49th time that the long-time rivals have meet in Allentown ... the previous 48 meetings were split 24-24 ... two of the top three QBs in total offense will be on display in F&M's Kyle Turner (Haddonfield, NJ / Haddonfield) and 'Berg's Eric Santagato (Ringwood, NJ / Lakeland Regional) ... the Diplomats and the Mules are the only two teams in the Conference that have not surrendered points on the first drive of the game in 2006 ... Muhlenberg is 16th nationally in total defense (185.3) ... quick - when was the last time that Ursinus was 4-0? ... if you said 1996, you obviously follow UC and CC football ... if you knew that the Bears knocked off McDaniel (then Western Maryland) to get to 4-0, we may have a position for you in the Conference office ... the Green Terror has won nine straight in the series and four in a row at Patterson Field ... Ursinus is ranked fifth in Division III in scoring defense (5.0) ... two of the teams ahead of the Bears are NESCAC teams that recorded shutouts in their only game of the season ... read more on our GameDay page.

Top Performances in CC Lidlifters 1983-2005
Johns Hopkins' Adam Gentile rushed for 219 yards in 1999 against Swarthmore ... that effort was surpassed the next season by teammate Scott Martorana, who ran for 226 vs. the Garnet ... Dickinson's Tommy Chung ran wild vs. Muhlenberg in 1997, carrying 30 times for 248 yards ... in 1999, Muhlenberg QB Michael McCabe threw for 471 yards and four TDs vs. Dickinson ... the following year, he tossed five scoring passes in a 375-yard effort vs. the Red Devils ... in 1990, McDaniel's Mike Hamm threw for 359 yards and three scores vs. Gettysburg ... Terror WR Andy Steckel had 12 receptions for 292 yards in that contest ... in 1991, Ursinus' Bill Sedgwick returned a kickoff 95 yards for a score vs. Franklin & Marshall ... two of the Conference's five all-time 50-yard field goals occurred in the Conference openers ... Hopkins' Todd Bencivenni booted a 51-yarder vs. Swarthmore in 1997, while Dickinson's Joel Heintzelman converted a 50-yarder vs. Muhlenberg in 1999.

Strange Stat of the Day: the five most time-consuming drives of the season have ended with just one score ... F&M's 8:40 drive at Carnegie Mellon was capped with a touchdown ... the four other drives, ranging from 6:51 to 7:35, have twice ended in picks, once with a missed field goal and once on downs.