Warning: This page contains spoilers for the February 21, 2025, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please note that the game airs as early as noon Eastern in some U.S. television markets.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Composers) for Friday, February 21, 2025 (Season 41, Game 120):
Yale takes credit for starting a commencement tradition when it gave this composer an honorary doctorate in 1905
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
John Focht, a baseball software team lead originally from El Paso, Texas
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Roger Craig, an applied scientist from Arlington, Virginia
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Maya Wright, a graduate student from Atlanta, Georgia
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Today is an intriguing game for me, especially on the heels of yesterday’s upset, where Raymond Goslow defeated Troy Meyer and Jackie Kelly. Today’s game features Maya Wright, Roger Craig, and John Focht. The first part of the intrigue is watching two of the major analytics players of their respective generations—Roger of the 2010s and John of the 2020s—face off. Roger was the first major player to take what had been learned from J! Archive and apply it to gameplay, and he was successful enough that he held the one-day record for most of the 2010s. Meanwhile, John began J!ometry to analyze some of the stats that the show began putting out in its boxscores in 2022. And, after watching what Raymond did yesterday, there’s no way we can count out Maya, who put in strong performances in both the 2018 Teen Tournament and 2023 High School Reunion Tournament.
One thing that will likely also become a story surrounding this game: John wrote on his substack about his cancer diagnosis and how that’s affected him from a Jeopardy! perspective. From a predictive standpoint, because the Unified Prediction Model is based upon past gameplay, I did wonder how much things would be affected. And, reading John’s words, I got the sense that if he felt ready to play, the UPM’s data would be accurate enough to go on.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: Who is Edward Elgar?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2025 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
How did the song commonly known as Pomp and Circumstance become the processional song played at graduation ceremonies throughout the United States and Canada? Because Samuel Sanford, Professor of Music at Yale, was friends with Edward Elgar—and Elgar was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1905. In Elgar’s honor, much of Elgar’s music was played at the ceremony, including the “Land of Hope and Glory” section of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D as the processional; that part of the song had previously also served as the Coronation Ode for Edward VII and has since become a very patriotic English song.
These are my favorite sorts of Final Jeopardy clues—I did not know this fact before today, but I was able to draw upon things I did know, figure out the clue, and I learned a fun fact about why something happened in the process! Thank you, Jeopardy! writers!
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Here are our current featured items, including our new Masters Season 3 Player List T-shirt:
Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, February 21, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Sayeth The Bible Book; A.P. History; Hobbies & Pastimes; Are You Into Astrology?; It’s Country Music, Y’all; Idioms)
While Roger struggled early with 3 incorrect responses, John picked up 7 correct to take an early lead; at the interviews, the scores were John $5,400 Maya $600 Roger $400.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
John 7 correct 0 incorrect
Maya 2 correct 1 incorrect
Roger 4 correct 3 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
John wears gloves all time because of neural damage of a recent cancer diagnosis.
Roger is now married to Julia Collins.
Maya is now ESOL-certified.
Though John picked up another 4 correct to continue to lead, Roger found the Daily Double—but could only bet $1,000 on it. John had a big lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
John 11 correct 0 incorrect
Roger 10 correct 3 incorrect
Maya 6 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
John $7,800
Roger $2,600
Maya $2,200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Prologues; Moving Words; Flowers; Old Stuff; Their Oscar-Winning Role; “G”eography)
Roger showed why he held the one-day record for most of the 2010s in this round, picking up $21,000 on the Daily Doubles as he cruised to a runaway.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Roger 26 correct 5 incorrect
John 18 correct 2 incorrect
Maya 7 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 26 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Roger $36,000
John $13,800
Maya $1,400
Everyone got Final Jeopardy as Roger advances to the semifinals!
Tonight’s results:
Maya $1,400 + $47 = $1,447 (Who is Elgar? Hi Mom + Matt)
John $13,800 + $915 = $14,715 (Who is Elgar?)
Roger $36,000 + $0 = $36,000 (Who is Elgar?) (Semi-Finalist)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) ARE YOU INTO ASTROLOGY? $400 (clue #23)
Roger 800 +1000 (Maya 1400 John 7800)
2) MOVING WORDS $1600 (clue #13)
Roger 9000 +9000 (Maya 2200 John 14200)
3) PROLOGUES $1600 (clue #17, $12000 left on board)
Roger 18000 +12000 (Maya 1000 John 13000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 267
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Maya 3 5 5 3 5
Roger 5 4 5 5 4 2*
John 4 3 4 3 4 2 3 3 4 2 2 2
DJ! Round:
Maya 3
Roger 5 4 3 5 2 5 4* 3 4 3 4*
John 4 2 3 4 2
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Roger 3.94
John 3.00
Maya 4.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 26 (0.22 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Roger $17,600 Coryat, 26 correct, 5 incorrect, 43.86% in first on buzzer (25/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
John $13,800 Coryat, 18 correct, 2 incorrect, 31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Maya $1,400 Coryat, 7 correct, 2 incorrect, 12.28% in first on buzzer (7/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $32,800
Lach Trash: $12,000 (on 10 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $9,200
Lead Changes: 3
Times Tied: 0
Player Statistics:
Maya Wright, career statistics:
158 correct, 18 incorrect
13/15 on rebound attempts (on 38 rebound opportunities)
28.68% in first on buzzer (146/509)
6/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,800)
6/9 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,356
Roger Craig, career statistics:
463 correct, 82 incorrect
20/25 on rebound attempts (on 54 rebound opportunities)
45.91% in first on buzzer (472/1028)
28/31 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $139,000)
9/17 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,910
John Focht, career statistics:
175 correct, 16 incorrect
8/11 on rebound attempts (on 26 rebound opportunities)
35.53% in first on buzzer (162/456)
9/10 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $31,300)
5/8 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,650
Andy’s Thoughts:
- My general takeaways from this game: 1) Roger still has it, even though there was a bit of a rocky start; 2) Had John not announced that he had cancer, I would not have been able to tell from his gameplay—he is still an incredibly strong player; 3) Maya got an absolute nightmare of a draw here against a pair of very strong players.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Updated JIT odds:
Matt +440
Jaskaran +660
Emily +1100
Raymond +720
Roger +510
Avi +10000
Amy +1400
Luigi +2000
Ray +4200
Robin +2600
Ryan +8400
Ben +1400
Claire +15000
Shane +2700
Seth +5400
Jackson +7900
Juveria +2100
Finals length odds:
2 games: +170
3 games: +110
4 games: +340
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I would have been that guy who wrote, “who wrote pomp and circumstance”.
Not knowing who wrote that music, I guessed Sousa.
I didn’t even get that far. After yesterday’s surprising “get,” today’s Final Jeopardy clue answer didn’t seem to give me anything to work with. Maybeif I had put more thought into it,I mighthavegotten as far as Mark0. But I didn’t.
Andy, especially when it’s a runaway, I’m curious as to the meaning of the players wagers, like Maya’s $47 in today’s game. Could give them?
The FJ was an easy one today. I had the question out before Ken finished the answer.
I could say that about Thursday’s FJ, not this one.
As today’s triple get showed, today’s FJ! was a fairly easy one if you happen to know the facts surrounding how “Pomp and Circumstance” came to be popular at graduations. If you know, you know (IYKYK). By the same token, if you don’t happen to know, you could be led far astray by the clue. If you don’t know, you don’t know (IYDKYDK).
I was part of the IYDKYDK
I think I first learned about the connection between “Pomp and Circumstance”, Elgar, and graduations my tenth grade year, when my younger brother had to learn it for the high school band before that year’s graduation. Then I was on the academic team the next two years, where questions about the piece would appear at least once a month at meets. Throw in the times it came up in a couple of years of competing in campus College Bowl qualifiers after that, and I have to say that, for my part, it was an IYKYK clue because it seems to be a popular subject within that section of the quizzing landscape, at least.
🙂
The 2 men today looked like they could be twins.
First off, I want to wish John Focht well in his battle against cancer. I’m glad that he was able to play.
And wow, I got to see why Roger Craig was such a feared player. Amazing finish for him in that game. Looking forward to seeing his draw in the Smeifinals.
Didn’t get FJ.
Have a great rest of the weekend and looking forward to Monday’s game. 3 players I have seen play and I think we’ll get a pretty evan match.
wow roger still has the clue hopping technique down!
It was most impressive! First time I had seen him play.