 Hello, welcome to the Ed Hodl show. I'm Greg Royce, joined here with Stevenson Head Football Coach Ed Hodl. And Coach, last week you had your home opener against Kings, a pretty convincing 38 to 9 win. Just talk a little bit about getting up to a quick start and getting the win in the home opener. It's exciting to go out and put nine days of work to the test a little bit. And to have the early success, I think, is important for our football team, because coming out of the week prior, I don't know how much game confidence we had. We feel like we've got some talented players. We feel like there's some things we can do. And to get that quick shot of adrenaline, that quick shot of momentum early in the game, I think, was key to how we played the rest of the day. Yeah, talk about a little bit. First play of the game, special teams comes up with a strip and recovers the fumble, and then one play. Dan Williams signs Preston in the end zone for a 7-0 lead. Talk about what it meant. You touched a little on it, just to be able to convert that big play early, which you weren't able to do in the opener. Yeah, Coach Nelson does a great job with that kickoff unit. We think they're the most athletic group of players we put on the field at any given time. And it's something that he's been harping on for a couple of seasons now. We need to generate turnovers in special teams, and particularly in that kickoff unit. So to go out in the second game and force that turnover on the opening kickoff was awesome. And then to put the offense in a position where it's a sudden change situation, literally coming out of the locker room and going to a sudden change and being able to get everybody on the field lined up in a pretty quick fashion showed, I think, great discipline on the offensive side of the ball. And it showed, I think, to us as coaches, we kind of looked at it as, OK, they're focused. You never know what you're going to get coming out of the locker room. And obviously, the week before, not having really any success to kind of hang our hat on much past the first play, it was nice to see us come out in the second play and be able to get lined up and be able to execute a play at a very high level. Yeah, and talk about the offense, just in general, Dan threw for four touchdowns. But you got to touch on the defensive side of the ball as well. After not having an interception the season opener, you got two, including a pick six by Zach May. Yeah, again, it's taking the ball away and protecting the football, something that we talk about all the time. It's in my last reminders before we take the field. It's something that we talk about on a regular basis. So for us, that is an emphasis. And Danny's just continuing to get better. His dedication to what he's doing and getting better at his craft and understanding what Coach Larson wants to get done on the offensive side of the ball is his knowledge base is growing and growing. And I think we still have a lot of good football from then. I think he's just going to continue to get better and better. And that's an exciting thing to be able to watch and be a part of. Another thing I noticed is the play on both lines, on both the offense and defensive line, gave up five stacks in the season over just one on Saturday. And you were able to get some pressure on their quarterback and come up with four sacks, something that you haven't been able to do a whole lot in the last couple of years. So what does it mean to get that pressure on their quarterback and also protect Dan? Well, that was by design. We wanted to pressure them early and often throughout the day. And the emphasis all week was keep them in the pocket and pressure them inside out. And our guys were able to do that. And on the offensive line side of things, I think it's very much a work in progress. We've had some injury concerns. As many people do with that particular group. And we've shuffled some guys around. And I think they've started to find their stride a little bit. I think looking at it and being able to run the ball and get over 100 yards rushing was also a big key. And that group, again, is similar to Dan, I think, where they're going to continue to get better and better. And that's the expectation. And they embrace that role. And I think they're just going to continue to grow throughout the year. Anything, obviously, is a great way. But anything you can take away that you need to improve on from that game? Oh, there was plenty. There were still some mental mistakes. There were still some situations that we feel like we can handle better. But again, it's the inward focus on what we can do to improve our football team, obviously. We spend a great deal of time game planning and getting ready for our opponent. But we spend a significant amount of time evaluating what we do and how can we be the best football team on Saturday that we can possibly be. Yeah. Now, shifting gears, this Saturday you go on the road for the first time in conference play. You head up to FDFloram. Just talk a little bit about going on the road and how the mindset's maybe a little bit different than playing in front of your home crowd, and especially now that it's conference play. Well, when you go on the road, nothing changes. The expectations don't change. I compare road trips with a football team to family vacations. The work still has to get done. It just has to get done at somebody else's house. So from our perspective, nothing really changes. It's a smaller group. It's normally a veteran group. So the focus is probably a little bit more finite when we're on the road. I think our guys have come to understand that there really isn't a difference for us. The difference for us is, obviously, we have a ferocious crowd here at Mustang Stadium, and we can hear the noise. But in reality, they have to block that noise out and be locked in and do their job for 60 minutes. So for us going on the road, the expectations don't change a whole lot. And going into that game, what are you looking for? Their team in the past has thrown up some points, are capable of throwing up points, so what is the defense? And overall, what do you need to do? Well, I think we've got to make sure that we're efficient on first downs, offensively we've got to manage our third downs and be efficient on third down. Defensively what we have to do, I mean, they've got a very dynamic receiver that's drawing some national attention and has drawn national attention in the past. He's a difference maker. So we're going to scheme to work with him, but I think they present some unique challenges with the offense that they run. And we're going to have to be mentally and physically prepared to play 60 minutes. It's easy to look at this team historically and say, well, they haven't had a whole lot of success. But what I can tell you from the time we've started playing them to now, there's a significant improvement. This is a football team that's getting better and better every week, every step that they take. And going to their place, there's always a little bit of added energy on their side. So we've got to match that energy and really be focused and execute our jobs to have success Saturday. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. I mean, if you look at the score, especially from the game here last year, is that the final score is a little deceiving? Because at halftime, it was like, I think, a one-score game where they were right in it. So the final score was a little deceiving. Yeah, last year, I think we come out of the first quarter, first quarter and a half, and we're down 15-14. They'd gone down the field twice on us and scored, converted on a two-point play to take a 15-14 lead at one point. And we've got to be able to match that intensity. There isn't, in the Mac, and I say this all the time, in the Mac, there's no weeks off. This is, in my opinion, is one of the strongest football conferences in the country. And as was evident here last year on Senior Day, you can't look at an opponent's record in this league and say, well, this is going to be easy. You have to bring it every Saturday in the Mac. Absolutely. Well, thanks a lot, Coach. Good luck on Saturday. For Coach Ed Hoddle, I'm Greg Royce. This has been the Ed Hoddle Show.