 Welcome to the Ed Hodl show for week number 12 game number 11 and a very few teams in division 3 They get to say they play in week 12 and Stevenson is one of them as they make the max centennial ball ninth straight year that Stevenson has been in the Postseason and this year they'll take on a new opponent to take on the bears of Rossana's college I'm here with coach Ed Hodl and congratulations on the ball bid and you know You talked about making the postseason for nine straight years nice receivings. I'll say the COVID year There wasn't a postseason But what does it mean for the program to make a postseason appearance nine straight types? I think it's special You know, I think we you know, we did the math for the guys and I put together a PowerPoint Monday to kind of explain to them How important it is and then and kind of how unique it is by my Count somewhere between 180 and 185 teams are turning their gear in this week You know, that's out of the 241 teams currently playing division 3 football. So it is incredibly special It's not something that you know that I think we take for granted. I think we've got to take advantage of the opportunity You know, I use myself as an example. I played 16 seasons of football and played in the postseason twice As a player so it is I think unique You know, I think to some degree You know, we've gone through the disappointment of it not being the NCAA tournament. Certainly that is the goal You know, and I think we're a couple of plays away from from from reaching that goal So we're close and we've got to use this opportunity to go play, you know, really really good physical or science football team And you know any opportunity to play is it should be cherished. Well talking about physical football the game against Eastern Exciting football game. We had talked about last week, you know, Eastern were the first-year program They came in and I'll tell you what for it for a two and seven program coming in They were they were talented. They were physical and that game It just seemed like in the last it just went back and forth from that last that final quarter Sure, you know, I think from a talent perspective Reminded me a lot of us in year one You know talented but youthful Not particularly Strong cuz you hadn't been in the weight room, you know, but but you could see You know, they're gonna be a problem, you know, and I think you know, they were well coached. I thought their their plan was good You know, I think we may have looked past them a little bit. I don't know that we had our best football on Saturday You know, it's great game. Everybody got their money's worth. That's for sure This is true And there was a couple of things that I want to circle back to that game Obviously Landon Winterbomb gets the start does well in the first half goes down with an injury Nair comes in and I thought Nair played great in the second half probably his best half of football all year and He needed to do that. I mean he put two drives together to get, you know, obviously Get us back in the lead and then when you know, Eastern came down and tied it again Just to get us going sure, you know, and I think what you saw, you know You saw, you know Landon did some good things in the first half You know made made a mistake or two here and there, you know, that's what you expect with with freshman quarterbacks Certainly weren't upset with him, you know, understand what he sees and those types of things and you know, Nair, you know coming in and He hadn't thrown a ball all week literally hadn't touched a football since the Saturday prior I think it's a tribute to him, you know and his ability to understand the offense is, you know He was locked in and practiced quite obviously To be able to come in and have that and like you said have the probably the best half of football He's had all year was impressive and you know, which is what you saw I think is the contrast between a guy who's been who has spent almost three full years in our offense to a guy That's spent three full months. So they're definitive definitive difference for sure and a couple of the things that I wanted to note about the Eastern game was one Zachary Rutch and we had gotten a penalty on a touchdown Zachary Rutch kicks the ball basically out of the end zone 80 yards I mean there are very few kickers that can do that and I think it energized the crowd and then he did it again He kicked along into the end zone and he had a heads-up play because if he had made that tackle Easter was going to return that kick for for a touchdown. Sure. I think you know, I think we get spoiled with Zach You know, I think those those other the other ten guys get used to people not bringing it out And that kid brought that ball out. It was you know, had he taken that the distance it would have been a hundred eight hundred nine-yard return You know, fortunately Zach was able to make that play, but he's been a weapon all year You know second team all conference guy Yeah, and that's a guy that just does kickoffs So, you know for him to be recognized the conference level like that is certainly a big honor for him And somebody we're gonna miss for sure and speaking of all cops all covers came out Tuesday We had 11 guys on the team good mix of first team second team our match and talk about the guys that What it shows that the talent level we have at Stevenson to get 11 guys on the team Well, you know, I think first of all and I talked to the guys last night post practice, you know announced all of the guys in front of the team You know, those are team awards. You know, there are certainly individual names attached to those Awards and that recognition, but they are very much team awards You know, you look at our first team guys You know Ben had said it's had a phenomenal, you know a phenomenal fall Dan Johnson's had a phenomenal fall You know Tyler Blake Gavin Shields the honorable mentioned guys the boy of Elis You know, and of course, I'm gonna forget two or three of right if I try to name them all but you know It's great to have those honors and super excited for those guys But you know again more excited for our team, you know, 11 is a good number You know when you start looking at the grand scheme of things and you know, I think it's it's you know Exciting that many of those guys are coming back. Yep And we'll talk about now the max intending a ball obviously playing or science for the first time full disclosure I worked at our sinus for eight years. I'm very familiar with the program coach Gallagher does a great job up there You know, they they offensively. They're very good defensively. They're very good So what can we expect out of the game against her sinus? You know, I think what it will end up Deciding the game is who wins the physical battle One thing that kind of jumps off the tape to me what when watching and evaluating is they are physical. They are well coached They are physical. It is a very downhill type of running scheme So we're gonna have to match that physicality defensively You know, their defense is is is really really good, you know And we're gonna have our hands full and you know gonna have to try to exploit some weaknesses And you know quite frankly gonna just have to go make some plays and and one of the things too The last question I have for you is that there are very few teams in division three that say they can end their season on a win You know, obviously Looking back on this season now from you'll have more time to look back on as the weeks goes on But you know coming into this last game your thoughts on this season I'm excited for the future. I think we took some some really really good steps You know, we appear old on paper, but we were certainly not old in experience So there's a lot of youth in our program that got a chance to play throughout the year. So certainly excited You know saying goodbye to 30 seniors, you know again I said it Saturday, you know, these guys kind of weathered the COVID storm and you know We're a part of kind of putting things back together after COVID and I think it speaks to their character In their commitment to not only our football program, but our university as a whole that they stuck it out And they're still here You know and they're finishing out their careers the right way. And so, you know, that's always, you know a little bit sad So it's always mixed emotions when you end the year But you know proud of proud of what we were able to put on film and excited to get rolling in the spring All right, coach. Good luck today. Thank you It will be our scientist and Stevenson in the max centennial bowl from Collegeville Thanks for joining us all season long on the Ed Hodel show Enjoy the game and go stanks