 Hello, and welcome to the Ed Hodl Show presented by Buffalo Wildlings. I'm Greg Royce, joined by Stevenson Head Football Coach Ed Hodl. Coach, you opened up the season last week. You played Frostberg State, a team that, you know, a very good team that a lot of people expect to go far this year and just talk about the game and kind of how it went for you guys. Well, I think, you know, on a whole, we certainly could have played better. I think there were some things we learned about ourselves. I think that, you know, looking forward to this week, I think, you know, we've had an opportunity to clean up some of the mistakes that we made and, you know, playing a team of that caliber in the opener is going to help us down the road. Yeah, absolutely. A couple of pauses I thought you had some little success running the football on Thursday night, and I thought defensively, I know Mike Datu, he was able to come back and he made some plays for you as well. Sure. Mike's, you know, being a fifth year senior and having Mike back is going to be really important to our success this year and, you know, when you bring back that level of experience and that knowledge, it's certainly going to be a big positive for us and we're excited about Mike moving forward. Yeah. And again, to circle back to running the football, you know, it's ran for 120 yards. I think we ran over 100, only three times last season. So and from several different guys, it wasn't just one or two guys carrying the workload. Sure. And that was by design. You know, we knew it was going to be humid and hot and we wanted to, you know, kind of spread the wealth a little bit with those guys and, you know, really get a good look and a good feel for what we have, you know, in that group. I'm certainly excited. But you can't talk about running the ball without talking about the offensive line as well. You know, those guys, you know, those guys did a pretty solid job against an aggressive front. But again, you know, I think they learned some things about themselves and learned some things that we can definitely improve on moving forward. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, obviously now you had a chance to look at the film, you know, a couple of days of practice. What are you working on in practice, not giving away too much, obviously? Well, again, you know, we kind of go back to the fundamentals, you know, the small things, you know. For us, if we can take care of the little things, you know, it's very cliche, but the big things take care of themselves. And that's very true in football. I think football coaches make football complicated. So we try to recenter ourselves often with, you know, our base stuff, you know, our fundamentals and the process and how we get to where we want to be on Saturdays. Yeah. Now shifting gears on, you play a second non-conference game, something you haven't done, you know, since I think the first year and you play Bridgewater, a team you haven't faced before. What do you know about them? Obviously, they're coming off a win over Gettysburg to start season. Well, as you look at them historically, you know, they've had a couple of national championship appearances and have some significant history, both nationally as well as in the ODAC. So for us, you know, it's an opportunity to see a team from another region, but also a team that, you know, we directly recruit against, you know, every year, you know, we've tried to get into that northern Virginia area, you know, a hot bed for them, so to speak. And so for us, you know, there's a lot of meaning in recruiting, there's going to be a lot of meaning in, you know, in going out and competing in that second out-of-conference game, which we're very excited about. Yeah, absolutely. And obviously, another starting night game on the lights, second straight game on the lights, it should be exciting. And, you know, what are you looking forward to? Well, you know, I'm looking forward to, you know, getting on the road with the guys, you know, a lot of people don't like playing on the road. I don't mind playing on the road, you know, if you're going to win a national championship, you've got to learn to play on the road. That's the reality. And so for us, you know, it's going to be an opportunity to get away with the team and spend some quality time with the guys and, you know, prepare in a little bit different way than what we've had, you know, not scrimmaging on the road and not opening on the road. This is an opportunity to get on the road and really work on, you know, our preparation away from Mustang Stadium. So I'm excited about the trip. I'm excited about an opportunity to compete against, you know, what we feel like is a pretty strong team, you know, with Bridgewater and, you know, get that road experience under our belt early in the year. Yeah, absolutely. All right, Coach, we wish you the best of luck. I'm Saturday and we'll talk to you next week. Thanks, Greg. All right, for Ad Hodel, I'm Greg Royce. This has been the Ad Hodel Show.