 Hello everybody, welcome to the Ed Hodl Show for week number 11. We're game number 10. We've hit the final lap of the regular season and a new opponent coming to Mustangs Stadium this week as the Mustangs welcome the Eagles of Eastern University in their first year of varsity football. Before we get to that we'll talk about the Kings game here with coach Ed Hodl and coach, you know, came home the final two games at home played a tough Kings team came up on the short end of a 16-8 loss. So your thoughts on the game? You know, they're good football team. I don't think for a minute we had our best football Saturday. That being said, we had some opportunities late unable to capitalize and, you know, we've got to go out Saturday and win to keep any postseason hopes alive. Yeah, and we'll talk about the Eastern Eagles. Obviously, they've built the program for a bit. You're familiar with that. You know, the stuff you've done at Gallaudet and obviously they built the program here at Stephenson. Talk about the challenges of starting a program. I mean, Eastern, they've had like my old football coach, Steve Briggs and Susquey, say when Kings started, Coach Manolo, he bought every shoe, bought every helmet. What are some of the challenges going into building a program? The challenges are infinite. You know, it's the things that you don't necessarily think about or the things that kind of get you. You know, you need helmets. You know, you need shoulder pads. You know, you need players. Yes. You know, in just the simple impact of having 100 to 150 additional males on your campus and what that does at breakfast, what that does at lunch, what that does at dinner, what that does during registration, all of these things. When you add a significant number of students to any campus, the impact is real. You know, it's a challenging, challenging, challenging process. I know that that staff and those players are likely ready to be done. It is a long slog through that first season. You know, they've had some success. I think they've won two games. Similar, we won two games in our first year. But you can't allow, and I think we did a little bit, allow those two wins to kind of become fools gold for year two. Right. You know, you look at that football team and skill-wise they got some guys. Yep. Up front, they've got some guys that are going to be really good players in two years of a strength and conditioning program, very much where we were. Right. And that really becomes the difference, particularly in a league like the Mac, where it's physical and the D-line play is good, the O-line play is good, and it's physical and it's demanding, and you know, young bodies wear down, you know, and that's something that only time in the weight room can fix. Right, and talk about wearing down. I mean, this has been a long season for you guys. We're at game number 10. And like you said, there are postseason implications. You know, something shake out. It could be the Max and Tenille Bowl, it could be the ECAC Bowl. You know, going into this last week of the regular season, how are you guys doing conditioning-wise and more importantly health-wise as we get into this last week? You know, I feel pretty good where we are conditioning-wise. I think, you know, I think we're in a good spot. I think health-wise you know, we're missing some guys, but everybody's missing guys when you get to week 11. So you know, no crying in your beer there. So, you know, you've just got to work and overcome it. It's kind of the next man-up mentality. You know, we've got, I try to look at it in the sense of what is today's misfortune becomes tomorrow's death and experience. So it's, you know, when you have injuries and the door opens for a younger player, it's an opportunity for a guy to get valuable experience where he may not otherwise get that experience. So you know, we've got to go out and we've got to play great football. What are what are going to be the keys today for beating and again Eastern? They've got some players. It's a new program. You haven't seen what it's going to be the key today for you guys to be victorious. I think it's going to be O-line play, D-line play. You know, can we control and dominate the line of scrimmages? I think if we can do those things, be efficient in you know, particularly running the football, be efficient in getting off the field on third downs defensively. I think we'll be successful. Good luck today, coach. Thank you. All right. We're at game number 10. It is Stevenson taking on Eastern. Again, a lot of posties and implications managing on this game and some other games. So we'll be back next week some way and we thank you for joining us today, and we will talk to you next week. Go Stanks!