CRETE, Neb - The Hastings Broncos, like many teams, are just weeks away from starting fall camp.

Head Coach Matt Franzen and members of the Broncos took part in the inaugural small college media days at the Haddix Center at Doane earlier this week.

Coach says his group is ready for 2023.

"We're excited about getting the year started," Franzen said. "Last year was a nice turn around season after a few lean years... Good progress on the field, good progress off the field, in the locker room, built a strong team... Hopefully we start a continuation of what we did last year."

The Broncos took quite a step forward in 2022, going 7-4 after just a 2-8 year in 2021. Franzen tells NCN Sports the team has depth and competition on both sides of the ball, heading into camp.

"Offensively we'll be a good bit younger... We'll have a new quarterback heading into camp, can't quite say who that's going to be yet, but that job is open... We have a second year offensive coordinator and our players are still learning the system."

Franzen says the situation is similar on defense. 

"This will be our second year running a 3-4 defense," Franzen said. "I think our returning experience at linebacker and on the defensive line is going to set us up well, but we'll be young in the secondary. Overall, young positions, some guys who will have to earn the job and then step up and perform for us, but we're feeling good going into the year."

Captains Laythen Shaw and Brett Simonsen discussed the feeling of success they found last year and what needs to happen to replicate that, this year.

"It felt really good, really fun," Shaw said. "No one likes to lose, but we learned from our losses and we won a lot last year and want to keep it up this year."

"Just gotta keep it up," Simonsen said. "Keep moving forward from what we had last year. We know now what it takes to put seven wins up in this conference so we just know what we need for the upcoming future."

The Broncos begin the year on the road, taking on Peru State on August 26.