Bye week comes at right time for Burnet football
CAPTION: Junior running back Peyton Lopez and the Bulldogs took a little break to recharge for the final push of the football season. Photo by Martelle Luedecke/Luedecke Photography
While District 4-4A Division I members played Nov. 1, the Burnet High School football team enjoyed a bye.
Head coach Ben Speer gave his players days off Oct. 25 and Nov. 1, saying they got three days of great practices in between.
“You get used to the go, go, go,” he said. “And all the sudden, what do you do? It’s been good to take a step back, to give everybody a break.”
Practices had some hitting but not to the extent the Bulldogs would participate in during game week. Speer said he believes his team will be near full strength when they return to the field for week 11. They also repped lots of drills that emphasize the fundamentals of the sport.
“It does look different, and you can’t totally back off of not having any contact,” the coach said.
The Bulldogs (5-4, 1-2) entered the bye week after a 31-30 overtime loss to Brownwood Oct. 25. While some may not want to have a week off after a loss, Speer said he believes it has done a lot of good.
“The bye week has helped us,” he said. “I think it’s been welcome, especially being so late in the season.”
The regular season ends by welcoming Stephenville, the pre-district favorite to win the district and the current No. 4 ranked team in the Texas High School Class 4A Division I state poll. Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8.
While the players enjoyed the day off Nov. 1, Speer said he and the staff met as part of their normal weekend meeting to finalize scouting reports and the game plan and talk about how they want to address game situations. After that, coaches left to enjoy their weekend.
“We had no classes, so we spent this morning working on things,” he said.
