B

The 10 weeks of regular-season high school football can fly by in the blink of an eye. Believe it or not, there are already only three more weeks before the postseason gets under way.

Now nearly two months into the season without a Friday off, Coffee County football got the chance to take a break this past week. As the Red Raiders enter the home stretch, they will be coming in off of their bye week feeling refreshed and ready to get back in gear.

“We definitely needed some time away. We practiced (last) Monday morning and (last) Tuesday morning before giving them the rest of the week off. We approached (last) week, at least Monday and Tuesday, as kind of a heavy fundamental two days,” Coffee County coach Brandon Harmon said. “We tried to take Monday and Tuesday and really break things down to the bare bones and work on fundamentals. The kids responded well. I think giving them Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off is gonna be big for us because we have two out of three that are extremely important for us to still have a shot at making it into the playoffs with Summit and Shelbyville, so we spent a lot of time talking about that.”

Coffee County came into its bye week at 2-5 overall with a 1-2 record in Class 6A-Region 6 play. The three weeks leading up to the break proved to be particularly difficult with three straight losses, including a pair of region losses on the road at Independence (3-3, 2-2 region) on Sept. 19 and at home against Brentwood (4-3, 3-0 region) on Oct. 3.

Through this three-week stretch leading into the bye week, the Red Raiders were held to a single touchdown in each game, falling 35-6 to the Eagles, 40-7 on the road at Smyrna (3-4) and 49-7 most recently against the Bruins. While these are not the results the team wants to see, Harmon recognizes this is part of the growing pains of a younger, less-experienced team that is learning as it goes along.

“The steps forward and the positive things that we see Monday through Thursday, that’s really what continues to build the excitement. A lot of these guys, not only were they not starters last year, but the vast majority of them weren’t even backups last year,” Harmon said. “I do think that people have seen, I know I have, the ability to make halftime adjustments. Come out, go right down the field, score a touchdown, to start the second half. There’s little bits and pieces week in and week out that I see as a coach and just in my past experiences.”

Given this group’s inexperience and coming off a tough stretch of games, Harmon added that the bye week came at a perfect time to help all the players, regardless of age or experience level, get refreshed before Coffee County’s final three regular-season matchups.

“I think recharge is the perfect word. I actually told our kids that (last) Tuesday morning. Our strength and conditioning program, there’s a few things that go into it, but it was programmed in a way to where we hit what we call our de-load week this week and so from the weight room side of things, it was a week where I could tell them don’t worry about lifting. Don’t worry about running. We got three games left of a 10-game season. Go get off your feet, let your body recover,” Harmon said. “Between the football and the lifting and the practicing, I think it’s good for our kids.”

With the bye week now in the rear view, the Red Raiders have a trio of region games on tap to close out their regular-season schedule. That slate begins with a home game against Summit (1-6, 0-3 region) on Friday, followed by road trips to Ravenwood (7-0, 3-0 region) and Shelbyville (3-4, 3-1 region) over the following two weeks.

Coffee County currently sits in fifth place in the region standings, one spot ahead of Franklin, who it defeated 7-6 at Carden-Jarrell Field on Sept. 12. Rounding out the region standings are the aforementioned Spartans, whose region losses thus far include 35-7 to Brentwood, 50-0 to Ravenwood and 24-17 to Shelbyville.

Given the current region standings, Harmon views emerging from the bye week to get back on track against Summit as critical to the Red Raiders’ fight for a postseason spot.

“For us, it starts with (this) week. None of those aspirations or dreams of making the playoffs can happen if we don’t’ beat Summit, so we left them with that message. We’re putting all of our marbles in this week. We had a similar week when we played Franklin High School, the first region game. I really pressed them that whole week how that was a must-win and getting off to a strong start in region play. They responded extremely well to it,” Harmon said. “There’s a lot of similarities in us and Summit. They run a very similar offense to what we run. They’re also a base foundational 3-4 on defense. I think when you look at the two teams, it should be a really good football game.”

Kickoff of Friday’s game against Summit is set for 7 p.m.