Every team has a bye week and this week it’s the Permian football team’s turn to have their week off from the gridiron.

The Panthers, who are coming off a 56-14 victory over Los Fresnos on Friday, will get a chance to rest up and get ready for District 2-6A action.

Permian head coach Jeff Ellison said his team is going to use this week as an opportunity to continue to improve.

“With our open week, we’re going to approach it as just a way to get better,” Ellison said. “Obviously, we don’t have an opponent. We’ll still have our practices and try to get better and get ready for district.”

The open week also presents an opportunity to let injuries heal.

“With any football team, you get banged up a little bit throughout the season,” Ellison said. “You have your open week to help rest up so that’ll help us out for sure.”

Ellison is also glad to have the bye week right before the start of district play.

“It’s good to have a week of rest before starting district play,” Ellison said. “I think it’ll be a positive thing for us.”

The Panthers resume play on Oct. 11 against crosstown rival Odessa High at Ratliff Stadium.

>>DISTRICT 2-6A SHUT DOWN The Panthers won’t be the only team from 2-6A that will be off this week. Everybody else in the district will be off this week before starting up district competition next week.

Frenship defeated Canyon Randall 35-10 last week, while Amarillo Tascosa defeated Brownsville Hanna 55-7 and Odessa High defeated Harlingen South 44-33. Harlingen knocked off Midland High 49-13 and Midland Lee won 63-12 San Benito.

>>TURNOVERS Hanging on to the ball has been problematic for the Panthers. Against Los Fresnos, the Panthers fumbled the ball three times and lost two of them.

“We can’t do that,” Ellison said. “That’s really all there is to it. We’ve got to do a better job of keeping our possessions.”

Against Palm Desert, the Panthers also had three fumbles and lost two of them on turnovers.

Ellison said the problem with ball control will continue to be addressed this week.

“It’ll be addressed,” Ellison said. “It always is. But it’ll be one of those things we talk about this week.”

>>MENTALITY The Panthers, who started out on a three-game losing streak, have now won two in a row, but Ellison said coming off those recent wins hasn’t changed a lot as far the Panthers’ mentality.

“It doesn’t really change anything as far as our mindsets,” Ellison said. “It’s obviously good to come out on top, but we still have to get better each and every day and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”

>>SUBVARSITY The Panthers’ subvarsity teams went a combined 3-1 last week against Tascosa.

The JV Black won its contest against the Rebels 25-7, while JV White lost 26-0.

The Freshmen Black won its game against Tascosa with a 14-8 victory while the Freshmen White also took the win, getting a 26-12 victory.
