Burnet football uses open week to prepare for district

JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF

BURNET — The Burnet High School football team is enjoying a 4-1 record during its bye week.

The Bulldogs are riding a three-game winning streak thanks to their latest victory, a 43-13 win against Taylor on Sept. 26.

That game revealed some areas coaches and players are addressing.

They want to eliminate the mistakes on special teams. Against Taylor, the Bulldogs suffered several fumbles on kickoff and punt returns. That put pressure on the Burnet defense to come up with stops deep in its own territory. The Ducks had a drive that went inside the Burnet five-yard line. But the Bulldogs forced a turnover on downs to preserve a halftime lead.

“We put them in some bad spots,” Bulldogs head coach Kurt Jones said. “Our defense played outstanding. I’m real proud of them. We feel like our defense is making strides. … We got an all-around good performance out of our defense. That’s what gave us a lead going into the half.”

He said the errors are as obvious to the coaches as they are to fans.

“There’s nothing that anybody in the stands sees that we as a staff don’t see and correct and draw up and plan to practice,” he said. “We’re trying to make things better and correct them.”

Part of the weekend planning is developing a list of mistakes and prioritizing them, Jones said. Then coaches scheme practices to drill the Bulldogs on them with the aim of eliminating errors by game day.

“It’s things you keep working at until you improve and get better,” he said. “That’s the nature of this business. Those glitches and hiccups are different for each team.

“We have to hang on to the ball better than we’ve done,” he added. “We don’t want to give the ball to anybody unless we kick to them.”

And while the Bulldogs are playing well on offense and defense, Jones said players and coaches believe they can perform much better in all phases.

“You can never block or tackle good enough,” he said. “You can always be better.”

Against Taylor, the Bulldogs led 21-13 at the half. Jones said he asked his athletes if they could play better in the second half. The overwhelming answer was “yes.” And they proved it, he said, by outscoring the Ducks 22-0 in the final two quarters.

“We’re excited in a certain sense to be 4-1 going into the open week,” Jones said. “There’s a level of excitement when we talk to the kids. We don’t feel we’ve even approached how good we can be. We’re trying to play from good to great.”

The Bulldogs open District 13-4A Division I play Oct. 10 at China Spring. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m.

jfierro@thepicayune.com