WEEK OFF — Big Red’s James Turner, Santino Haney and Ryan Bise will look to celebrate more touchdowns next week when Big Red’s playoff run starts after a bye this week. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — While the stadium lights will be on Friday night at Harding Stadium, it won’t be the Big Red football team playing. They’ve earned themselves a week off.

By virtue of an incredible turnaround with seven-straight victories to close the regular season, Big Red finished No. 3 in the Division III, Region 11 standings to earn a first-round bye in the new 12-team format, a feat that not many may have predicted when the team was 0-2.

“I just respect the heck out of our players and coaches for never wavering,” Big Red head coach Reno Saccoccia said. “It was just a great thing to be part of. But it’s over now and it’s a new season. Everybody’s 0-0.”

As exciting as the winning streak to end the regular season and earning a bye was, the focus has now shifted toward the playoffs.

“I don’t want to downplay the regular season because it was a great regular season and the kids really earned to be where they’re at right now,” Saccoccia said. “But I hope that they understand from being around the program for as long as they have been, that this is the season that we prepare for. It’s very important for the players and the program. And I want them to understand that and I’m sure they do after talking with them (Monday). 

“I hope they understand that they have a great opportunity and a great challenge ahead of them and they prepare for it.”

This is the second time this season that Big Red has had a week off. They had a bye in Week 3 after Dunbar, Pa. cancelled their trip due to a scheduling conflict.

“We had a bye week this year already and we’ll probably do the same thing we did then,” Saccoccia said. “We went (Monday) with conditioning and we worked on our two-minute offense. On Tuesday, we’ll have a normal practice, maybe a little bit shorter than the regular season. And then Wednesday we’ll go at it full go.” 

Big Red will host the winner of Friday’s game between No. 6 seed Delaware Buckeye Valley and No. 11 seed Athens next week at Harding Stadium. The winner of that game will advance to the regional semis.