For Bryan County football coach Cherard Freeman and his staff, it was a rare Sunday off to do as they pleased. Freeman was doing some grilling and lazing on the couch catching some NFL football in between a few Zs.

For football coaches Sunday is a work day. Redskins coaches spend the day huddled up in a meeting room reviewing film on both their own team and the week’s upcoming opponent while formulating a game plan.

With an open date this Friday following last Friday night’s 34-0 loss at Jenkins County there was no need to make the trek to Redskins Stadium and miss out on a perfectly gorgeous fall day. And with no game this week the team practiced only on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Actually, the open date came at a good time for coaches and players who have been going at it since August following summer workouts. Both needed a respite mentally and physically from what has been a disappointing season. The loss to the War Eagles dropped the Redskins to 4-5 overall, 3-4 in Region 3A-DII play and effectively eliminated them from playoff consideration.

The win, meanwhile, set up a winner-takes-all game Friday night between Jenkins County (6-1, 5-0) and Metter (6-1, 5-0). Bryan County will close out the season next Friday night when it hosts Metter on Senior Night.

The irony of this being called a disappointing season was not lost on Freeman who is wrapping up his fifth season. It’s a reflection on how far he and his veteran staff have brought the Redskins program. There has been many a year when three, four and possibly five wins would have been considered a good year.

The bar has been raised under Freeman and that’s why the loss to the No. 10 War Eagles was particularly stinging. Metter, incidentally, is ranked No. 9 in this week’s AJC rankings.

“They’re a really good football team,” Freeman said of Jenkins County. “We couldn’t recover from our mistakes. We don’t have that difference maker this year.”

The Redskins were last shut out 24 games when Screven County posted a 19-0 win but they could not muster any offense against the War Eagles.

Jenkins County, meanwhile, rushed for 342 yards. Quarterback Justin Wright led the way as he picked up 90 yards on five carries and completed four of eight passes for 55 yards and a touchdown. Bryan County was limited to 112 yards on the ground. It entered the game averaging more than 200 yards rushing the ball.

Making it a more difficult season, too, was that following reclassification the Redskins went from being in a five-team region to an eight-team region. The new additions were Jenkins County, McIntosh County, Portal and Emanuel County Institute, all schools with good football programs. All but Portal will be in the playoffs along with Metter.