The UTRGV football team is coming off of its first conference win against Houston Christian. Now, it’s the Vaqueros bye week.

That gives the team some time to rest and recuperate before its next conference game on the road. However, the players and coaching staff are trying to balance that rest with using the extra time they have to improve before conference play resumes.

“This week’s about us,” UTRGV head football coach Travis Bush said. “It comes at a good time right at the halfway point of the season. Everybody’s banged up and I think it gives us an opportunity to get healthy. A good chance for our coaches to get on the road recruiting. At practice, we’ve gotta get better at fundamental details. Not as many reps, but quality reps… We’ve still gotta stay in game condition.”

For the players, they’re focusing on doing what they can to make sure they’re physically ready for the rest of Southland Conference play. “You know we have to recover our bodies and stuff so that’s the most important part,” Redshirt freshman defensive end Abdon Mata said.

“We also have to stay focused, but we just have to go through every day not fooling around and just going 100% every day.”

Even after the key win over Houston Christian, Coach Bush is making sure his team knows it doesn't get any easier from here.

“We think we have a pretty good football team but if you look at our schedule we can easily be 5-7,” Coach Bush said. “That’s the reality of it. All of that goes into how we work at halftime here, how we prepare. It’s a tough road ahead but everyone in the nation is in the same boat.”

UTRGV’s next game will be on Saturday, October 18 against Lamar.