TUSCOLA, Texas — Mama, there goes that team. The Jim Ned Indians are 3-0 and they're looking to remain undefeated when they host the Cisco Loboes for homecoming night. The matchup will be a challenge for the Indians, knowing Cisco is also 3-0. Indians head coach Matt Fanning believes his team has improved since last season and focuses on the mindset of taking it one step at a time.
"We like where we're at, I think we're ahead,” Fanning said. “Schematically from a retention standpoint, from where we were last year, we've done some really good things. We played really well against a good Sweetwater ball club and I'm proud of the way we did that I think we still got the mindset right now where we're improving."
Defensively, the Indians only gave up 41 points in three games combined and currently averaging 48 points per game on offense. A great way to continue playing at a high level is discipline and senior running back Xavier Wishert feels the team will outperform formidable opponents like Cisco.
"There's always a lot of pressure coming into a game with a great team,” Wishert said. “They play smash mouth football and they're going to come at us with the intention of beating us. There's maybe some pressure, but at the same time we're going to do us and we're going to go win the game."
There are two terms that define an elite football team: consistency and improvement. You can't be great if you're only consistent without any improvement or vice versa. Fanning said there's days at practice where they struggle on both sides of the ball, but they always learn from their mistakes.
"The process of improving, growing, fixing and working out all the kinks is the biggest part,” Fanning said. “Schematically, we're good at a lot of things and some weeks we're not. Some weeks we're the total opposite, but our ability to address that, fix it and improve is the biggest area to address for us always."
Kickoff between the Indians and Loboes is tonight at 7:30.