Last Friday’s dip in temperature gave an early reminder that autumn is on its way.

It also seemed appropriate “football weather” for the 2016 Panthers of the gridiron to play their annual intra-squad game to give their fans an early glimpse of the team.

It is also a chance for the players to get after it and give their coaches a glimpse at what they have to work with.

“Going into our fifth day of practice, with the intra-squad game, we weren’t really looking for or expecting execution,” head coach Chanler Buck said. “We have such a combination of players of different ages and experience, it is too early to be expecting them to be executing great yet.”

Rather, the coaching staff was viewing it as somewhat of an audition for the players.

“We told them that this is their one night to be an individual and just play your game so we could see what we have,” Buck said. “For players with more experience, it was a chance to get back into it, and for everyone to get under the lights and in front of fans and get those type of nerves out.”

Coming off a 4-7 record a season ago, including a first-round, 38-24 playoff loss to Torrington, the team lost 10 starters to graduation.

This leaves a lot of holes to fill among newcomers hoping to make their mark, and help get the team back to the prominence it enjoyed during the 2011-2013 state championship three-peat.

“What I saw was very encouraging,” returning starting quarterback Mason Olsen said. “All the guys played competitively and with confidence, which is exactly what we need this season. From practice all week, I know we have a lot of hard-working guys and we all work well together.”

From there, it is back to the grind of preparation for the first outing of the season at the end of this week.

“We got to see a lot Friday night and we’ll be working more on execution in practice now as we get set for our ‘Zero Week’ game this Friday,” Buck said. “That game won’t count on our schedule, but it is important for us to see where we are competitively and what we’ll have to get better at. And it’s a game that, if we do well, could give us a lift in confidence for the season.”

The Panthers will get the basics down in practice this week and start building up to Friday’s “Zero Week” when they head to Miles City, Montana, for a 6 p.m. kick-off against the host Custer County Cowboys.