Bulldogs hope to improve from 0-10 season

IOTA – The rebuilding process has taken longer than the seniors wanted it to for the Bulldogs.
Iota has gone 3-25 over the past three seasons, including a disappointing 0-10 in 2013.
Bulldog head coach Neal Lege said they are hoping to turn the program around this season, beginning with the hiring of former Crowley High and St. Edmund offensive coordinator Josh Andrus.
“We are taking a little different approach than we have done in the past,” Lege said of the offense. “He has a good scheme and the kids are buying into it.
“We still have a ways to go, but I like the kids’ enthusiasm going into the season.”
The offense struggled last season as the Bulldogs were shut out twice and scored only scored more than two touchdowns against Iowa (34-20 loss) and Jennings (34-22 loss).
“Every time we looked like we were about to turn the corner something would happen,” Lege said.
Key injuries plagued Iota all season which led to depth issues as the Bulldogs struggled late in close games than finished as blowouts.
“We played teams close early but we had a ton of kids playing both ways and we had to deal with fatigue late in games,” the coach said.
“Our offense put a lot of pressure on our defense last year,” Lege said. “Hopefully this year we can move the ball and score some points.”
Lege said he is still worried about depth this season with 46 players and could be forced to play a lot of younger players if key injuries happen again this season.
“We are really focused on our conditioning and we are pushing them hard to get in shape so we hopefully cut back on some of the injuries and not get worn down in the fourth quarter.”
Our seniors are leading by example and doing what you look for in a senior,” the coach said.
Lege said the 0-10 finish last year as been on their minds through the spring practices and summer workouts.
Iota will scrimmage Eunice and Kaplan at Bobcat Field on Aug. 22 and then face Crowley in the Acadia Parish jamboree in Church Point on Aug. 28.
The Bulldogs will open the season at home against Oberlin on Sept. 5.
“We hope to improve each week,” the coach said. “That is something we didn’t do last year. We never did get better.
“We took one step forward and two steps back each week.”