Iota Asked Its Defense a Question in August. After Three Straight Weeks of Answers, a Playoff Spot Is Within Reach

Subhead: The Bulldogs gave up at least 21 points in each of their first five games. In the last three, they’ve allowed 14 total, with back-to-back shutouts. Now 4-4, Iota sits 0.08 of a power-rating point outside the Division II Non-Select field with Mamou and unbeaten Eunice left.

By T-Rohn | Gridiron Gumbo | Oct. 24, 2026

REPORTED: facts per the LHSAA’s official power-rating report and other published sources (see Sources at the end)

Back in August, Iota coach Ray Aucoin liked a lot of what he saw. He told The Advocate the offensive line had “improved a lot” and the roster was experienced. The paper’s preview listed a returning starter at quarterback.¹

What he didn’t know was what his defense would be.

TAKE (joke): Down here, a question asked in August normally goes unanswered until somebody brings it up over the Thanksgiving gumbo. Football moves faster.

Aucoin said in the Aug. 20 preseason preview that the team didn’t yet know “if we are an attacking defense or not,” or whether it would be a defense that “bends but doesn’t break.”¹

Eight games in, the Bulldogs have an answer, at least lately: the kind of defense that doesn’t let you score at all.

The split

Here’s Iota’s season by the scores on MaxPreps:

KPLC’s Week 8 scoreboard also lists the 55-0 Iota win at Ville Platte. PrepRank lists two earlier scores differently (J.S. Clark and Church Point); we used MaxPreps.^{2, 3}

That’s at least 21 points allowed in each of the first five games. Then 14 points total over the last three, all wins.

CONFIRMED (MaxPreps and KPLC agree): Friday’s 55-0 win at Ville Platte was the Bulldogs’ second straight shutout.

TAKE (joke): Two shutouts in a row is the scoreboard version of a clean plate at a boudin stand: nothing left on it, nothing to explain, and everybody already looking for more.

The offense showed up for the streak, too. Iota scored 134 points in those three wins, an average of 44.7 a game (Gridiron Gumbo’s math from the MaxPreps scores).

TAKE (joke): At 44.7 a game, the scoreboard is the only thing in Iota working harder than the concession-stand fryer.

Now, the honest part, because we promised you honest. The schedule eased up. The first five weeks included Sulphur, a Division I school, plus Lake Arthur (7-1) and Church Point (5-2 on the LHSAA sheet). None of the last three opponents has a winning record. TAKE: you can only shut out the team in front of you, and holding two straight opponents to zero is hard on anybody’s schedule. The real test of how far this defense has come is Nov. 6, and we’ll get to that.

Also worth noting: Iota’s four losses came against teams with a combined record of 22-9 on the LHSAA sheet (23-9 if PrepRank’s 6-2 for Church Point is right; the LHSAA sheet shows 5-2 and appears to be missing a result), and the 21-19 loss at Lake Arthur was a two-point game against a team that’s 7-1.

TAKE (joke): A schedule full of teams with a combined 22-9 (or 23-9) record is the football version of sitting down to dominoes with the cousins who’ve been playing since noon: nobody’s cheating, but nobody’s waiting for you either.

The youth movement, paid off

Iota’s 2025 season was a detour the coaches saw coming. The Bulldogs finished 4-6 in the regular season, their first losing regular season since 2016, according to The Advocate (Gridiron Gumbo’s count from the paper’s 2025 results list).¹ They still made the Division II Non-Select playoffs, where a 49-7 first-round loss to Lutcher made it 4-7 overall, and the staff had chosen the hard road on purpose.

Aucoin said the staff decided to “just play the freshmen and start over,” figuring that was the best way for young players to gain experience and catch up to game speed faster. It “really helped us to build confidence,” he said.¹

This year’s version of that plan: Aucoin said seven juniors have three years of starting experience or significant playing time, and he called experience “top to bottom” the team’s strength.

On defense, the Bulldogs also had to replace a two-time all-state linebacker from last year’s senior class. Aucoin called losing him “a big loss for us.” He said the staff is “counting on” a senior linebacker “a lot this year,” saying that player “has really stepped up” and that the younger linebackers follow his lead.¹

The Advocate also wrote that Aucoin expected the defense to get better week after week.¹ Weeks 6 through 8 back him up.

In Acadia Parish, that’s what you call letting the roux go low and slow. It takes a while. Then it’s dark, rich and done.

The streak at stake

Iota has a habit of being in the bracket. KPLC reported in August 2025 that the Bulldogs had made playoff appearances in each of the previous four seasons.⁴ The Advocate reported they qualified again in 2025, and MaxPreps lists the Nov. 14, 2025 first-round playoff loss to Lutcher.⁵ TAKE (combining those reports): that adds up to five straight postseason trips through 2025. No single source states the full run, so treat the count as our math, not a reported streak. For context, The Advocate lists Iota’s overall records, playoff games included, as 9-3 (2022), 8-4 (2023), 9-3 (2024) and 4-7 (2025).

Aucoin, now in his fifth season as head coach (REPORTED),⁶ entered 2026 with a 30-17 record.¹ He laid out his annual goals in 2025: a winning season, a playoff berth (ideally “a home playoff berth”) and, by the end of the year, “playing for a district title.”⁴

At 4-4, goals one and two are both still on the board. A winning season would take both of the last two games.

Here’s where the Bulldogs stand on the LHSAA’s official sheet as of its 12:02 p.m. Saturday update:

• Iota: 29th of 44 in Non-Select Division II, 9.89
• 28th, the last spot in a 28-team bracket: Wossman, 9.97
• 27th: South Terrebonne, 10.09

Iota is also fourth in District 4-3A at 2-2.⁷

The finish: Mamou (2-6) at Iota on Oct. 30, then Iota at Eunice (8-0, 3rd in Division II on the LHSAA sheet) on Nov. 6.^{8, 2} (Eunice plays at Crowley on Oct. 30,² so the Eunice math below assumes Eunice is still unbeaten when Iota arrives.)

TAKE (joke): Mamou first, then unbeaten Eunice. It’s the schedule’s way of serving a small bowl of gumbo and then asking you to finish the pot.

What the math says (TAKE: Gridiron Gumbo math, holding every other result on today’s sheet constant; the first step is (rating × 8 + new game) ÷ 9, since Iota has eight games entered):

• Beat Mamou: about 10.15. That would slot 27th on today’s sheet, ahead of both South Terrebonne and Wossman.
• Beat Mamou, then lose to an unbeaten Eunice: about 10.13. A loss to a perfect team adds a full 10 points of opponent strength, so the number barely moves.
• Win both: about 11.03, comfortably inside today’s cutoff and a 6-4 winning season to go with it.
• Lose to Mamou: about 9.16.

The Mamou game is the one that matters most to the rating. The Eunice game is the one that would get people talking at the Iota post office for a month.

Of course, nobody else is standing still. Wossman, South Terrebonne and everyone in that 23rd-through-30th pack play two more games too. That pack includes DeRidder, which plays at St. Louis Catholic on Thursday. We broke down that crowd in today’s power-rating story. District champions from outside the top 28 also get automatic berths, which can raise the cutoff.

TAKE (joke): Everybody from 23rd through 30th is stuck in the same crowd, which is the only traffic jam in Southwest Louisiana where nobody can blame I-10.

So nothing’s settled. But a team that didn’t know what its defense was in August has given up 14 points in three weeks. TAKE: that keeps a playoff berth within reach, and with it a chance to extend a postseason run that, by our count, goes back five straight years.

TAKE (joke): Nothing’s settled, which in Southwest Louisiana is also what we say about the correct amount of cayenne.

“How good can we be?” Aucoin asked in August. “Well, that’s up to them.”¹

Lately, “them” has had a pretty good answer.

Got an Iota stat or a Mamou score? Send it to Gridiron Gumbo. T-Rohn is keeping score.

Sources

1. The Advocate, Eric Narcisse, “Iota ready to reap benefits of playing so many young players last season,” Aug. 20, 2026: https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/sports/high_schools/iota-ready-to-reap-benefits-of-playing-so-many-young-players-last-season/article_fb22a130-6d97-4472-a940-21d6461da719.html (all Aucoin 2026 quotes; 2025 4-7 overall, first losing regular season since 2016, qualified for Div. II NS playoffs, lost 49-7 to Lutcher; 2025 results list used for the 4-6 regular-season count; two-time all-state linebacker (unnamed here) and senior linebacker (unnamed here); Aucoin 30-17; overall records 2022-2025; 2026 schedule with Mamou at home and Eunice away; “get better week after week”) ↩ Back to story
2. MaxPreps, Iota football schedule: https://www.maxpreps.com/la/iota/iota-bulldogs/football/schedule/ (all 2026 scores; 4-4; three-game win streak) ↩ Back to story
3. KPLC, TDL Week 8 scores and highlights: https://www.kplctv.com/2026/10/22/tdl-week-8-scores-highlights/ (lists the 4-3A Iota-Ville Platte final as 55-0) ↩ Back to story
4. KPLC, Kaitlyn Wadulack, “Two-A-Days: Iota Bulldogs,” published Aug. 19, 2025 at 9:06 p.m. CDT (the URL carries 2025/08/20): https://www.kplctv.com/2025/08/20/two-a-days-iota-bulldogs/ (playoff appearances in each of the last four seasons; Aucoin goals fragments) ↩ Back to story
5. MaxPreps, Iota football team page and 2024-25 schedule: https://www.maxpreps.com/la/iota/iota-bulldogs/football/ ; https://www.maxpreps.com/la/iota/iota-bulldogs/football/24-25/schedule/ (Nov. 14, 2025 Division II Non-Select playoff loss to Lutcher, 7-49; 2024 playoff games) ↩ Back to story
6. Louisiana Football Magazine, “2026 Preview: Class 3A District 4,” July 16, 2026: https://www.lafootballmagazine.com/news/2026-preview-class-3a-district-4 (Aucoin’s fifth season) ↩ Back to story
7. MaxPreps, Iota standings: https://www.maxpreps.com/la/iota/iota-bulldogs/football/standings/ (2-2, 4th in District 4-3A) ↩ Back to story
8. The Advocate, Week 8 Acadiana-area scores and schedules, Oct. 23, 2026: https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/sports/high_schools/week-8-high-school-football-scores-reported-stats-schedules-for-acadiana-area/article_0de41fd1-c13c-4c11-b5a1-46151d9493fc.html (“Mamou at Iota on Friday”; Mamou 2-6; Eunice 8-0) ↩ Back to story
9. KPLC, Matthew Travis, “Two-A-Days: Iota Bulldogs,” Aug. 20, 2024, 10:45 p.m. CDT: https://www.kplctv.com/2024/08/21/two-a-days-iota-bulldogs/ (playoff wins in 2022 and 2023)
10. LHSAA, Non-Select Football Power Ratings by Division, “As of Date: 10/24/2026 12:02:42 PM”: https://www.lhsaaonline.org/rpt/FBNonSelectbyDivisionPR.html (Iota 29th, 9.89; Wossman 28th, 9.97; South Terrebonne 27th, 10.09; Eunice 3rd, 8-0; Lake Arthur 7-1; Church Point 5-2)
11. LHSAA, 2026 Football General Information Bulletin: https://www.lhsaa.org/siteuploads/lhsaa/1433_pdf_2026-football-general-info-bulletin.pdf (power-rating formula)
12. PrepRank, “How LHSAA Football Power Ratings Are Calculated”: https://prep-rank.com/explainers/lhsaa-football-power-ratings (28-team Non-Select brackets; district champions automatic)

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