Touchdown Live Game of the Week - Iowa Preview

IOWA, La. (KPLC) - The Iowa Yellowjackets entered the 2023 season following a 2022 season in which they made the State Semi-Finals for the first time in school history and went 9-1 in the regular season. That being said, they entered the new year with high expectations, expectations of making it to the Superdome for the first time in school history, but they didn’t exactly get out to a great start.

Iowa fell to Iota 21-14 in week one, the same team who they beat 27-8 the year before, and according to tight end Luke Guillory, that’s part of the reason they lost to the Bulldogs this year.

“We beat Iota the past couple of years so I feel like some of us thought it was kind of going to be a given, just not really working super hard at practice like we should, but that loss really kicked us into gear and we really got after it this past week,” said Guillory.

As Guillory said, the Yellowjackets rebounded with an impressive 35-18 road win over Rayne in week two, and Iowa Head Coach Tommy Johns attributed that win to the loss they suffered the week prior.

“Well we learned a lot about our team, you come off a loss like that to Iota and we rebounded last week against Rayne, and I was proud to see that our guys stepped up and put it behind us and went out and played pretty well,” said Johns.

Now, Iowa enters a week three matchup against the Leesville Wampus Cats, who are responsible for Iowa’s only regular season loss in 2022, as they beat the Yellowjackets 30-14. Although many coaches would take that as a negative, Coach Johns looks back on that loss in a positive light, as he believes part of their success was because of the disappointing loss to the Wampus Cats.

“Well I think number one we learned a lot last year, it was a close game going into the fourth quarter and then they put it on us pretty good, but there were a lot of lessons learned. Had that not happened, there’s no telling how our season turns out to be honest, it was a wake-up call for us and that’s why we have to play teams like Leesville, to get us better,” said Johns.

Most teams would go into a game like this against Leesville wanting revenge, wanting to beat the team that was responsible for their only loss the year prior, but that’s not how Iowa is looking at their week three matchup, they’re looking at it the same way they would any other; just another game.

“Not really, that was last year, we’re a new team, new people, we’ve just gotta do it now, we have to play hard, play physical, do our job, play as a team, and just see how the outcome comes,” said senior middle linebacker Austen Latour.

Friday’s matchup kicks off on Friday at 7:00 at Iowa. Tune into KPLC on Wednesday at 10:00 for a preview of the Leesville Wampus Cats, and on Friday at 5:00 for the Touchdown Live Pregame Show, where we talk to both Iowa Head Coach Tommy Johns, and Leesville Head Coach Robert Causey less than two hours before the game.

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