It wasn’t the start that College of the Canyons’ coach Ted Iacenda had in mind for the 2026 season after the Cougars were shut out at home, 27-0, but the head coach is optimistic his team can fix Saturday’s mistakes and bounce back next week.
“We played a very good football team,” Iacenda said. “We had our hands full. We got a young offensive line. We got a young offense, top to bottom, and we’ve to lick our wounds and come back to the drawing board and fix our mistakes.”
Iacenda, who’s entering his 14th season as the head coach of Cougars’ football, is looking to return winning to COC after the team ended the 2025 season outside of the playoffs for the first time since 2022, and just the second time since 2015.
Despite Saturday’s defeat, the veteran head coach saw positives and mistakes that can be fixed.
One of the biggest mistakes that Cougars committed throughout the game: Turnovers.
In the loss, the Cougars totaled five turnovers with two passes being intercepted and three fumbles that ended would-be scoring drives for COC.
Offensively, the Cougars ended the day with 226 total yards of offense and were one for eight on third downs with 11 penalties throughout the game.
“It really boils down to who can take care of the football,” Iacenda said on the team’s turnovers. “They turned the ball over less than we did and we had some untimely turnovers on where we seemed to have momentum and were shifting field position.”
Iacenda said after that his offense is “young and inexperienced” and that mistakes like turnovers are expected.
At quarterback, Iacenda started freshman River Warren out of Texas as the Cougars’ season-opening starter. Warren tossed for 147 yards through the air and completed 13 of 17 pass attempts.
In the fourth quarter, Iacenda opted to sit Warren in the team’s final few drives and played Brayden Luedeker, who completed one pass for 11 yards on the team’s final drive.
Iacenda reiterated that Warren is still the team’s starter, regardless of the team’s loss Saturday, and is looking forward to seeing how he progresses throughout the year.
Defensively, Iacenda said that although his team gave up 27 points, he was proud of the team’s second-half performance as the Cougars held Southwestern to 10 points, including a last-minute field goal.
The Cougars held Southwestern’s offense to 208 passing yards but he added that there’s still more to work on to get the team where Iacenda wants them.
“Our defense has the most leadership, has the most sophomores, and you like to see them fight. And in the second half, they came out and fought their tails off,” he said. “We’re going to grow and get better defensively, and we’ve got to take the pressure off of them by scoring some points.”
COC begins the season 0-1 but has an opportunity to right the ship early in the season with a home matchup Saturday.
As the Cougars eye the quick turnaround, Iacneda is looking forward to seeing how his younger players will respond to the adversity and use the next week to prepare for a bounce-back win.
“You learn more from the losses than you do the wins,” Iacenda said. “We’re going to watch some film. Southwestern is very good and they exposed certain phases of the game, and we’re going to use that and address our weaknesses and fix those areas.”
The Cougars will look to bounce back at home at COC against the visiting El Camino College Warriors with kickoff scheduled for 12 p.m.
