TARLETON AT TEXAS STATE
The Tarleton Texans will open the 2006 season at Texas State on Saturday, Sept. 2 at 6 p.m. The game will take place in San Marcos at Bobcat Stadium. The game is season opener for the Bobcats as well.

TAILGATE PARTY
The Tarleton Athletics T-Club and the Tarleton Alumni Association are hosting a Tailgate Party prior to Saturday's season opener.
The party is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. and last until just before kickoff in the West Parking Lot at Bobcat Stadium. Food and soft drinks will be provided, and the party is open to all Tarleton fans.

PREVIOUS MEETINGS
The two teams have met on eight previous occasions, and the Texans have come up short each time. The last meeting was won by the Bobcats (42-6) on Oct. 11, 1975. The two teams met when both were members of the Lone Star Conference. The closest game was a 21-20 loss in San Marcos in 1961 which was the two school's first meeting.

A LOOK AT THE RANKINGS:
Tarleton opened the 2006 season ranked No. 25 in the American Football Coaches Association preseason rankings. However, the Texans fell out of the latest AFCA poll despite not playing a game thus far. Tarleton was the leading vote-getter not in the poll. The Texans were not ranked in the D2Football.com poll or Don Hansen's Football Gazette poll. Tarleton is ranked No. 15 in this week's CollegeSportsReport.com poll.

Texas State is ranked No. 18 in The Sports Network's Division I-AA Preseason Football Poll. The Bobcats finished the 2005 season ranked No. 4 in the country. The Bobcats are ranked No. 26 in the www.CollegeSportsReport.com Preseason Poll.

SEASON OPENING SUCCESS
The Texans have won four of their last five season openers, including a 17-7 victory on Sept. 3, 2005 in Commerce. The last season opening loss was to Southern Arkansas (27-24) in Stephenville on Sept. 6, 2003.

AGAINST DIVISION I-AA TEAMS
The Tarleton football team would like to repeat the success of the men's basketball program last year who defeated two NCAA Division I teams (TCU and Lamar). The Texan's last football victory over a Division I-AA team was on Oct. 9, 2003 when Tarleton defeated the Bearkats 39-20 in Huntsville. The Texans are 3-5 against NCAA Division I-AA football teams since joining the NCAA Division II in 1994.

PICKED TO WIN IT
The Tarleton Texans have been picked to finish win the Lone Star Conference South Division Tarleton collected 80 points and five first-place votes in the LSC's annual poll to finish ahead of Texas A&M-Kingsville, who received two first-place votes. Tarleton received five second-place votes in the balloting that was done by head coaches, sports information directors and media representatives throughout the league. West Texas A&M (78) was third in the voting followed by Midwestern State (77), Angelo State (61), Abilene Christian (36) and Eastern New Mexico (30).

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS
Both Paul Williams and Ranardrick Phillips received preseason accolades for the 2006 campaign.

Williams collected preseason All-America honors from Don Hansen's Football Gazette and www.D2Football.com. Phillips was tabbed as a preseason All-American from Don Hansen's Football Gazette.

PRESEASON PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Tarleton's Ranardrick Phillips was named the Lone Star Conference South Division Defensive Preseason Player of the Year for 2006. Phillips was third on the team with 90 total tackles, including 41 solo and 49 assisted stops in 10 games in 2005. He recorded a team-high 8.5 tackles for a loss of minus-29 yards. West Texas A&M's Dalton Bell was named the division's Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

IT'S UP...IT'S GOOD
Paul Williams, Tarleton's senior placekicker from Weatherford, set a new NCAA Division II record last season after improving his consecutive field goal total to 25, dating back to the 2004 season. The Texan was 15 of 15 in field goals last season while adding 22 of 23 point after attempts, missing his last attempt. Williams hit a career-high 49-yard field goal twice last season.

TACKLE BY SMITH
Erick Smith returns at the linebacker position for the Texans after leading the 2005 squad with 98 total tackles, including 42 solo and 56 assisted tackles last season. He had five tackles for a loss of 20 yards while recording half a sack for six yards. He had two interceptions with a total return of 15 yards, four pass breakups, one forced fumble and one blocked kick.

CATCH THIS
Senior wide receiver Jeremy Madkins led the squad last season with 693 yards on 51 receptions. He averaged 13.6 yards per catch while scoring seven touchdowns. Madkins averaged 69.3 yards per game last season.

PASSING ACCURATELY
Senior quarterback Richard Bartel completed 60.5 percent of his passing attempts last season, placing him third in the single-season record list for Tarleton. He completed 153 of 253 passes. He is third behind Chase Sugarek, who had a 63.3 percentage in 2002, and Cliff Watkins, who recorded a 60.6 passing percentage in 2003.

PLAYING AT HOME
Six Tarleton football players are playing in their hometown of Stephenville this season. Stephenville High School plays in Tarleton's Memorial Stadium, so there really is no place like home.

TEXAN STATE AT HOME
For the third straight year, the Bobcats open the season with a NCAA Division II opponent. Texas State defeated Angelo State in 2002 (45-10) while downing Delta State last season (32-25). The Bobcats are 52-37-2 in season openers, and they have won eight of their last 10 season debuts.

PICKED SECOND IN SLC
Texas State has been picked to finish second in the Southland Conference Head Coaches Poll while they were picked to finish tied for third in the conference SIDs poll.

ATTENTION ALL FANS
Last season, Division II had a record 2,989,274 fans pass through the turnstiles at football games. The Lone Star Conference was right at the top of the list with 5,848 fans per outing, which was the second highest attendance for all Division II conferences. A total of 397,678 fans attended 68 LSC games.
The Division II total broke a 27-year mark of 2,871,683 set in 1978.

COUNTING CONFERENCE RECORDS
Each of the 13 LSC teams will count nine total conference games in the league standings. That translates to six division games plus three crossover contests for the South Division squads and five division games plus four crossover contests for North Division teams. Abilene Christian, Midwestern State and Texas A&M-Kingsville have an extra crossover game on their schedule, so their first contests with North Division teams does not count in the conference standings.

THIS WEEK IN THE LSC
Eleven of the 13 Lone Star Conference teams opened new campaigns this weekend. The Southwestern Oklahoma and Texas A&M-Kingsville game is the first LSC crossover game of the season.

Here is the schedule (all times are Central):
Thursday, Aug. 31
• Mesa State (Colo.) at West Texas A&M, 7 p.m.
• Missouri Western at Central Oklahoma, 7 p.m.
• Northeastern State at Arkansas Tech, 7 p.m.
• Southeastern Oklahoma at Northwestern Oklahoma, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 2
• Pittsburg State (Kan.) at East Central, 6 p.m.
• Tarleton at Texas State, 6 p.m.
• Western State (Colo.) at Angelo State, 6 p.m.
• Langston (Okla.) at Midwestern State, 7 p.m.
• Southwestern Oklahoma at Texas A&M-Kingsville, 7 p.m.
• Texas A&M-Commerce at Fort Hays State (Kan.), 7 p.m.

NEXT WEEK
The Texans will return to their home stadium for the first time this season as they host Southeastern Oklahoma State at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 9. The contest will be Take A Kid to the Game night where children 12 and under will receive free admission with a paid adult. The Savage Storm will face Northwestern Oklahoma on Thursday, Aug. 31 before heading to Stephenville next Saturday.
Tarleton leads the all-time series between the two schools, 7-4.