Texans and Statesmen on-tap today at Memorial Stadium

Saturday's meeting between the Texans and Statesmen will be the first meeting between the two schools.

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STEPHENVILLE - The Tarleton Texans (2-2, 2-2 LSC) return home to host Gulf South Conference member, Delta State (1-3, 0-1 GSC), as part of the GSC-LSC First and Ten Challenge. Saturday's match-up with be the first-ever meeting held between Tarleton and DSU. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 6, at Tarleton Memorial Stadium in Stephenville.

QUICK HITS

Tarleton is coming off a 41-21 loss to then No. 23-ranked West Texas A&M in Canyon last Saturday. The Texans have opened up conference schedule at 2-2 over the first four games for the first time since the 2008 season.
DSU looks to bounce back after falling at home to Abilene Christian, 34-28. The Statesmen are led by quarterback Trevor Woodmen who has completed 54 of his 103 passing attempts for 764 yards and six touchdowns. The duel-threat QB has also rushed for a team-high 335 yards and a pair of touchdown runs. He is averaging 191 yards through the air and 71.2 yards on the ground.
The Texans' Vaughn Smith (RB, Jr, Menlo Park, Calif.) collected his second 100-yard rushing performance in as-many games (started) this past Saturday against WTAMU. The junior tailback rushed for a game-high 134 yards on 24 carries and took the ball into the end zone for the game's first score.
Tarleton has now had at least one 100-yard rusher in the first four games this season (GM 1, Jerome Regal (152 yds); GM 2, Regal (103 yds); GM 3, Smith (167 yds) and Zach Henshaw (113 yds); GM 4, Smith (134 yds).
The Texans have had a 100-yard rusher in four-straight games for the first time since the 2006 season. Tarleton went eight-consecutive games with at least one 100-yard rusher during that particular campaign.
The Texan defense has allowed an opponent to tally over 500 yards in a game just two times in the previous 11 games. WTAMU recored 530 yards of offense against the Texans last year in Stephenville before putting up 502 yards against them on Saturday.
Tarleton is 0-2 all-time against Gulf South Conference teams. The Texans lost to West Alabama, 42-35, in Linvingston, Ala. last season (Sept. 10, 2011). Prior to that, Tarleton's only other meeting with a GSC member came against Valdosta State back on Oct. 9, 1993. Tarleton lost 68-10.

THE SERIES
        This will be the first-ever meeting between the Texans and the Statesmen.

HEAD COACH CARY FOWLER
        Tarleton head coach Cary Fowler is in his third year at the helm of the Texan Football program. Fowler took over the team in January 2010 after then-head coach Sam McElroy departed to Texas Tech for an assistant coaching position.
        Fowler went just 3-8 with the Texans in his first campaign as head coach in 2010. But the team and his coaching staff bounced back in 2011 with a 6-5 mark, which included going 5-3 in Lone Star Conference play and winning its final five games of the regular-season.
        Fowler heads into this weekend's game with an overall record of 11-15. This will be his first contest across the sidelines from Delta State

DSU HEAD COACH JAMEY CHADWELL
        Delta State's Jamey Chadwell is in his first season with the Statesmen. Prior to his appointment of head coach in Cleveland, Miss., Chadwell spent the previous three years at North Greenville University where he guided the newly minted Division II squad to a 22-14 record. In his final season at NGU in 2011, Chadwell went 11-3 as the head coach and guided his team to the NCAA NCAA Quarterfinals.
        Chadwell was a four-year letterwinner for East Tennessee State, where he played the quarterback. He led his team to a pair of Southern Conference Championship appearances while playing for the Buccaneers.
        Chadwell, who is just 1-3 in his first four games with DSU, has never met the Texans as a head coach.

LAST WEEK
        Tarleton's Vaughn Smith (RB, Jr, Menlo Park, Calif.) scored from 15 yards out for last Saturday's first touchdown, but West Texas A&M scored the game's next 24 points en route to a 41-21 win over the Texans at Kimbrough Memorial Stadium in Canyon.
        The Texans pulled within six points of the then No. 23-ranked Buffs with less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter, but a personal foul from the Texans on WT's ensuing possession led to another Buffalo touchdown, taking away all the momentum Tarleton had left.
        Smith finished the game with more than 100 yards on the ground, but it was the lone spotlight for the Texans after the defense allowed the Buffs to gain more than 500 yards of total offense.
        WT's Dustin Vaughan threw the ball for 331 yards and four touchdowns in the air. Khiry Robinson tallied 125 yards on the ground and caught six passes for 90 yards and a touchdown.

SCOUTING THE STATESMEN
        Delta State is 1-3 heading into Saturday's contest with the Texans after falling 34-28 to fellow Lone Star Conference rival Abilene Christian at home.
        The Statesmen fell behind 10-0 early, but then scored the game's next two touchdown later in the second quarter. ACU went back on-top with antoehr score, but DSU countered with tis own touchdown.
        The Wildcats then closed-out a 35-point quarter with another touchdown right before the halftime break and took a 24-21 lead into the locker rooms.
        ACU managed to edge-out the Statesmen by three points in the second half on the way to the six-point victory at McCool Stadium.
        DSU's Trevor Woodmen passes for 260 yards on the night, but had two interceptions as well, which led to a pair of touchdowns for the Wildcats. The duel-threat quarterback tucked the ball and rushed 18 times on the night for a total of 88 yards. Kevin Jackson led the Statesmen with 131 yards on five catches, while Lavon Downs hauled in six catches for 98 yards.
        The Statesmen head into Saturday's game 1-3 overall and 0-1 in Gulf South Conference play. DSU's lone win came against Elizabeth Ciy - a 26-7 contest in Elizabeth City, N.C.
        DSU went 11-3 last season, losing its only GSC contest to West Georgia (39-35) before falling to Pittsburg State in the NCAA Division II Semifinals.

HOLDING OFF JOHNNY WISHBONE
        Tarleton's defense stymied ENMU's wishbone offense a few weeks ago, allowing the Greyhounds to just 139 yards on the ground. In the two previous games heading into its meeting with Tarleton, ENMU rushed for 301 yards against Sul Ross State and 244 yards against UIW.

ON THE RHODES AGAIN
        Clifton Rhodes III (WR, So, Fort Worth) has a pair of 100-yard receiving games this season. The sophomore wideout had 10 catches for 111 yards two weeks ago against Eastern New Mexico. He also tallied nine catches for 106 yards the previous week against Abilene Christian.
        Rhodes had four 100+ yard receiving games last season, giving him six total in his young career.

GIVE ME FIVE... HUNDRED (AGAIN)
        The Texan offense has accumulated over 500 yards of total offense twice in four games this season. Two weeks ago in Stephenville, Tarleton netted a season-high 564 yards in the 35-23 win over ENMU. In Tarleton's 31-34 loss to ACU the week before, the Texans tallied 556 yards of total offense.
        The last time a Texan offense netted back-to-back 500-yard weeks came during the 2007 season. Tarleton tallied 591 yards against Eastern New Mexico on Oct. 20, 2007, in a 40-10 thumping of the Greyhounds. The Texans then turned around to net 602 yards of total offense on Oct. 27, 2007, in a 63-70 defeat against Abilene Christian.

NEW BACK(S), NO PROBLEM
        The Texans will be without one of its premiere rushers over the next three-four weeks, as Jerome Regal (RB, So, Garland) will be on the sidelines recovering from a broken jaw. Instead, the Texans will have to hand the ball off to junior college-transfer Vaughn Smith (RB, Jr, Menlo Park, Calif.) and true freshman Zach Henshaw (RB, Fr, Fischer). Both runners netted over 100-yards rushing against Eastern New Mexico and then the following week at West Texas A&M, Vaughn rushed for a season-high 134 yards.

PUNT THIS
        Isaac Arellano (K, So, Euless) was forced to punt the ball seven times last weekend in Canyon, which he booted for a total of 330 yards. That also included a season-long punt of 55-yards.
        On the season, Arellano is averaging an LSC-best 45.2 yards per game and has just two punts that went for touchbacks.

HOW THEY RANK
        Tarleton's offense dropped 11 spots in the national rankings for total offense, following its 389-yard performance at West Texas A&M. The Texans now rank 20th overall, with 465.75 yards per game average. The Texans have averaged 228.25 yards on the ground, which ranks them 20th in the nation in rushing average as well.
        The Texans are giving opponents fits rushing the ball as well, heading into Saturday's game ranked 58th in the nation in rushing defense. Tarleton's defense has allowed opponents to just 127.25 yards per contest in the ground game.

COMING OFF A LOSS
        The Texans went 2-3 following a loss last season and are 1-0 in 2012. Since the 2007 season, Tarleton is 11-7 in its next contest after falling the week before.

HONORED BY THE LSC
        Following Tarleton's first week of play, two Texan players earned Lone Star Conference Player of the Week accolades. On the offensive side of the ball, Jerome Regal got the nod for his 33-carry, 152-yard and two touchdown perfomance. Defensively, Marquis Wadley showed why he was the leading tackler in the LSC in 2011. The junior from Mesquite had a game-high 12 tackles, seven of which were solo, and picked off Kelsey's pass with 47 seconds to go on the game-tying drive attempt.

LSC LEADERS
        Tarleton's Vaughn Smith ranks second in the league in rushing yardage per game. The junior averages 85.2 yards per game, just 20.0 yards shy of LSC-leader, Keidrick Jackson of Midwestern State.
        Aaron Doyle (QB, JR, Evant) averages 237.5 yards passing on the season, which ranks him third behind West Texas A&M's Dustin Vaughan and Abilene Christian's Mitchell Gale. Vaughan leads the conference with 326.2 yards through the air.
        Clifton Rhodes III averages 6.0 catches per contest, which is good enough for second in the league behind WTAMU's Torrence Allen. Allen leads the LSC with 6.2 catches per game.

UP NEXT FOR THE TEXANS
                The Texans' home cooking will last for just one game this week as the team will hit the road again next weekend. Tarleton will travel to Commerce to face A&M-Commerce next Saturday, Oct. 13. Kickoff between the Texans and Lions is set for 6 p.m. at TAMUC's Memorial Stadium.

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