The Teams: Tarleton Texans (2-2 FCS Independent) vs. Dixie State (1-1 FCS Independent)
Where: St. George, Utah
Stadium: Greater Zion Stadium
Time: 8:00 p.m. CT
Streaming Platform: Dixie State YouTube Channel
Radio: Tarleton Sports Network on 90.5 FM (Byron Anderson, Kyle Masters)
 
TEXAN FOOTBALL GAME DAY
Tarleton Texan Football is headed to Utah in search of redemption Saturday afternoon. The Texans will take the field in a rematch with newest FCS Independent and future WAC rival Dixie State Saturday night at 7 p.m. MT / 8 p.m. CT at Greater Zion Stadium.
 
The Texans and Trailblazers played in Stephenville two weekends ago and Dixie State escaped with a 26-14 victory. Tickets are available for purchase to the game. Greater Zion Stadium will cap its capacity at 50-percent, which is a 5,000-seat threshold.
 
ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• Tarleton heads to St. George with vengeance on their mind in their second meeting with FCS Independent and future WAC football rival, Dixie State. The Trailblazers took advantage of five Tarleton turnovers in Stephenville on February 27 and edged out the Texans 26-14.
• Both the Texans and Trailblazers made the jump from NCAA Division II to Division I as members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) on July 1. Both are FCS Independents until the WAC reinstates football this fall.

 
QUICK HITS

• After suffering just its third home loss since the beginning of 2018, Tarleton rebounded last Saturday afternoon with a dominating performance against Mississippi College – defeating the Choctaws 39-14.
• Ronnell Wilson was named an Honorable Mention for the National Defensive Player of the Week award from STATS PERFORM FCS after his record-setting game against Mississippi College. Wilson is the third Texan recognized by the organization this spring, joining QB Cameron Burston and WR Gabe Douglas following Tarleton's win over New Mexico State.
• Todd Whitten enters the game as Tarleton's all-time wins leader (81). While every new victory is a milestone, the win against New Mexico State made him the first Texan coach in school history to reach 80 career victories for the purple and white.
• When the Texans take the field in St. George on Saturday, Coach Todd Whitten will tie W.J. Wisdom for the most games coached in Tarleton State University history with his 121st game on the sidelines for the purple and white. Whitten and Wisdom are the only two coaches in program history with over 100 career games spent as the head coach.
• This is the second of two games this season between the Texans and Trailblazers. This is the first time that Tarleton has scheduled the same team in the regular season twice since 1990. The Texans have played the same opponent in the same season since then on multiple occasions in seeded, playoff settings.
• Four defensive players – Ronnell Wilson, Devin Hafford, Tre Johnson and Erick Willis – will lead Tarleton onto the field as the only remaining players from Whitten's first signing class back in 2016.

 
NEW DIVISION WITH A BRIGHT FUTURE

• INDEPENDENT, FOR NOW: Tarleton State University made the jump to NCAA Division I and the Western Athletic Conference last July and is currently in its first year of a four-year transition period. The WAC stopped sponsoring football back in 2012, making Tarleton an independent football program for the spring 2021 season. However, the WAC has announced an expansion that will bring four football-playing schools into the WAC as early as July 1, 2021 – Lamar, Abilene Christian, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin. This move will bring football back to the Western Athletic Conference at the FCS Level.
• EYES ON FBS: With the revival of the WAC at the FCS level, the question remains of – will the WAC return to its former FBS glory days? The answer is simple: that's the plan. In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports, Tarleton President Dr. James Hurley said, "Our goal going into this is to immediately start laying out a plan among the presidents and athletic directors to develop a strategic plan to become an FBS conference. That work will start Day 1. We understand that realistically this is going to be at least a five-year process."
• WAC-ASUN CHALLENGE: Officially titled the WAC-ASUN Challenge, the Western Athletic Conference and ASUN Conference have agreed on a football scheduling alliance that will allow for the seven institutions to be eligible for an automatic qualification into the 2021 NCAA FCS Playoffs.

 
NOTABLES

• TARLETON DOMINATES PHIL STEELE PRESEASON ALL-INDY TEAM: The reputation of Tarleton Texan Football precedes itself as the Texans had 11 players named to the Phil Steele 2020 FCS Preseason All-Independent Team in July – the most of any of the four FCS Independent programs recognized. J.F. Thomas (WR) was named the Independent Preseason Player of the Year by Steele while the following players were named to the All-Indy Team – Khalil Banks (RB), Kendall Dearth (OG), Zach Perry (OT), Chris Radford (DL), Jordan Wells (DL), Ronnell Wilson (LB), Erick Willis (LB), Benjie Franklin (DB), Devin Hafford (DB) and Stephen Reeves (DS).
• WILSON, HAFFORD NAMED DCTF 2020 PRESEASON ALL-TEXAS SMALL COLLEGE: Tarleton Football senior All-American defenders Ronnell Wilson and Devin Hafford were named to Dave Campbell's Texas Football 2020 Preseason All-Texas Small College team last June. To qualify, a player must participate at a four-year institution in Texas that plays below the FBS level. The All-Texas Small College team consist of NCAA FCS Division 1 programs, Division II and Division III.
• OUT OF THE POLLS, STILL RECEIVING VOTES: The Texans fell out of the national top 25 poll but received nine votes in this week's rankings. The Texans were ranked No. 22 in the nation earlier this season.
• DEFEATING AN FBS PROGRAM: Between the fall and this spring's season, FCS schools have played 37 games against FBS programs and Tarleton recorded just the second victory for an FCS program against an FBS opponent. Only Jacksonville State has defeated an FBS opponent this year – def. Florida International 19-10 on Oct. 23, 2020.
• BATTING 1.000 AGAINST FBS: As Tarleton's only FBS opponent on the schedule, Tarleton will finish the season with a 1.000 winning percentage against FBS programs this season. The Texans join The Citadel (1-0; 2019) as the only FCS schools to boast a 1.000 winning percentage in a season against FBS opponents.
• FIRST-YEAR TRANSITION VS FBS: According to the available data on NCAA.com, Tarleton is the first program in their first-year of transition to defeat an FBS program.
• TARLETON VS. D1 TEAMS: Since joining the NCAA in 1994, Tarleton played 16 games against NCAA Division I opponents and have six wins in those games, including last week's win over FBS New Mexico State. Todd Whitten has three wins against D1 competition during his tenure at Tarleton.
• 100-YARD RUSHERS SINCE 2016: Tarleton has had seven different players top 100 yards rushing in a game since Whitten returned in 2016, including two different Texans this season. Braelon Bridges topped the century mark in the season opener and Ryheem Skinner in back-to-back games. Daniel McCants (12), Xavier Turner (10), Joseph Sadler (4), Adam Berryman (3) and Khalil Banks (1) are the other Texans to reach 100 yards rushing in a game. Skinner joins former teammate Daniel McCants as the only two players since the start of 2019 with multiple 100-yard rushing performances in a season. Skinner has rushed for 303 yards over the last two weeks, including a career-high 197 yards against Dixie State two weeks ago.
• HORTON TO THE HOUSE: Kaylon Horton's 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Dixie State was the first kickoff return score for the Texans since Prince Robinson took back a kickoff and a punt return to the touchdown in the same against Western New Mexico on Nov. 10, 2018. It's just the fifth kickoff return for a touchdown for Tarleton since 2012 – all five coming under Whitten's leadership. Prior to Whitten, Tarleton went from Oct. 22, 2011 until Oct. 8, 2016 between kickoff return scores.
• STOUT TEXAN DEFENSE: When Todd Whitten tasked defensive coordinator Marcus Patton in taking over the stop troops in 2016, he inherited a defense that ranked last nationally in nearly every statistical category. As the Texans prepare to enter the Division I ranks, they'll do it as one of the elite defenses in the entire country – returning three All-Americans and five seniors with key roles in the turnaround. Tarleton is coming off back-to-back seasons in which they ranked among the top 10 in the nation in scoring defense. The Texans return three All-Americans – Ronnell Wilson, Devin Hafford and Jordan Wells. Wilson and Hafford, as well as Chris Radford, Erick Willis and Tre Johnson, still remain from the first recruiting class of the Whitten/Patton era.
• THE PATTON EFFECT: When Marcus Patton accepted the job as Tarleton's defensive coordinator in the spring of 2016, he inherited a Texan defense that had given up 296.3 rushing yards, 263.3 passing yards and 559.6 total yards per game – last in the nation at the D2 level.
• Over the 2018-19 seasons, Tarleton had cut those numbers essentially in half. While boasting a 24-2 record over the last two years, Patton's defense is allowing 102.0 rushing, 193.5 passing, and 295.6 total yards per game.
• FROM D2 DESPAIR TO D1 DEFENSE: When Todd Whitten returned to Tarleton as head coach following the 2015 season, his first hire was defensive coordinator, Marcus Patton. The request was simple: fix the nation's worst Division II defense. Tarleton ranked last or near the bottom of every defensive statistical category in the nation in 2015. Whitten and Patton went to work in recruiting the type of players that could turn things around – enter Ronnell Wilson, Devin Hafford, Tre Johnson and Erick Willis. Those four Texans signed on as part of Tarleton's 2016 recruiting class and have since turned Tarleton into one of the nation's most feared defenses in Division II during the last two undefeated regular seasons and now will take the field for Tarleton at the NCAA Division I level.
• REGULAR SEASON REVENGE: The last time Tarleton played the same team in the regular season after losing the first meeting came in 1989 and Tarleton was successful in exacting their revenge. It came against former TIAA rival Sul Ross State when the '89 Texans lost the first meeting 22-24 on the road and won the later game 14-9 in Stephenville. The last time Tarleton lost two games to the same team in the same regular season was 1988 (Austin College).
• RONNELL'S RECORD WEEK: Ronnell Wilson enjoyed one of the best defensive football games in the history of Tarleton Texan Football last week. His 22 tackles against Mississippi College was the fifth 20-tackle game in program history and the first of Tarleton's NCAA era. Wilson joins a list of elite Tarleton defenders to record 20 stops: 29, Tally Neal vs. Texas A&I (1975); 28, Tally Neal vs. Abilene Christian (1975); 25, Lary Fowler vs. McMurry (1981); 24, Clint Jentsch vs. Ouachita Baptist (1993); 22, Ronnell Wilson vs. Miss. College (2021). Wilson also recorded 5.0 tackles for a loss against the Choctaws, marking the first time since Rufus Johnson in 2011 that a player made five stops behind the line of scrimmage in a game.
• MOVING INTO THE TOP 10: Ronnell Wilson is on pace to join the top-10 all-time list for total tackles. He is currently three (3) tackles away from tying Ranardrick Phillips (254) for the 10th most tackles in program history. Tally Neal is Tarleton's all-time tackle leader with 613 stops from 1975-78. With 10 more PATs (points after touchdowns), kicker Christian Hernandez (79) will move into a tie for third all-time with Paul Williams (89).

 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will return home for the final three games of the regular season, beginning with the homecoming game against longtime rival Midwestern State on Saturday, March 20. The Texans and Mustangs will rekindle one of the oldest rivalries in Texas, which dates back to 1925. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. in Stephenville. Limited tickets remain available for purchase at TarletonSports.com/Tickets. Student tickets remain free of charge, but Tarleton students with a valid ID will need to order a ticket through the ticket software. Walk-up ticket sales are not permitted this spring. All tickets must be purchased online in advance.