The Teams: Tarleton Texans (5-2 FCS Independent) vs. East Central (OK) (1-0 GAC)
Where: Stephenville, TX
Stadium: Memorial Stadium
Time: 6:00 p.m. CT
Streaming Platform: Tarleton Sports Network
Radio: Tarleton Sports Network on 90.5 FM (Byron Anderson, Kyle Masters)
 
TEXAN FOOTBALL GAME DAY
In the final game of the spring season, Tarleton will host an action-packed evening of football-centered festivities at Memorial Stadium as the No. 21 Texans take on East Central (OK) in the spring season finale.
 
The game will be broadcast on the Tarleton Sports Network presented by the North Texas Ford Dealers, which can be found online at TarletonSports.com/Watch. The game will also be carried on 90.5 FM in Stephenville and surrounding areas. Tickets are available and must be purchased in advance. Walk-up ticket sales are not permitted this spring. All tickets must be purchased online in advance at TarletonSports.com/Tickets.
 
GAME DAY FESTIVITIES
Thursday's game will be Military Appreciation Night at Memorial Stadium. The first B-52 Military Flyover at Tarleton State University is scheduled at the completion of the National Anthem. All active-duty service members and retired members of the armed forces will receive free general admission tickets for themselves and their immediate families, which can be picked up at the home will call window.

In addition to the military festivities, Tarleton Athletics will recognize its football, cheer, dance, band, and ROTC seniors at halftime. Also, the first 1,000 fans in attendance will receive a sneak peek poster for the Fall 2021 schedule – which is set to be released online Friday. Season tickets for the fall season will go on sale May 1.
 
ABOUT THE MATCHUP

• This is the second time that Tarleton and East Central have competed on the gridiron during a milestone, transitional season in Stephenville. The Texans and Tigers began their all-time series in 1961 during Tarleton's first season as a senior college.
• East Central leads the all-time series 12-10 since the first meeting in 1961, but the series has been dominated by the Texans since 1990. The 1990 team was the first in Tarleton history to complete an undefeated regular season and completed the first win in the series with ECU 21-14.

 
QUICK HITS

• Since 1990, Tarleton has won 10 of the last 13 meetings against East Central, including the last three straight meetings from 2007-09. The Tigers and Texans have not met since ECU left the Lone Star Conference in 2010.
• Tarleton is 3-1 against East Central under head coach Todd Whitten. Whitten also had a win over the Tigers to open the 2008 season when he was the head coach at Sam Houston State.
• Todd Whitten recently passed legendary coach W.J. Wisdom for the most games coached in Tarleton State University history with his 122nd 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. Thursday's game will be his 124th game as the leader of the program.
• Tarleton will recognize four seniors who will not be returning the team after this semester of competition and will be playing their final game for the purple and white Thursday. The Texans will recognize QB Cameron Burston, WR Braden Hucks, TE Darryl Estem, and DL Jordan Wells in a pregame ceremony.
• The Fall 2021 football schedule will be released on Friday, April 2 at TarletonSports.com.

 
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.

 
IN THE AFCA NATIONAL POLL
Tarleton continues to climb the ladder in the latest national top-25 poll by the American Football Coaches Association as the Texans are now ranked No. 21 in the country at the FCS level. The latest AFCA National poll is as follows:
 

#	School (1st)	Record	Votes
1	James Madison (23)	4-0	575
2	Weber State	3-0	540
3	North Dakota State	5-1	518
4	South Dakota State	4-1	480
5	Sam Houston State	3-0	476
6	North Dakota	4-1	470
7	Kennesaw St.	3-0	425
8	Delaware	3-0	419
9	Eastern Washington	3-1	385
10	VMI	5-0	354
11	Nicholls	4-1	318
12	Jacksonville State	7-2	285
13	Murray State	5-0	279
14	UC Davis	3-1	266
15	Richmond	3-0	249
16	Villanova	1-1	247
17	Furman	3-2	182
18	UIW	3-1	125
19	Southern Illinois	4-3	123
20	Northern Iowa	3-3	97
21	Tarleton	5-2	96
22	Southeastern Louisiana	2-2	69
23	Missouri State	4-4	54
24	Rhode Island	2-1	50
25	San Diego	3-0	40

 
Tarleton is also receiving votes in the Stats Perform FCS National Top 25 media poll this week.
 
THE BEST IN TEXAS
Since the start of the 2018 football season, there has not been a better scholarship football program in the entire state of the Texas than Tarleton State University. The Texans enter Thursday's game with 28 wins since the start of 2018, which is tied with Texas A&M for the most wins in the state by an NCAA Division I or II program. Tarleton has a chance to take the lead in the category with one more victory this season since the Big XII has already completed a full season. The list of the top scholarship programs in Texas over that span are as follows:
 

#	School	League	Wins
1.	Tarleton	FCS Ind.	28
2.	Texas A&M	Big XII	26
3.	Texas	Big XII	25
4.	SMU	AAC	22
5.	A&M-Commerce	LSC	21
6.	Baylor	Big XII	20
7.	TCU	Big XII	18
8.	North Texas	C-USA	17
	West Texas A&M	LSC	17
10.	Sam Houston State	SLC	16
	Angelo State	LSC	16

 
COACH GOAT
While coaches at transitioning schools are not eligible for recognition by the NCAA, Todd Whitten will be among the best coaches at the FCS level when the Texans complete their reclassification. Entering Saturday, Whitten would rank among the best FCS coaches in the following categories if Tarleton were not reclassifying:
 

WINNINGEST ACTIVE FCS COACHES (PCT) (Min. 5 years as FCS Coach, record at 4-yr colleges only)
#	Coach, School	Career Record	Pct.
19.	Ray Priore, Penn	31-19	.620
20.	Todd Whitten, Tarleton	109-67	.619
21.	Terry Sims, Bethune-Cookman	34-21	.618

 

WINNINGEST ACTIVE FCS COACHES (WINS) (Min. 5 years as FCS Coach, record at 4-yr colleges only)
#	Coach, School	Career Record	Pct.
16.	Danny Rocco, Delaware	112-58	.657
17.	Todd Whitten, Tarleton	109-67	.619
18.	Beau Baldwin, Cal Poly	95-38	.720

 
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.
• TARLETON VS. D1 TEAMS: Since joining the NCAA in 1994, Tarleton played 17 games against NCAA Division I opponents and have seven wins in those games, including wins this season over FBS New Mexico State and FCS Dixie State. Todd Whitten has four wins against D1 competition during his tenure at Tarleton.
• 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 23-2 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.
• 300 THROUGH THE AIR: QB Steven Duncan threw his first 300-yard passing game for the purple and white against Dixie State. His 347 yards against Dixie State were not only a career best for this time at Tarleton, but his collegiate career. It was his second collegiate 300-yard passing performance, topping a 304-yard effort on August 29, 2019 against Central Arkansas while he was at Western Kentucky.
• MOVING INTO THE TOP 10: Ronnell Wilson (273) is 56 tackles away from passing Marquis Wadley (328) as Tarleton's NCAA-era tackles leader and third all-time. With 45 more PATs (points after touchdowns), kicker Christian Hernandez (91) will move into a tie for second all-time with J.W. Boren (136).
• SHUTOUT: Tarleton's 38-0 shutout of Northeastern State was the first shutout since Nov. 17, 2018 when the Texans blanked #24 Azusa Pacific in the opening round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.
• AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Tarleton held Midwestern State to under 100 yards passing (87) on March 20, 2021. This marks the second time this spring and the 10th time in the Marcus Patton era on defense that the Texans have held an opponent under 100 yards through the air.
• PUNT RETURN SCORE: Kaylon Horton returned his first career punt return for a touchdown against NSU on March 27. It was the first time since Prince Robinson scored on a punt return against Western New Mexico on Nov. 10, 2018. Horton and Robinson are the only Texans to return a punt for six points since Oct. 24, 2009.
• LOOKING TO GO OVER .500: With a win over East Central on Thursday night, Tarleton has a chance to bring its senior college era record over .500 for the first time since its very first game in 1961. In 1961 under head Johnny Dunn, Tarleton won its first-ever game as a senior college 20-14 over Southwestern Oklahoma. Tarleton lost its next three and had a chance to bring its all-time record to .500 again in the season finale – against East Central – but lost 21-6 to the Tigers and have not reached the .500 mark as a four-year program again – until defeating Northeastern State Saturday night to bring their senior college record to 309-309-3

 
UP NEXT FOR TARLETON
Tarleton will return to regular operating procedure as the NCAA is expected to return sports to its regularly-scheduled championship seasons this fall. The fall football schedule will be announced at TarletonSports.com on Friday, April 2.