Tarleton State is already 1-0 to start this season and, coming off a run to the second round of the playoffs last year and being ranked in the Top 10 in the FCS, it’s pretty safe to say the Texans are a team to watch this year. They just blew the doors off Portland State to the tune of 42-0 in the opener last weekend and got big performances from guys on both sides of the ball. The UAC is on notice. However, after Friday night, the entire country could be on notice pending what happens in West Point.
Tarleton State will get its shot at Army and, if that shot goes well, there might be a new national title contender to consider.
Of course it won’t come easy and that what makes this game such a good litmus test for Todd Whitten’s squad. The Black Knights are not some nothing FBS opponent. They won the American championship last year, finished with a 12-2 overall record and ended the 2024 campaign ranked #21 nationally. They are the real deal and… in all likelihood… will win this game on Friday. That being said, though, TSU doesn’t necessarily have to come out victorious to demonstrate its legitimacy among the FCS’s upper echelon. It just has to prove it can stay on the same field as Army for 60 minutes and that is very possible.
The Texans have a good blend of old and new this year and, despite the small sample size of just one game, it seems that mix might be the perfect one. One major void the group is trying to fill in 2025 is the one left at running back with the departure of last year’s star Kayvon Britten. Last week that worry seems as though it got quelled with the arrival of redshirt freshmen Tre Page III. Page stole the show in Portland last Saturday, rushing for 170 yards and two touchdowns against the Vikings and he wasn’t the only one to turn in a noteworthy performance.
Defensively they were just as dominant, if not more so. Linebackers Ty Rawls and Omar Emmons were stifling, accounting for all three of the team’s interceptions. Emmons took his pick 37 yards back for a TD. In all the Tarleton State D forced four turnovers, held PSU to just 108 rushing yards and kept them off the scoreboard all day. All of that happened while QB Victor Gabalis, who is back for his senior season, threw for 152 yards and two scores. Tarleton State is a very well-rounded group but what’s waiting is a whole different monster.
Army does a lot of things well but what they do best is run the ball. Despite the fact that both of their 1,000-yard rushers from last year are gone, the Black Knights will still have plenty of guys who can pound the rock. Noah Short and quarterback Dewayne Coleman will prove to be mighty challenges for that Tarleton State defense. Rawls, Emmons and the entire unit are going to have their hands full but, if they can somehow slow down the Army rushing attack, they will surely stamp themselves as one of the best defenses in the subdivision this fall.
It’s a game that will yield $250,000 for the Texans to make their swing through Michie Stadium but it might end up being so much more than a payday. In reality, no matter what happens, it will have little actual bearing on the season as a whole for Whitten’s team as long as no one gets hurt. That being said, a close game or… if the cards were to fall perfectly… a TSU win on Friday night would surely have everyone looking at these Texans through a different lens.
