Expectations are running high in and around Memorial Stadium for the 2010 season – something that seems perhaps premature?

Leading to those high expectations are the following truths:

• The Texans are the winningest team in the Lone Star Conference since the 2001 season.
• Tarleton has won more division games in the last 10 seasons than any other school in the LSC.
• The Texans are coming off a share of the LSC and LSC South Division titles.
• Tarleton reached the second round of the NCAA Division II playoffs last season and finished the year ranked No. 10 in the country in the final American Football Coaches poll.

However, the Texans are young, there are over 40 new faces on the roster and a new head coach will grace the sidelines in 2010 – and he, Cary Fowler, wants no excuses as to this year's team not holding up to the winning tradition.

“We've got a young football team to Tarleton, and I think that is the big thing this year, but just because your young doesn't mean that your expectations are going to be any less than what they've been in the past,” Fowler said. “Our expectations are to win every game we play, and starting on Sept. 2, we're going to take it one game at a time.”

Though winning every game is important to the head coach to reach the ultimate goal of claiming a national championship, his most important expectation is for these young men to grow - in more ways than one.
“I think the biggest expectation is that I want these guys to gel as a team and as a family,” Fowler said. “When you look at wins and losses, if you become a team and do right when nobody's looking, with great character and don't have a lot off-the-field distractions while knowing and playing for our brother, I think the high expectations will be achieved.”

Schedule
The Texans have a tough schedule to open the 2010 season with five of the first seven games on the road.

“You have to play on the road at some point,” Fowler said. “We have to get in 11 games, and I am not sure that I will even address it with the players.

“We'll go and play anybody, anywhere and at any time,” continued the first-year head coach. “That's our motto, and I think that is what the guys have to buy into – don't look where you are going. Hey, we're the Tarleton Texans and we'll play anybody anywhere at any time.”

Tarleton will start at home on Thursday, Sept. 2 against Northeastern State before hitting the road for three straight games at Central Oklahoma on Sept. 11, Northwestern State (La.) on Sept. 18 and Abilene Christian on Sept. 25.

The Texans will return home for Family Weekend on Oct. 2 before returning to the road for two games at West Texas A&M on Oct. 9 and Texas A&M-Commerce Oct. 16.

Tarleton will catch a break and will host three of its last four games at home including Texas A&M-Kingsville for Homecoming on Oct. 23, Incarnate Word on Nov. 6 and Eastern New Mexico on Nov. 13. The other game will be on the road at Midwestern State on Oct. 30.

“We won't worry about where we are playing, we are just going to play to win,” Fowler said.

Offense
The Texans will offer more up front on offense and will spread the field while running the ball.

“Everyone thinks the offense runs through the quarterbacks,” Fowler said. “We're going to give our quarterback a chance to have a good day, every day, but you can't put too much on the quarterback, no matter who it is. Our offense will run through Evan [Robertson]. With Evan as a slasher, we are going to spread out and see him work in the open space. That's what he wants to do, and that is what he is good at, and that is what is going to make our offense even more potent.”

The offense will be directed by second-year offensive coordinator Scott Carey. Added to this year's staff is quarterback coach and passing game coordinator Justin Carrigan and runningbacks coach Brandon Slay while Billy Ray Jack will coach the tight ends and Phil Mannie will move to the wide receivers.

“We have a great group of coaches coaching the offense, and I expect very big things from what I think will be a very talented group,” Fowler said.











Runningbacks
The Texans will run behind Robertson (5-9, 185, Pflugerville) who returns after averaging 68.8 yards per game last season on the ground. He carried the ball 170 times for 894 yards and seven touchdowns while averaging 5.3 yards per touch.

The junior will be backed up by true freshmen Jerome Regal (5-10, 185, Carrollton) and Brandon Lowery (5-9, 185, Sasche). Other runningbacks on the roster include Eddie Brown (5-6, 165, soph, Galveston), Jerod Cochran (5-10, 195, fr-RS, Grandview) and Kenneth Travis (5-9, 210, sr, Rosebud Lott).

“We've got a lot of guys coming in, and we will have enough to find somebody to help run the ball,” Fowler said. “If you have a good athlete at runningback, they can play anywhere on the field. When we find out who will play behind Evan, we might move someone else to a corner, a linebacker or a wide receiver. We won't have to pound Evan every day, and we will get those young backs experience in the scrimmages to test them out. We'll see which of those guys emerges to be able to play for us on Saturdays.”













Wide Receivers
The Texans have several returners at the wide receiver position, but it is possible that most of the production will be new names to Tarleton fans. With the wide-open offense the Texans run, some sets have as many as five or six different players who can catch the ball off the line or backfield.

“This group of players is going to bring speed,” Fowler said. “We'll have seven kids offensively that run in the 4.4s in the 40. We also have lots of height. These guys can run and go up and catch the football. We wanted to go get guys across the board that the quarterbacks can throw to.”

Returning corps members include Devon Gray (5-9, 176, jr, Phoenix, Ariz.), Jamal Mays (5-11, 180, jr, Pflugerville), Arthur Buckingham (5-11, 180, jr, Pilot Point) and Lance Clark (6-2, 210, sr, Celina). Some of the new faces that should contribute to the 2010 expectations are Bola Omisanya ((6-1, 180, jr, Deer Park), Will Randle (6-1, 180, jr, Houston), Saalim Hakim (6-2, 195, jr, Atlanta, Ga.), Charles Stermer (5-11, 190, fr, Round Rock) and Jeken Frye (5-10, 160, soph, El Paso).

“We want to have a receiving corps that they can't say, 'I'm going to go out and stop this guy,'” Fowler said. “We want to keep the defenses honest and make them play one-on-one match-ups. There haven't been a lot of the four-wide packages here since Coach [Todd] Whitten left, but fans will see them this year.”


Tight Ends
The Texans have a list of tight ends that can get the job done for the purple and white.

Bradley Peschke (6-3, 240, jr, Giddings) returns to play for the Texans after earning two letters.  He will be joined by newcomer Paul Mansfield (6-3, 245, jr, Orangefield) on the depth chart.  Will McLane (6-4, 252, fr, Smithson Valley) and Tanner Maher (6-2, 250, sr, Mountclair, Calif.) will also see time at the end position, but they have been moved to the halfback position as well.

"We have some versatile athletes who can play here for us," Fowler said.  "I believe we have what we need at this position to be effective and to help move the ball down the field."


Quarterbacks
There has to be someone to get the ball to the rest of the offense, and a strong list of quarterbacks line up to do just that.

Tarleton brought in University of Tennessee transfer Nick Stephens (6-5, 230, jr, Flower Mound) to add to redshirt freshmen Aaron Doyle (6-2, 218, Evant) and Jackson Crawley (6-3, 210, Dallas) as well as senior Casey Page (5-11, 185, Hereford).

“We are going to miss Scott Grantham because he is a winner and a guy with great character,” Fowler said. “However, we get in Nick Stephens a guy that started in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). He understands the game and is one of the tops in the country – you've got to be excited about that.

“And we are, but we've got some other guys that can do a great job in there for us as well,” Fowler continued. “Casey Page knows our offense. He knows where to throw the ball. The guy that I'm really excited about, and I think the fans in Stephenville and those of Tarleton will be excited about is a kid named Aaron Doyle. He is actually the eighth guy on our offense that can run a 4.4 40. He'll run the Wildcat package for us. He's going to run the football, and he can throw it, too. He is a competitor. I am really excited about getting Aaron on the field and see what he can do with the ball in his hands.”


Offensive Line
When Fowler took the job at Tarleton as the head coach, one of his vows was to make sure the depth at the offensive line got deeper – and bigger. And he has done just that.

The Texans' total average of the top 10 players on the depth chart is six-foot, three and ¾ inches and 314 pounds. The starting lineup measures an average of six-foot, two and a half inches and 300 pounds, and the head coach is excited about the line.

“Our offensive line is different from what it has been in the past,” Fowler said. “We'll be very big up front. We worry about depth, and we have got to do a good job as a coaching staff monitoring how we go. We get Mike Hernandez (6-2, 300, sr, Smithson Valley) back to play center for us. He was a starter two years ago, and he'll be a senior. We have an all-conference player back in Bubba Wagner (6-4, 300, sr, San Antonio) who can play all five positions. We have Adrian Campbell (6-6, 320, jr, Richardson) that played for us last year, and we have guys like Shawn Wyatt (6-5, 315, jr, Smithson Valley), Solomon Orr (6-7, 375, jr, Mesa) and Teavis Durgin (6-6, 365, fr, Mobile, Ala.) who are transferring in to play with us. Josh Martin (6-0, 285, sr, Smithson Valley) is a great player in there as well.

“We have a lot of things we can do offensively up front,” Fowler continued. “That's where it starts. We can glitter all that up in the backend, but our offensive production is going to start and finish with those big guys up front.”

Over the last few seasons, the offensive line has suffered from injury after injury, and Fowler believes the depth they brought in will hopefully help.

“Coach Carey has not had a fair shake with the offensive line over the last few years because of the injuries. We got beat up, and we didn't have a lot of depth. We knew we needed to address that in the offseason, and I feel we did that. In that past, the opponent of Tarleton has gotten physically beaten up front, and we want to make sure that happens and we get back to the tradition of what Tarleton has up front.”


Part Two on Tuesday - Defense/Special Teams