STEPHENVILLE — The first representation of life and society beyond expansive acres of ranches and farmland on U.S. Route 281 South is a large purple billboard stacked on top of an advertisement for a local Dairy Queen franchise.
The road sign reads “Welcome to Texans Country” and, despite the fact that another dozen miles of hills separate it from Tarleton State’s campus, there’s an authenticity to the in-your-face message that clashes with the freeway’s agricultural backdrop.
Tarleton State, tucked away some hundred miles from the metroplex and once dubbed the best-kept secret in Texas by its own administrators, now intends to shed its confidentiality.
Its unbeaten football team — the most successful in the heart of a state that lives and breathes the sport — offers a nifty flag to plant.
Texas College Sports
“It’s the most visible program on our entire campus,” Tarleton State athletic director Steve Uryasz told The Dallas Morning News. “And that’s why it’s so important.”
The Texans are the winningest team in all of Division I with a 9-0 record in only their sixth season at that level of play. They’re the second-ranked team in the FCS national poll behind only perennial powerhouse North Dakota State and can clinch a share of the UAC championship Saturday at Abilene Christian on the road. Their .753 win percentage since the 2018 season is the best among any Texas team at the Division I or II levels.
They’ve done so with a head coach on his third turn at the university, a roster led by power conference exes, an administration that’s prepared for the next steps forward and an innate and improbable ability to navigate a college football landscape that’s no longer designed to benefit lower-level schools.
“We’ve won a lot of games and done well,” head coach Todd Whitten said, “The greatest accomplishment is we have flourished in the era of the transfer portal.”
Tarleton State Texans head coach Todd Whitten poses for a photo in the film room of the renovated Texan Football Fieldhouse at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Third time is the charm
Whitten, a Kimball graduate, was first hired to coach Tarleton State after its transition from the non-scholarship ranks to the Division II level prior to the 1996 season.
He was a 30-year-old and had previously worked as an assistant at Texas Tech, New Mexico State and UTEP after his one-year career as a quarterback with the New England Patriots ended.
“That’s probably too young,” Whitten said earlier this month inside of a modest office adjacent to the stadium. “Whoever hired me probably made a mistake.”
Whitten, inexperienced and “anxious to find out what was out there” as young coaches can be, left Tarleton State after one fall to run Wyoming’s offense for one season and Sam Houston State’s for another before he returned to Stephenville for a second time. He led the Texans to a Lone Star Conference championship and two trips to the Division II playoffs before he served as head coach at Sam Houston State (2005-09), offensive coordinator Lamar (2010-11), head coach at Arlington Heights (2012) and wide receivers coach at UTEP (2013-15) for a decade.
Tarleton State Texans head coach Todd Whitten talks to his players at the end of practice at Tarleton Memorial Stadium in Stephenville, TX on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
He was hired to coach Tarleton State for a third time prior to the 2016 season and helped usher it into the Division I ranks four years later. He now considers it “the best coaching job” that he’s ever had.
“I mean,” Whitten mused, “who gets to come back a third time?”
The list of a college football coaches with non-consecutive tenures at a single institution is short but not but not entirely unusual. The list of those who’re given a third opportunity is. The Venn diagram of “retread coaches” and “winners” is borderline nonexistent.
Whitten and Nevada’s Chris Ault (whose stints ran from 1976-92, 1994-95 and 2004-12) are the only thrice-hired coaches this century. Minnesota-Duluth’s Bob Nielson — who had two separate stints with the Div. II program between 1999-2012 — is the only coach that’s won a national championship in round two with a single school.
The historical precedence marked one set of odds stacked against him. That’s to say nothing of the steep climb the program has taken since his he was first hired — from NAIA to Div. II to Div. I — or the vastly different competitive universe his team now exists in. The NCAA introduced the transfer portal two years after Whitten returned for the third time. It allowed athletes to benefit from their name, image and likeness two years after that. That, coupled with the portal, created a quasi free agency ecosystem in which programs with big bankrolls could woo premier talent from all levels of football. Teams within his state’s own borders like Texas Tech, Texas and SMU have become poster children of a changed era.
He’s changed too. Whitten, now 60 and described as “very quiet” and “extremely honest” by his players, believes he’s had “a lot of the dumb” beaten out of him in the three decades since he was first given the reigns of a college football team.
“Our business, as you know, has changed,” Uryasz said. “Coach has done a great job of evolving with all those changes and building a culture.”
His priority shift from X’s and O’s to a heightened focus on kinship became the program’s best pitch. It’s become a standout asset in college football’s current landscape. Tarleton State cannot inherently beat its opponents with price tags and prestige. It doesn’t intend to, either.
“When I was younger, we would not have been as successful,” Whitten said. “We have made a real effort as a staff to dig into them and get to know them and have relationships. When you’re really close to these kids, it’s really hard for them to come in and say ‘Coach, I’m going to leave.’”
Few have because of it.
Tarleton State Texans quarterback Victor Gabalis (11) looks to throw the ball during practice at Tarleton Memorial Stadium in Stephenville, TX on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
Portal pros
Unprecedented movement is the expected cost of college football’s transactional era an an inevitable one for even the nation’s big winners and bigger spenders. Ohio State, the reigning FBS national champion, lost 15 players to the portal this past offseason. Notre Dame, the runner up, lost 13 players. Texas A&M lost 30, SMU lost 17 and Texas lost 15.
Only three Tarleton State rotation players entered the transfer portal.
Two withdrew their names and returned.
“That is, for us, the secret sauce,” Whitten said. “Keeping our roster together.”
The Texans have not lost more than three rotation players via the transfer portal in a single window since the 2022 season and they’ve managed to retain the newcomers that they’ve acquired because of it. Whitten reiterated the importance of bonds and said that his staff spends hours on the phone to vet portal players and identify those who they consider “our kind of guys” in personality, commitment and background.
“When we do that,” Whitten said, “we usually don’t miss.”
Quarterback Victor Gabalis, a Washington State transfer, is a three-year starter. His two lead wide receivers — Peyton Kramer (Oklahoma State) and Cody Jackson (Oklahoma) — have been members of the program for just as long. The trio anchors the third-best scoring offense at the FCS level.
Jackson, a former four-star recruit who attended the same high school as Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb at Richmond Foster, has caught 30 passes for 466 yards and 2 touchdowns this season. His high school scholarship offers included LSU, Alabama and Texas and he spent a season at Houston after his time with the Sooners ended. A family connection led him to Stephenville three years ago.
“It’s the culture, the love, everybody is just love,” said Jackson. “It’s a family.”
Others have tried to tear it apart. The Texans were the only school that offered St. Louis high school wide receiver Darius Cooper a scholarship. He enrolled at Tarleton State, totaled a school-record 3,185 yards in five seasons and signed with the Philadelphia Eagles this spring. He’s one of two Tarleton State alums active in the league today.
Players bow their heads as Tarleton State Texans head coach Todd Whitten leads them in the Lord’s Prayer at the end of practice at Tarleton Memorial Stadium in Stephenville, TX on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
“The masses tried to dig him out of here,” Whitten said. “I wouldn’t dare get anybody in trouble, but it was rampant, everybody wanted him to get in the portal. Nobody recruited him but us and he felt a strong sense of loyalty. He also said that this feels like family.”
Ditto for quarterback Daniel Greek. The Ferris native spent two seasons at Mississippi State before he transferred to Tarleton State where he’s backed up Gabalis for three years. He chose to remain in Stephenville for his fifth season of eligibility despite the fact that the program had an entrenched starter.
“He had some good tape out there and I really thought he would hit the portal,” Whitten said. “Same thing. He said, ‘I feel like this is my family.’”
It remains intact from the top down on an annual basis. The offensive coordinator duo of Scott Carey (eight years) and Adam Austin (five years) have been with the program since its Div. I jump. Defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix has been on staff for four years and five other assistants have for three or more.
Gabalis, a near-perfect Gardner Minshew doppelganger in appearance and vibe, walked on at Washington State five seasons ago but entered the transfer portal twice afterwards. Austin spearheaded an aggressive recruitment three years ago that ended before Gabalis had ever even visited campus.
“He picked me up from the airport, ate some Whataburger for the first time and we were just hanging out talking ball,” Gabalis said. “I was like, alright, I’m glad I came here.”
The Duvall, Wash. native has thrown for 6,819 yards and 57 touchdowns in three seasons as Tarleton State’s signal caller. The Texans have lost just six games that he’s started.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Gabalis. “I didn’t really know what to expect. I had no idea where the future was going to end up. I didn’t know if we had the money and funds to get to where we wanted.”
Gabalis then paused and surveyed Memorial Stadium’s field as his teammates walked off after a midweek practice.
“This is one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made,” he said. “I don’t want to be anywhere else. I’d rather be here because we’ve all grown with each other.”
Gabalis is one of 47 seniors on Tarleton State’s roster. Thirty three of them have been with the program for multiple seasons.
“Most are backups,” Whitten said. “I thought they would leave in mass to have a place to play their senior year. We’ve just got good kids. We’ve got good guys. They love Tarleton, they love this program. I guess we have a good culture.”
Tarleton State Texans head coach Todd Whitten leads his players in the Lord’s Prayer at the end of practice at Tarleton Memorial Stadium in Stephenville, TX on Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025.
Juan Figueroa / Staff Photographer
The next level
This historic year included an historic win. The Texans upset Army, 30-27 in double overtime, for their second win this season and second-ever victory against an FBS opponent. The win — secured by a walk-off field goal kicked by senior Angelo State transfer and Prosper native Brad Larson — signaled to defensive back Keysus Kerns that the Texans can compete with anyone.
Anyone?
“Anyone,” the senior said.
“We’re building something special here,” Kerns continued. “We’re really living legends in a way. We’re the start of this. We’re the ones that’re always going to be remembered as the first Division I team that came in and really did something special and started a legacy at Tarleton State.”
Their track record breeds confidence. The Texans concluded one of the most successful transitions in recent history last season when they became the fifth team in FCS history to win a playoff game in their first season of postseason eligibility. They beat Drake in the first round and lost to South Dakota in the second. Their .610 winning percentage in their four-year reclassification period (in which teams are ineligible for postseason play) was the third-best since in the last two decades.
Tarleton State, North Dakota State and South Dakota State are the only teams to record four consecutive winning seasons in each year of a reclassification period since the 2004 season.
Could it do the same again?
Uraysz, the school’s second-year athletic director who previously worked at West Virginia, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State and Nebraska, confirmed that the university does plan to eventual transition to the FBS ranks.
“That’s ultimately the goal,” Uryasz said. “[President James Hurley], others, myself have never hidden the fact that ultimately you want to grow to that FBS level.”
The university does not have a set timeline for a transition. They have, however, taken the necessary steps toward it. The football stadium underwent a $26 million renovation and expansion six years ago that expanded capacity and modernized facilities. The recently opened EECU Center — a multi-story basketball arena — cost $110 million to build. The performance center adjacent to Memorial Stadium was a $4 million investment.
“We have embraced what the future looks like,” Uryasz said, “and put ourselves in a position to do that.”
The athletic department established a grassroots NIL fund dubbed Light The Torch this year and opted into the house settlement this summer that created a revenue sharing model for college athletics. That pool is capped at $20.5 million for each individual school but an estimate conducted by nil-ncaa.com projected Tarleton State’s fund to be just north of $500,000 for the entire department. The department hired a full-time staffer to handle NIL initiatives this year.
“It’s tied into how you educate the masses and how get them involved,” Uryasz said. “And, you know, let’s be honest, winning helps. People love to win, and when you’re sitting at 8-0, people say, ‘hey, how can I help?’”
The university declined to disclose its war chest but reported that it has a “healthy” fund relative to other FCS programs. Whitten raised his right hand a and pinched his fingers together to offer a visual demonstration of how much Tarleton State can play its players in comparison to power conference programs.
“We’re not giving these guys NIL,” Whitten said. “We have a small handful of them. It’s not anything like SMU or TCU.”
They hosted a school-record 24,012 fans at a homecoming win vs. West Georgia earlier this month. That’s more than the student body total of 21,000 that the university reported this fall.
“We’re blessed because our university has made a real commitment to athletics,” Whitten said. “We have everything that we need here. We have a great location that’s close to a lot of players. Our expectations are high, but our commitment is really high too. That, as a coach, is what you look for.”
That’s what the players look for too.
That’s why they’ve stayed.
“I’ve been hearing a lot about us moving up to a bigger level,” Jackson said. “The skies the limit for this program.”
Stick that on the next billboard.
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