On Saturday, Oct. 24, Tarleton State played its first game as the No. 1 team in FCS. The Texans led West Georgia only 7-6 after one quarter, then scored the next 42 points and won 49-6. They are 8-0 for the second straight season.

Much of the team that started 8-0 a year ago is gone. Tarleton had to replace its starting quarterback, four starting offensive linemen and its whole returning defensive line rotation. On signing day in February it announced 63 new players, a program record, and 54 of them were transfers. "Our plan is to be old every year and have a veteran team," head coach Todd Whitten said that day.

They came from every level of the sport: FBS and FCS programs, Division II and Division III, the NAIA and junior colleges. Nine more came straight from high school. The Ledger's last FCS read, five breakouts from Week 4, followed one road at a time. Tarleton's class holds 54 of them.

"A lot of the guys that we try to recruit out of high school, they don't come here. They go to the FBS," Whitten told Athlon in September. "We keep track of everybody, and so when they get in the portal, it is attractive to them."

On Saturday, five of those roads showed up in the box score: a quarterback who came home from Wyoming, a receiver who bet on himself at a junior college, the Southland's 2024 Freshman of the Year, a Division III All-American and a freshman from Georgia.

Week 8: 14 of 24 for 296 yards and four touchdowns, plus a 9-yard touchdown run, in a 49-6 win at West Georgia.

Road: Southlake Carroll High in Southlake, Texas; Wyoming, 2023 to 2025; Tarleton State, January 2026.

Anderson took over at Southlake Carroll as a junior, when the starter left early for college, and threw three touchdown passes in his first start, at AT&T Stadium. That season he threw for 3,036 yards and 34 touchdowns, and the Dragons went 14-1. A knee injury held him to six games as a senior, and several Power Five programs stopped recruiting him. Wyoming stayed.

His father, Ronnie, died in 2020. At Wyoming, Anderson wrote the date on his wrist tape before every game. "I play for him, because that was part of our dream, growing up, was to play college football," he told 7220 Sports.

He started all 12 games for Wyoming in 2025, then entered the portal. "Wyoming will always hold a special place in my heart," he posted. He came home to Texas and won the job in camp. "He's been outstanding really all through camp," Whitten said. With Saturday's five, he is the first Tarleton quarterback of the Division I era with five total touchdowns in back-to-back games.

Week 8: Five catches for 129 yards, including the 65-yard touchdown that opened the scoring.

Road: Stillwater High in Stillwater, Minnesota; Minnesota Duluth, 2024; Golden West College, 2025; Tarleton State, 2026.

Schmidt left Stillwater with the school's career records for receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. He played four games as a freshman at Minnesota Duluth, a Division II program, and caught a touchdown in his debut. Then he went to junior college in California, which he called "betting on myself." At Golden West he caught 61 passes for 1,183 yards and 16 touchdowns and was the Southern California Football Association's Offensive Player of the Year.

Tarleton's receivers coach had been talking with him since the second week of that season. "They were also the first school to take a chance on me," Schmidt told Gridiron Madness when he committed.

Saturday, his 65-yard catch on the opening drive put Tarleton ahead for good. In six games he has 30 catches for 477 yards and six touchdowns.

Week 8: A 23-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter.

Road: Pine Forest High in Pensacola, Florida; Nicholls, 2024 to 2025; Tarleton State, January 2026.

Brock ran for 132 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries in his first college game, and finished 2024 as the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year. In 2025 he led Nicholls in catches, with 41, and made the All-Southland second team.

Week 8: Six tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack and a forced fumble.

Road: La Plata High in La Plata, Maryland; Mount Union, 2022 to 2025; Tarleton State, 2026.

Brown played one season of varsity football in high school and had 13 sacks in it. He spent four years at Mount Union, in Ohio, and left with 32 career sacks and 49 tackles for loss. In 2025 he was a first-team All-American on the AP's Division III team. He came to Tarleton for his last season.

Saturday, the defense he joined held an opponent under 10 points for the first time this season.

Week 8: Seven carries for 71 yards, including the 13-yard touchdown run that closed the scoring.

Road: Brookwood High in Snellville, Georgia; Tarleton State, 2026. First college season.

Green was one of the nine high school players in the class. He was the Gwinnett County Player of the Year in 2025, and he led Georgia's 6A division in punt return yards.

Brown came to Tarleton for his last college season and Green for his first, and both were on the field for the program's first game at No. 1. Tarleton hosts Eastern Kentucky on Oct. 31.

How we count: Signing figures come from Tarleton Athletics' Feb. 4 signing day release. Roads reflect the UpNext network's athlete records. Game details, quotes and backstory come from school releases and public reporting.