LAKE CHARLES – McNeese Football will kick off its 80^th season on Saturday night when the Cowboys host Tarleton State.
 
Kick-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. in Cowboy Stadium.
 
GameDay Notes:
 
COWBOYS OPEN 80TH SEASON AT HOME AGAINST TARLETON
• McNeese will begin its 80th season of football at home when it takes on Tarleton of the newly formed United Athletic Conference.
• The Cowboys visited Tarleton to open up the 2021 spring season, winning 40-37 in double-overtime.
• In that game, McNeese scored 21 fourth quarter points and scored with 35 seconds to play in the 4th to send the game to overtime.
• The two teams traded field goals in the first OT and Tarleton kicked a 45-yarder to begin the 2nd OT before Cowboy QB Cody Orgeron scored on a 19-yard run to win the game.
• The game, which was played on Feb. 13, took place in 28-degree weather with a wind chill in the single digits and icy conditions.
• McNeese first played Tarleton to begin the 2016 season, winning by a 33-3 score. The Texans were a member of the Division II Long Star Conference at the time.
 
COWBOYS IN SEASON OPENERS
• McNeese is 49-28-2 in season openers and a 36-15 mark since moving up to the Division I ranks and the Southland Conference in 1972.
• Since 2000, the Cowboys are 14-9 in season openers - 14-3 vs. non-FBS opponents.
• Since becoming a Division I school (1972), McNeese is 24-5 when opening the season at home and 25-8 all-time when starting the season in Cowboy Stadium.
 
2023 McNEESE COWBOYS
• McNeese returns 34 lettermen and 11 starters (5 offense, 4 defense, 2 special teams) from the 2022 team and added 57 newcomers.
• The roster includes just four seniors but has 27 juniors, 25 sophomores and 53 freshmen which includes 13 redshirt freshmen.
 
SERIES HISTORY
• Saturday's game will be the third all-time meeting between McNeese and Tarleton.
• The Cowboys hold a 2-0 lead in the series.
• First matchup came in the 2016 season opener in Lake Charles with the Cowboys posting a 33-3 win over the then-Division II opponent.
• McNeese defeated the Texans 40-37 in double-OT on Feb. 13, 2021 in the opening game of the spring football season (fall was delayed due to Covid).
• McNeese is averaging 36.5 points per game in the series.
 
LAST TIME vs. TARLETON
• McNeese scored 21 fourth quarter points, including 14 points in the final 2:46 to send the game into overtime where the Cowboys prevailed 40-37 in 2ot.
• The Cowboys rushed for 230 yards and threw for another 170 finish with a total of 400 offensive yards.
• Temperature was 28 degrees at kickoff with the wind chill in the single digits to go along with icy conditions.
• Twelve players on this year's Cowboy roster were on the roster the last time McNeese and Tarleton played - Josh Parker, Darius Shields, Ivory Roberts, Earenest Grayson III, Khaylon Chapple, Trey Vondenstein, Brayden Adams, Grayson Mays, Jack Zelezinski, Hezekiah Neason, Chris Stephens, Thomas Miles.
 
McNEESE-TARLETON CONNECTIONS
• Tarleton safeties coach, Scott Stoker, coached at McNeese from 1994-2001, helping the Cowboys to three Southland Conference championships, six NCAA 1-AA playoff appearances and the 1995 national semifinals. While at McNeese, Stoker coached both sides of the ball, including holding the title as offensive coordinator in 1999 then defensive coordinator in 2000 and 2001.
• McNeese head coach Gary Goff and Tarleton offensive coordinator Mason Miller have quite a history together. The two were teammates while playing at Valdosta State, then were part of Hal Mumme's coaching staff at Southeastern Louisiana in 2003 and 2004, each helping resurrect the football program. The two then followed Mumme to New Mexico State for the 2005 through the 2008 seasons before separating for the first time in six years.
• McNeese freshman LB Darrell Thronton and Tarleton redshirt freshman DB Maleek Jones were teammates for a couple of seasons at Memorial High School in Port Arthur, Texas.
 
A WIN WOULD ...                            
• Give McNeese its fourth consecutive win dating back to last season where it won its final three games of the year.
• McNeese hasn't won four straight since winning 6-in-a-row at the end of the 2017 and beginning of the 2018 seasons (3 in 2017, 3 in 2018).
• Give the Cowboys their first season opening win since the 2021 spring season where they opened up with a win over Tarleton in Stephensville.
• Mark the team's eighth season-opening win in the last 11 years.
• Give McNeese its 520th all-time win and 221st victory in Cowboy Stadium.
 
NON-CONFERENCE SUCCESS          
• McNeese will play four non-conference games before beginning Southland Conference play on September 30.
•  The Cowboys were 2-3 in non-SLC games last season which included a loss to FBS Rice and No. 4-ranked Montana State.
• McNeese has won 12 of its last 13 non-conference home regular season games and saw a 12-game winning streak snapped last season against Alcorn.
• Since 2000, the Cowboys are 31-6 at home in regular season non-conference contests.
• Since becoming a Division I program in 1972, McNeese has compiled a 95-27-2 home record in non-conference regular season games, a .779 winning percentage.
 
COACHING STAFF ADDITIONS        
• McNeese's coaching staff features three new faces this season.
• Adam Neugebauer takes over as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Neugebauer joined the staff in December and is coming from East Tennessee State where his offense averaged 30 points and 400 yards in 2022... he reunites with head coach Gary Goff, having worked with him at Tiffin University.
• Roy Roundtree is the new wide receivers coach, having come from Grand Valley State where he coached the receivers in 2021 and 2022. He also spent two seasons on Jim Harbaugh's staff at Michigan, assisting with the WRs. As a player, Roundtree was an All-Big Ten receiver at Michigan.
• Jamere Hogue joined the staff in June as the team's new defensive line coach. Hogue spent the previous three seasons as DL coach at Gardner-Webb. As a player, he was a three-year starter on the DL at Tennessee Tech and helped his team win the 2011 Ohio Valley Conference championship. He was named the team's defensive lineman MVP for that season.
 
ABOUT TARLETON
• Tarleton is coming off a 6-5 season and a 1-3 mark in the Western Athletic Conference.
• Head coach Todd Whitten is in his 14th season at the helm of the Texans and has record of 96-50. This is his third sting as the Texans head coach.
He's in his 19th season overall and has a record of 121-78.
• Whitten was first named head coach at Tarleton in 1996 then returned to lead the Texans from 2000-04. From 2005-09, he coached former Southland Conference member Sam Houston State, and after a few assistant positions, returned to Tarleton in 2016.
• Wide receivers Darisu Cooper and Jaden Smith have been named to the Phil Steele FCS Preseason All-America team - Cooper being selected to the third team while Smith making the fourth.
• A total of 12 Texans were selected to the UAC Preseason All-Conference list, including first teamers Qua'Shawn Washington (LB), Jalen Carr (DB), and Cooper and Smith at WR.
• The Texans were projected for a 6th place finish in the inaugural preseason UAC coaches poll. Nine schools make up the league that saw the merging of the WAC and the ASUN. Former SLC members that are part of the new conference are Central Arkansas, Stephen F. Austin, and Abilene Christian.
• RB Derrel Kelley III returns in 2023 after rushing for 1,004 yards last season.
 
McNEESE TAG HOLDERS
• McNeese's team captains, Tag Holders, are those who live by the Cowboy mantra of Tough, Attitude, Discipline, T.A.D.
• This year's tag holders includes senior LS Trey Vondenstein, junior QB Nate Glantz, junior RB D'Angelo Durham, junior OL Cole Leclair, junior DL Earenest Grayson III, junior DB Darius Shields.
 
NO PLACE LIKE "THE HOLE"           
• Louis Bonnette Field at Cowboy Stadium, otherwise known as "The Hole," is one of the most exciting and intimidating venues in all of FCS football.
• The 2023 season will mark the 59th being played in Cowboy Stadium.
• The unique setting was constructed in the early 1960s with a target date to open up in 1964, however, work issues backed the date up to Sept. 18, 1965, where the Cowboys dropped a 16-12 game to Tampa in the stadium's first-ever game.
• The Hole, which is nestled 12 feet below normal ground level, was created by over 80,000 cubic yards of soil being removed.
• Original capacity was 12,000 and expanded in 1975 to increase capacity to 17,410. An additional 200 seats were added to the north end at the field house, bringing capacity to 17,610. Seating along the hills allow capacity to be as many as 20,000.
• In 2008 the natural grass field was replaced by an artificial turf which was named Louis Bonnette Field in honor of McNeese's longtime SID who retired in 2012 after a 46-year career.
• The turf was replaced in 2018 and then again in 2020 following damage caused by Hurricanes Laura and Delta.
• Since its first game in The Hole in 1965, McNeese has compiled a 220-101-5 all-time record in Cowboy Stadium, including a 104-35 record against non-conference opponents.
• McNeese has led the Southland Conference in attendance in 16 of the last 23 years and in 9 out of the last 10 seasons.
• Home attendance has ranked in the top 25 in the FCS in 9 out of the last 10 years as well.