Central Oklahoma and Tarleton State — a pair of former Lone Star Conference rivals — will meet in the inaugural Corsicana Bowl in Corsicana, Texas, on Saturday at noon CT, and the game is not short of compelling characters.

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Tarleton has 14 players who received honors from the Lone Star Conference — including a pair of first-team all-league selections in senior wideout Jeff Thomas and junior defensive tackle Tyrell Thompson.

Thomas hauled in 53 passes for 788 yards and six touchdowns this season. Thompson recorded 55 tackles — including nine tackles for a loss — and 4 1/2 sacks.

The Texas starting quarterback, Zed Woerner, owns the single-game school records for completions and passing yards and the career record for touchdown passes — and if he throws for 213 yards or more against UCO, the senior will add the career record for passing yards, as well.

UCO is equipped with the MIAA Offensive Player of the Year in wide receiver JT Luper, who was recently named a finalist for the Harlon Hill Trophy — given annually to the NCAA Division II College Football Player of the Year.

The senior from Sherman, Texas, owns the program records for receptions (101), receiving yards (1,544), and touchdowns (12). He led all of college football in receiving yards and all of Division II in catches and yards.

Bronchos quarterback Chas Stallard is his team's leading passer (3,209 yards) and rusher (510) and will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the top signal callers to play in Edmond, OK. Stallard owns a boatload of UCO offensive records, including career records for touchdown passes and passing yards (7,246) and single-game records for passing touchdowns in a game (6) and total yards in a game (478).

In short, Stallard, Luper, Woerner, and their supporting casts are more than enough reason to get excited about this bowl game in north Texas.

The teams have taken opposite paths to this game in some ways. Tarleton started 4-1 but has dropped four of its past six games. UCO started 1-3 but won five straight and 6 of 7 to close the regular season.

The Bronchos and Texans played each other 10 times in a 15-year period before UCO defected to the MIAA. Tarleton won three of the first four meetings before the Bronchos won six of the final seven.