Bowling Green opened as the home favorite in front of a Military Appreciation crowd, the kind of number you'd expect from an FBS program hosting an FCS opponent it had never faced before. That price didn't leave much room for a Texans team that had already proven it could win the games that mattered in its own conference.
Doyt Perry Stadium sat at 75 degrees and mostly cloudy for kickoff — no weather excuse for either side — and from the opening series the game looked nothing like the mismatch the pregame line implied.
Tarleton State grabbed the lead in the first quarter and doubled its cushion in the second, taking a 17-7 edge into the locker room. Bowling Green chipped away with a field goal in the third and another in the fourth, but never got the stop it needed to flip momentum, and the Texans answered every push with just enough offense of their own to close it out, 20-13.
For Tarleton State, it's a signature result to open a season that already came with national-contender buzz attached — proof the program's climb is more than a preseason talking point. For Bowling Green, it's a rough debut for Kastantin and a program still hunting for answers at quarterback that were supposed to arrive with him. Both head into the rest of their schedules with more to sort out than either hoped for on opening weekend.