Advancing to a bowl game is a well-earned reward for a successful football season.
But Roy Thompson, Arkansas Tech University head football coach, has made it clear to his team that the 2025 Heritage Bowl in Corsicana, Texas, is a business trip…and the Wonder Boys want to be in the business of adding to their trophy collection.
Arkansas Tech (7-4) and West Texas A&M University (7-4) will conduct their first-ever football meeting at Community National Bank and Trust Stadium in Corsicana beginning at noon on Saturday, Dec. 6.
Live coverage of the 2025 Heritage Bowl will be provided by KCJC 102.3 FM, the EAB Media Group app and www.arkansastechsports.com beginning at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Click here to listen live.
“You want the kids to have a good time because they’ve earned it, but there’s a trophy on the line,” said Thompson. “We really turned it up a notch in terms of our competitive nature by saying we can be Heritage Bowl champions. Our ultimate goal is to get to the NCAA Division II Playoffs and have an opportunity to compete for a national championship in future years, but this is the first step in that.
“Learning how to practice in December…learning how to take advantage of an opportunity to win a game on a big stage against somebody outside the Great American Conference…I appreciate the university allowing us to take this opportunity to continue building toward becoming the premier NCAA Division II football program in Arkansas,” continued Thompson. “I’m excited to play against a Lone Star Conference opponent. If you want to win on a national stage, you have to compare yourself to teams in other conferences. This is a big step for us.”
It has been three weeks since Arkansas Tech concluded the regular season. The invitation to participate in the Heritage Bowl has provided the Wonder Boys with an opportunity to do something they have only achieved six times since 1971: win eight games in a season.
“You’ve got to compete every day,” said Thompson when asked about his team’s practices in preparation for the Heritage Bowl. “That’s been our focus as a coaching staff. We’ve tried to make our practices very competitive so that when we go out there on gameday, we’re locked in and ready to go. During the time off, we’ve competed at everything we do so we’ll be ready on Saturday to compete at a high level.”
West Texas A&M averaged 51.3 points per game while winning its final three contests of the regular season. The Buffaloes, who went 6-1 over their last seven games, earned their first postseason berth since the 2013 NCAA Division II Playoffs by receiving an invitation to the 2025 Heritage Bowl.
The Buffaloes rank No. 1 in NCAA Division II in passing offense this season (352.9 yards per game) behind the talents of senior quarterback R.J. Martinez, who has completed 67 percent of his passes for 3,715 yards and 33 touchdowns with only seven interceptions in 2025.
Martinez was named Lone Star Conference offensive back of the year and was one of 36 individuals nominated for the Harlon Hill Trophy, which is presented annually to the best player in NCAA Division II football.
“Those guys do a great job of throwing the football around,” said Thompson. “They spread you from sideline-to-sideline, and the quarterback is a great decision maker. He’s a very good runner, and he does an excellent job operating that offense. He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the nation for a reason.”
Arkansas Tech will try to play keep-away from the Buffaloes with a rushing attack that features freshman running back Bryson Roland. He has carried 158 times for 1,054 yards and nine touchdowns. Roland is the first Wonder Boy since Bryan Allen in 2015 to reach 1,000 rushing yards in a season and is just the eighth Arkansas Tech player to reach that figure in the 110-season history of the program.
Roland, who grew up an hour from Corsicana in Waco, Texas, is averaging 95.8 rushing yards per game this season. He ranks third overall in the Great American Conference and third among all NCAA Division II freshmen in rushing during 2025. He was named GAC freshman of the year, making him the first Wonder Boys football player to earn a conference freshman of the year award.
“Our program is built on running the football,” said Thompson. “We’ve talked about that from day one. We’ve got to do what we do, which is play a physical brand of football. We want to keep (West Texas A&M’s) offense off the field as much as possible. We’re going to rely on our big guys up front to dominate the line of scrimmage.”
Arkansas Tech has played 1,057 football games since fielding its first team in 1911. Saturday will mark just the 15th postseason game in program history, and it provides an opportunity for the Wonder Boys to collect their sixth all-time postseason win. It would be their first postseason victory since 2015.
“To win in the postseason, you have to be a three-phase team,” said Thompson. “We’ve got to play great defensively, we have to be able to run the ball on offense and we have to play championship-level special teams. I’m looking for a complete game because that’s what it’s going to take to win. Anybody still playing football in December is a good ballclub, so to win this type of game we have to be able to execute in all three phases.”
Talk to you on the radio.
Tech Tidbits is a column written by Sam Strasner, ATU director of university relations and radio play-by-play voice for ATU football and basketball.
