By Tom C. "Midnite" Burke
Thanks, Big 12, for scheduling TCU’s second bye of the 2025 football season for November 1, which, of course, was the Saturday after Halloween, which fell on Friday, October 31.
What’s a fellow to do on a college football Saturday with no Horned Frogs football game to attend and a large bag of leftover Halloween candy sitting on the kitchen counter?
Why, of course … gorge myself on televised sporting events and 49 fun-size pieces of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Milk Duds, Whoppers and Kit Kats!
There were plenty of treats for me and some sports teams to enjoy during the Halloween weekend, but for many others, there were only ghoulish tricks.
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| Tom C. "Midnite" Burke |
The Buckeyes and Hoosiers won their games on Saturday.
Ohio State routed Penn State 38-14. It was the Buckeyes’ ninth-straight win over the Nittany Lions.
Frightful!
Indiana treated itself to a 55-10 beatdown of the University of Maryland. It was the Hoosiers’ first road win as an Associated Press top 5 team since 1945.
Eerie!
A&M and BYU enjoyed byes.
A&M is 8-0 for the first time since 1992.
Georgia Tech and Navy were booted from the undefeated ranks.
NC State (5-4) spoiled the undefeated season of then-eighth-ranked Georgia Tech (8-1) with a 48-36 victory over the Yellow Jackets, in Raleigh, North Carolina.
North Texas (8-1) defeated previously undefeated Navy 31-17, in Denton, Texas. The upset loss also broke the Midshipmen’s 10-game winning streak.
According to some College Football Playoff models, North Texas (8-1, 4-1 in the American Conference) has the best odds to win the American Conference and thus make the Playoff.
The Mean Green in the College Football Playoff … how freakish would that be?
No. 20 Texas upset No. 9 Vanderbilt, 34-31, in Austin.
Just when you think the ‘Horns are dead, they reincarnate themselves.
Dreadful!
Playing No. 18 Oklahoma was no treat for No. 16 Tennessee, even in their home stadium. The Sooners upset the Volunteers, 33-27, in Knoxville.
SMU head football coach Rhett Lashlee agrees to a two-year contract extension through the 2032 season that will make him one of the top-10 highest paid coaches in the country, and then his Mustangs treat him with an upset of No. 10 Miami, 26-20, in overtime, in Dallas.
It was the Mustangs’ first home win over an Associated Press top-10 team in 51 years.
Former United States president George W. Bush and legendary Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin, who played college football at the University of Miami, attended the game. Bush’s wife, Laura, graduated from SMU in 1968.
University of Nebraska head football coach Matt Rhule was treated to a contract extension, but then his Cornhuskers lost a home game to No. 23 USC, 21-17.
Trick or treat, Matt?
With a touchdown and a two-point conversion with 40 seconds left in the game, Duke tricked Clemson, 46-45.
It was the Blue Devils’ first win at Clemson since 1980.
Clemson in team history had been 134-0 when scoring at least 45 points in a game.
How’s that for a creepy statistic?
No. 5 Georgia scored late to stave off an upset bid by Florida, 24-20, in Gainesville, Florida.
It was a spooky Saturday within TCU’s Big 12 Conference.
West Virginia went to Houston, Texas, and upset the 22nd-ranked Cougars 45-35. It was the Mountaineers’ first road win over a ranked team since 2018. The win also broke West Virginia’s five-game losing streak.
A 43-20 win over Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas, improved Texas Tech’s overall record to 8-1. It is the Red Raiders’ best start through the first nine games of a season since 2008.
No. 24 Utah defeated No. 17 Cincinnati 45-14 in Logan, Utah.
In the new Associated Press (AP) top 25 poll, BYU is eighth, Tech ninth, Utah 17th, Cincinnati 25th, Houston 33rd and Arizona State 36th.
BYU, which is in first place in the Big 12 with a 5-0 conference record, plays second-place Texas Tech (5-1 Big 12), in Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday, November 8.
Strange things happened within the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) during the Halloween weekend.
Second-ranked Tarleton State, fourth-ranked South Dakota State, sixth-ranked UC Davis, eighth-ranked North Dakota, 14th-ranked Lamar and 19th-ranked Northern Arizona lost to unranked teams.
Sinister, indeed!
Auburn’s 10-3 loss to Kentucky on Saturday resulted in the firing of Auburn head coach Hugh Freeze.
Auburn will be looking for its third full-time head coach since firing Gus Malzahn after the 2020 season.
Auburn is 4-5 overall and 1-5 in the SEC this season. Freeze’s overall record at the university was 15-19.
Freeze is unemployed, but he still gets a bag full of treats.
Auburn reportedly owes Freeze a buyout of nearly $16 million. He was in the third year of a six-year contract he signed when he was hired, which was to have paid him $39 million over those six years.
LSU parted ways with athletic director Scott Woodward, following the school’s firing of head football coach Brian Kelly, whom Woodward had hired.
Woodward reportedly will be owed a buyout of more than $6 million, unless the sides agree to a settlement.
Woodward had been athletic director at LSU, which is his alma mater, since 2019.
Hear those Tigers roar!
The other big sports news during the Halloween weekend, of course, was Los Angeles defeating Toronto, 5-4, in 11 innings, in the spellbinding seventh and final game of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) 2025 World Series.
It is the second consecutive world championship for the National League Dodgers, which is bloodcurdling reality for American League fans.
Los Angeles is the first team to repeat as world champions since the New York Yankees won three straight World Series from 1998-2000.
It was a heart-breaking loss for the Blue Jays, who led the Dodges 3-0 in game seven and were excruciating close to winning their first World Series title since 1993.
Toronto’s loss brought back nightmares to Texas Rangers fans of the 2011 World Series, when the Rangers were defeated in seven games by the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Series was noted for its back-and-forth Game 6, in which the Cardinals erased a two-run deficit in the bottom of the 9th inning, then did it again in the 10th. In both innings, the Rangers were one strike away from their first World Series championship. The Cardinals won the game in the 11th inning on a walk-off-home run by David Freese.
The Rangers’ 2023 World Series championship somewhat eased the pain of the 2011 World Series.
Meanwhile, earlier in the week of Halloween, Kennesaw State defeated UTEP 33-20 to become bowl-eligible for the first time in its history.
Kennesaw State is located in Kennesaw, Georgia. The Owls are members of Conference USA.
TCU’s fifth-ranked women’s soccer team defeated Houston 2-0 on Thursday, October 30, in its home stadium of Garvey-Rosenthal Soccer Stadium, to win its second consecutive Big 12 regular-season crown.
TCU has won the Big 12 regular-season crown four times in the last six years, also earning titles in 2020, 2021 and 2024.
Spellbinding!
TCU junior quarterback Josh Hoover was named to the Davey O’Brien Quarterback Class of 2025, officially making the candidate list for the nation’s oldest and most prestigious quarterback award.
The Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award is presented annually to the nation’s best college quarterback. It is named after TCU legendary quarterback Davey O’Brien, who won the Heisman Trophy and the Maxwell Award in 1938. He was the first quarterback to win either award.
In 1938, O’Brien led the Horned Frogs to their first undefeated season and a national championship.
O’Brien, at five-foot-seven, 150 pounds, was the smallest player to win the Heisman and the first Heisman winner from the Southwest Conference (SWC).
Freakish!
TCU safety Jamel Johnson has been named one of the 15 semifinalists for the 2025 Jim Thorpe Award. The award is given annually by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and the Jim Thorpe Association to the best defensive back in college football, based on performance on the field, athletic ability and character.
First begun in 1986, the award honors Jim Thorpe, who was a running back, passer, kicker and defensive back.
This season, Johnson is tied for second in the country with four interceptions. He has 62 total tackles, which was the most among players with at least four interceptions. He is also one of the only Power 4 safeties to hold 80-plus grades as both a run defender and tackler (Pro Football Focus).
Two TCU defensive backs have won the award over the last five years, including Tre’von Moehrig (2020) and Tre Hodges-Tomlinson (2022).
TCU women’s basketball player Olivia Miles has garnered some preseason hardware.
Miles is one of 20 players named to the 2025-26 Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Preseason Top 20 Watch List and she has been named to the watch list for the Naismith Player of the Year Award.
Earlier in October, Miles was named Big 12 Preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year and was a unanimous selection to the Preseason All-Big 12 team.
Frightful … at least for TCU’s opponents!
Former TCU head football coach Gary Patterson has been honored by being named as a member of the 2026 Class of Inductees by The Texas Sports Hall of Fame in Waco, Texas.
Patterson was TCU’s head football coach from 2000 to 2021, becoming the program’s all-time winningest coach with 181 victories during his tenure and transforming the Horned Frogs into a national powerhouse.
Patterson guided TCU to six conference championships across four different leagues, a 2014 Big 12 title, and 11 seasons with double-digit wins.
Under Patterson’s leadership, TCU had a historic 13-0 season in 2010 that culminated with a 21-19 win over Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl and a No. 3 spot in the final BCS rankings.
Patterson cultivated a culture of toughness and attention to detail, coached dozens of future NFL players, earned national Coach of the Year honors and established the Horned Frogs as one of college football’s most respected programs.
The 65th Annual Texas Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet presented by Texas Farm Bureau Insurance, will be held in the BASE at Extraco Events Center in Waco, on Saturday, April 18, 2026.
Tickets and sponsorship packages for the 2026 Texas Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet and Reception are on sale at http://www/tshof.org/induction or by contacting Krista Martin at krista.martin@tshof.org or calling 254-756-1633.
Tony Vitello, who was a TCU assistant baseball coach and recruiting coordinator manager from 2011-2013, has been named manager of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) San Francisco Giants.
Vitello has made an unprecedented leap from college baseball to managing in the pros. He previously was head coach of the University of Tennessee, where he won a national championship in 2024.
Succeeding Vitello as Tennessee’s head baseball coach is Josh Elander, who formerly was the Volunteers’ assistant head coach.
Elander played catcher for TCU’s baseball team from 2010-2012. For the 2016 baseball season, Elander served as a student assistant for TCU’s baseball team, while he completed his degree in communications.
In sad October news for the Horned Frogs community, TCU recently lost two of its biggest supporters, Hal Roach and Clarence Scharbauer III.
Roach, who was the first director of the TCU Frog Club, passed away at the age of 86.
Roach, who was a 1961 graduate of TCU, started fundraising for TCU athletics in 1979, when it was called “Advance.” He was named the director of the Frog Club in 1992. He retired in 2003.
Donations may be made in his name to the TCU Frog Club: TCU Box 297140, Fort Worth, TX 76129; 817-257-7700; frogclub@tcu.edu; https://tcufrogclub.com/sports/2025/7/30/contact-frog-club.aspx
Scharbauer passed away at the age of 74.
Scharbauer graduated from TCU in 1973, then he returned to Midland to join his family's oil and gas, ranching and real estate development business, which he oversaw until his passing.
Scharbauer served TCU as a member of its Board of Trustees from 1990-2017, the Executive Committee, the Development Committee, the Student Relations Committee, Campaign Co-Chair and Chair of the Regional Campaigns for the Next Frontier Initiative, Member of the Search Committee for the Head Football Coach, Member of the Search Committee for the Head Women's Basketball Coach, Namesake Benefactor, and Campus Visionary, and he was Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2011-2017.
Gifts may be made in his memory to: Clarence Scharbauer III endowed scholarship at TCU, University Advancement, TCU Box 297044, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or online at: https://advancement.tcu.edu/new/give/Scharbauer
Well, after some spooky times the past several days, the only things to fret about for a while are TCU’s final four football games, beginning with Iowa State.
The Frogs will play the Cyclones on November 8, in Amon G. Carter Stadium, on the TCU campus, in Fort Worth, Texas. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 pm (Central). FOX will broadcast the game.
Following the Iowa State game, the Horned Frogs (6-2, 3-2 Big 12) will be on the road for two consecutive weeks: against BYU, in Provo, Utah, on Saturday, November 15 (9:15 pm Central; ESPN); and in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, November 22, against the University of Houston.
TCU’s final home game of the season comes on the Saturday (November 29) after Thanksgiving Day (Thursday, November 27), so, thankfully, I won’t be sitting around the house with tempting leftovers in the refrigerator.
I do wonder, however, if could sneak a piece of leftover pumpkin pie into Amon G. Carter Stadium, to enjoy during the TCU-Cincinnati game?
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