Midnite Madness Presents TCU's Week of Calm Amid College Football Chaos

Midnight Madness is a weekly opinion column by Tom Burke for TCU On SI

Nov 29, 2025; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; The TCU Horned Frogs showgirl dancer cheerleaders perform during the first half of the game against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Amon G. Carter Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

TCU Football Is - For Once - Not In Turmoil

No drama.

No portal fires.

No coaching rumors (that are gaining any traction.)

No existential dread.

It’s an excellent time to be a Horned Frogs football fan.

In fact, this may be one of the best times ever to be a Horned Frogs football fan. That’s because while the college football world has gone wacko, Funkytown is mellow. Not mellow as in Austin-weird mellow, mind you. Just mellow. And these days, there’s nothing wrong with being mellow, even before mellow becomes cool. After all, it was cool to be purple before purple became cool.

Dec 28, 2017; San Antonio, TX, United States; TCU Horned Frogs tight end Artayvious Lynn (88) plants the Horned Frog flag onto the field after defeating the Stanford Cardinals 39-37 in the 2017 Alamo Bowl at Alamodome. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-Imagn Images | Erich Schlegel-Imagn Images

Except for a few lightning delays, TCU football fans experienced a mellow 8-4 overall 2025 regular season by the Frogs, who finished barely above average at 5-4 in the Big 12. Good enough for ninth place in a 16-team league. And good enough for a non-controversial spot in the Alamo Bowl, in the second-best city in Texas.

Mellow, baby!

This was the Horned Frogs’ second consecutive 8-4 regular season. In other words, mellowness is growing on the Frogs. The kind of mellowness that harkens back to the days of yore, when a single win in a season by the Frogs was reason for a parade. When literally there was no stress involved with being a TCU football fan.

Since the Sun Bowl of 1998, life as a Horned Frogs fan hasn’t always been quite as mellow. The years 2014, 2010, and 2022 were particularly stressful for a Frog. You may recall that going into the last game of the 2014 season, TCU was 10-1 and third in the next-to-last national playoff ranking. A 55-3 victory over Iowa in TCU’s final regular-season game calmed some Froggy nerves. But then in the final playoff ranking, the Frogs dropped to No. 6 and out of the playoff picture, igniting a purple firestorm. Oh, what we would have given for some mellowness in Funkytown back then. Oh, what the Fightin’ Irish would give for some mellowness in South Bend today.

In 2010, a 12-0 regular season for TCU hinged on every game. Every play. Every score. There was no relief until TCU closed out the regular season with a 66-17 victory over New Mexico.

Then came the Rose Bowl, on January 1, 2011, and the prospect of TCU losing its perfect season on a national stage, where there were more than a few non-Frog believers. It was more than enough to make you sick to your stomach. Thankfully, Tank Carder’s “Immaculate Deflection” denied Wisconsin a two-point conversion and paved the way for a 21-19 TCU victory. TCU fans were so stressed out by the end of the game that they could hardly believe the Frogs had beaten the Badgers. Dazed TCU football fans wandered around the Rose Bowl and muttered in disbelief, “We just won the Rose Bowl. We just won the Rose Bowl.” Not a mellow Horned Frog could be found from Pasadena to Plainview to Pascagoula.

As TCU’s 2022 football season progressed, perfection and an unprecedented preseason berth became the goals. Every game was a cardiac event waiting to happen. No game was more stressful than the Baylor game in Waco on November 19. The Frogs got an improbable come-from-behind win over their arch-rivals. They scored nine points in the final 2:07 and stunned the Bears, 29-28, on a Griffin Kell 40-yard “bazooka” field goal as time expired. There were not enough purple defibrillators to go around. Women and children were given priority.

Then came that season’s emotional roller-coaster period: the disgusting overtime loss to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship Game; the delirious 51-45 win over Michigan in the College Football Playoff Semifinal Game in the Fiesta Bowl, and the embarrassing 65-7 loss to Georgia in the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship Game. Mellow was nowhere to be found back then.

Meanwhile Outside Fort Worth

Today, however, TCU football fans can sit back, kick up their feet, and watch other college football fans fret and sweat, endure migraines and chest pains, as college football chaos and ridiculousness reign in their front yards. In addition to how Notre Dame fans are feeling, think of how stressful life is for Ole Miss football fans.

With the Rebels in contention for a berth in the College Football Playoff, their bitter rival, LSU, stole their head coach, Lane Kiffin, for a promise of $91 million, 100 pounds of crawfish, and an endless supply of Abita root beer over a seven-year period.

Kiffin replaced Brian Kelly, whom LSU fired during the season, despite owing him a $53-million buyout. Between firing Kelly and hiring Kiffin, that’s at least $144 million Louisiana dollars. A lot of mellowness and boudin can be bought for $144 million. And that’s just the tip of a huge iceberg. Many other collegiate head football coaches have been fired in recent weeks, despite multi-million-dollar contract buyouts. Many other head football coaches have been poached from college football teams in recent weeks. Of course, there’s nothing more invigorating within academia than increasing the cost of tuition, while the university is paying tens of millions of dollars to lure football coaches or to legally pacify coaches whom they have fired. No wonder life on many college campuses is not as mellow as it is at TCU.

The Big 12 Conference is not immune to the lunacy that’s destroying college football and collegiate athletics, in general. Three games into his 21st season, Mike Gundy was fired as Oklahoma State’s head football coach. Gundy had spent 35 years at OSU. Four as a quarterback. Ten as an assistant. Twenty as head coach, during which he delivered 18 consecutive winning seasons. Gundy had an overall record of 170-90 and a conference record of 102-72. He had a reported contract buyout of about $15 million. Oklahoma State hired North Texas head football coach Eric Morris as its new head coach. There is no mellowness in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Kansas State head football coach Chris Klieman retired at the end of the regular season after seven seasons with the Wildcats. Klieman, 58, was 54-34 at Kansas State, with six bowl appearances and that Big 12 championship in 2022. After a 51-47 loss to Utah in K-State’s 11th game of this season, Klieman said, “I’ve heard that I’ve cashed it in, I’ve heard the players have cashed it in, we need to get new leadership here, we need to get new players, new coaches,” Klieman said. “I’m tired of it. I gotta be honest with you, I’m tired of it. “I’ve given my friggin’ ass life to this place for seven years. I’ve given everything for seven years, and I think I deserve a little bit of respect.”

Collin Klein, offensive coordinator for Texas A&M and a former Kansas State quarterback, will be K-State’s new head coach. Neither Klieman nor the Little Apple is dripping with mellowness.

Iowa State head football coach Matt Campbell is Penn State’s new head football coach. Campbell replaces James Franklin, who was fired in mid-October, with a potential $49 million buyout. The buyout reportedly was reduced to $9 million as part of a negotiated settlement when Franklin was hired as the head coach of Virginia Tech, who had earlier fired Brent Pry after four seasons. Campbell is the all-time winningest coach in Iowa State history, with a 72-55 record after a decade with the Cyclones. Will Happy Valley be more mellow than Ames, Iowa?

There is yet another mess at Baylor University. The University and athletic director Mack Rhoades recently agreed to end his time there. Rhoades resigned from a position he had held for the past nine years. In the midst of heavy fallout from a 5-7 football season, Baylor President Dr. Linda Livingston announced that head football coach Dave Aranda will be retained for the 2026 season. “After careful consideration, we have decided to retain coach Dave Aranda as the leader of our football program,” said Dr. Livingstone. “We recognize this decision will generate strong opinions. Let me be clear: Baylor expects excellence, accountability, and competitiveness at the highest level. We are not complacent, and we are not settling for mediocrity.” Rhoades has been replaced by Doug McNamee.
Many Baylor fans are hopeful McNamee will replace Aranda, sooner rather than later. The Baylor campus has not been mellow for quite some time.

Elsewhere in the Big 12, due to other schools’ interest in their highly successful head football coaches, Texas Tech and BYU recently had to sign Joey McGuire and Kalani Sitake, respectively, to lengthy contract extensions that will cost the schools millions of dollars for continued gridiron success.

Enjoy It While It Lasts

Meanwhile, Funkytown remains mellow. Nobody is romancing TCU’s head football coach, Sonny Dykes. Evidently, consecutive 8-4 football seasons are a bit too mellow for some other teams and their fans.