TCU beats West Virginia and is the last unbeaten team in the Big 12

The Horned Frogs might be really serious.

No. 8 TCU held off a mild upset bid at home against No. 23 West Virginia on Saturday in Fort Worth. The Horned Frogs won 31-24 and are the Big 12’s last unbeaten team.

TCU quarterback Kenny Hill scored a pair of critical touchdowns in the second half, including the go-ahead score on a second effort with inside three minutes to play. The touchdown he scored before that one was one of the highlight-reel plays of the year, featuring Hill catching a 48-yarder and punctuating it with a mean spin cutback.

TCU entered undefeated, coming off a bye week. The week before that, the Frogs earned a road upset at Oklahoma State, solidifying themselves as a Big 12 contender. Oklahoma’s loss to Iowa State earlier Saturday gives the Frogs an opening to get a little jump on the team that figures to be the best in the conference this year.

West Virginia won its next three games after a season-opening defeat by Virginia Tech. The Mountaineers lost a lot after last year, but they’ve reloaded on the fly enough to be one of the better teams in the Big 12 right away.

Neither of these teams is likely to win the league this year, but both have been good enough so far that they’re at least in the conversation. Oklahoma’s loss makes the conference seem more open than ever before and raised the stakes of this game.

Fort Worth was the site of ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturday morning. Lee Corso picked TCU and held an actual horned frog in his hand.