Mike Renfro during his TCU career.
No. 24 TCU heads to Tempe for its Big 12 opener Friday against Arizona State, the defending conference champions.
Expect some handwringing. TCU is a 2.5-point favorite.
Arizona State (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) is coming off a victory over Baylor, the largest Baptist educational institution in the world. Unbeaten TCU (3-0) bested SMU last week. (Or is that SMewwww? You know what I’m saying?)
The Sun Devils return 16 players in 2025 that started at least six games a year ago. The 16 returning starters are tied for the most among all FBS teams heading into this season.
As Brian Estridge, the voice of the Horned Frogs, reminded me this week this is the first game between these two in 50 years. The No. 18 Sun Devils beat TCU 33-10 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in the second of a back-to-back home-and-home in 1974-75.
The game featured three receivers with more than 100 yards in the game, all three of them future players in the NFL.
John Jefferson had 136 yards on four receptions, including a stadium-record 95-yard catch and touchdown run from QB Fred Mortensen. Larry Mucker had 114 yards on six catches, and TCU’s Mike Renfro had eight receptions for 104 yards. TCU played two quarterbacks, Lee Cook and Jimmy Dan Elzer.
“John Jefferson and I were the same age,” Mike Renfro said in a text exchange. He reminded me that Jefferson was John Washington while a high school player at Dallas Roosevelt. “He was the big Texas high school wide receiver [recruit] from a couple years earlier." Jefferson went on to become a first-round draft pick of the Chargers in 1978. He had three good seasons there — once leading the league in receptions, yards, and TDs — before contract disputes interrupted his career.
Jordyn Tyson is ASU's big receiving threat in 2025. Since the start of last season, Tyson is second among all receivers in receiving yards (1,458) and touchdowns (15) despite not playing in the Big 12 Championship Game or College Football Playoff games.
“The corner that covered me was Mike Haynes,” Renfro said of the 1975 game.
That’s right! Those old enough certainly remember Mike Haynes, No. 1 pick of the New England Patriots in 1976 and today a Pro Football Hall of Famer. Haynes earned NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year that season. Haynes, who later won a Super Bowl with the L.A. Raiders, was an five-time All-Pro.
Haynes, twice an All-American at Arizona State — then a member of the Western Athletic Conference — had a 55-yard punt return for a touchdown in the TCU game in 1975.
Renfro would see Haynes again in the NFL.
“He and Mel Blount were the two best I ever went up against,” said Renfro, who led TCU with 49 receptions for 810 yards and two TDs in 1975 as a sophomore.
Also playing for TCU was Vernon Wells Jr., who had four receptions for 63 yards in the game.
“Vernon had a good season that year,” Renfro said.
Wells had 18 receptions for 350 yards in 11 games that season. In 1976 he had 32 catches. Wells went on to play a little bit in Canada. He made his mark, no pun intended, as a painter.
However, it's his son, Vernon Wells III, former major-league baseball player, who has the Wikipedia page.
These days, a life’s worth is measured by whatever some guy on his couch makes up about you on Wikipedia.
All right then — go, Frogs.
