MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As the losses pile up for West Virginia in 2025, perhaps Mountaineer faithful can look to Saturday’s opponent as reason for hope in the not too distant future.
Houston enters its noon matchup against WVU at TDECU Stadium with a No. 22 national ranking and 7-1 record, and the Cougars remain in the hunt for one of two spots in the Big 12 title game.
A year ago at this time, in head coach Willie Fritz’s first season with the Cougars, Houston was 3-5 and on its way to a 4-8 season.
“They’re playing at a really high level,” said WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez. “We played better this past game and we can play better than we did this past Saturday, and we’re going to have to in order to win.”
The Mountaineers (2-6, 0-5) are on a five-game skid and have yet to win in Big 12 play. A 23-17 home loss to TCU last Saturday marked the first time WVU has been competitive in a conference game into the fourth quarter and offered signs of positivity as true freshman quarterback Scotty Fox Jr. passed for a season-high 301 yards without a turnover and the defense put forth by far its best showing to date in Big 12 play.
“Our ability to recognize was faster on some of the things we got,” WVU defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “It’s something we preach every week, but sometimes it takes time to develop that.”
The next challenge is to see if the Mountaineers can build off that effort. For a team with an 0-4 road record and an average margin of defeat of 21 points, sticking with the much-improved Cougars will be a tall task.
Much of Houston’s improvement can be attributed to a lack of mistakes. The Cougars are tied for the fewest turnovers of any Big 12 team (4), having thrown three interceptions and lost one fumble. In fact, Houston is among the lower-scoring teams in the league, ranking 12th among 16 Big 12 squads at 28.8 points on average, 11th with 26 touchdowns and 12th in total offense (381.3 yards).
Sep 27, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers defensive coordinator Zac Alley talks to his players during the first quarter against the Utah Utes at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images
“They’re really sound,” said Alley, who faced the Cougars last season as co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma. “I played him last year and feel the same way this year. They’re never going to lose the game on offense. They’re going to play in front of the chains, get into third-and-manageable, get the first down, do it again and do it again. They’re going to take points when they can get them and protect the quarterback and run game with complementary looks.
“They hang in every game they play because they keep it close just by being sound, not turning the ball over, taking their time. They’re not going to uptempo. They want to run it [play clock] down kind of like the NFL, get in a good play call, gain 3 and try to line up and gain 3 again. That helps them stay in games where they’re maybe lesser talent wise and when it’s comparable, they find a way to win.”
Fritz was extremely successful as a head coach at five previous stops before embarking on a new journey at Houston. He began at Blinn (a junior college in Texas), and won at Central Missouri and Sam Houston State before trying his hand at the FBS level for the first time in 2014 at Georgia Southern. After 17 wins over two seasons with the Eagles, Fritz moved on to Tulane.
While with the Green Wave, Fitz won 54 games with five bowl appearances in eight seasons and guided the program to 23 victories over his last two seasons, including a 46-45 triumph against Southern California in the 2023 Cotton Bowl.
Fritz looked to rediscover part of what made him so successful at Tulane, and toward the end of a disappointing 2024 season, Houston parted ways with then-offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay.
In the offseason, Fritz reunited with Slade Nagle, who left LSU following one season and became the Cougars’ offensive coordinator after working with Fritz for the entirety of his Tulane tenure.
In addition to facing Fritz last season, Alley also opposed Nagle. The Sooners defeated the Cougars 16-12 and lost to the Tigers, 37-17.
“It’s a blend of some of the things Willie Fritz and the coordinator have done,” Alley said of Houston’s offense this season. “I played both of them last year, so they know me. It’s a challenge to figure out what’s going to come from that. They’re going to game plan you. You’re going to get things that you haven’t seen maybe that they think are going to work that week. We anticipate those things. That’s what good coaches do. They’re going to put you in conflict and try and find ways to exploit weaknesses.”
Making fewer mistakes than the opposition is also a pivotal part as to why Houston is 3-0 in games decided by fewer than 10 points this season, including consecutive one-possessions wins over Arizona and Arizona State in its two most recent contests.
Quarterback Conner Weigman, an offseason addition and Texas A&M transfer, is the Big 12’s 10th-leading passer with 1,581 yards, but has been intercepted only twice on 193 throws. Tailback Dean Connors is fifth in the league with 586 rushing yards, though his 135 carries are tops in the Big 12. Wideout Amare Thomas and tight end Tanner Koziol are focal points of the passing attack with 535 and 450 receiving yards, respectively, while both have brought in four touchdowns.
“They’ll keep you honest. It’s going to be run, run, run, deep ball,” Alley said. “They’ll make whatever the run game looked like the past game look like that week and then take a shot off of it. They have no problem throwing it up. The quarterback is very sound and understands where to go with the ball. He can put the ball in good places for them. He is a threat running it, so you have to play that within the scheme. They will take chances and try and throw the ball to guys to get an opportunity no matter who that is and try to get the ball down the field.”