No. 22 Houston Cougars Eye Fourth Straight Win vs. West Virginia

The West Virginia Mountaineers (2-6, 0-5) are on the road and will tangle with the Houston Cougars (7-1, 4-1) on Saturday.

In his second year at the helm, head coach Willie Fritz has Houston ranked in both the AP Poll and Coaches Poll for the first time since 2022 at no. 22 in both polls, the Cougars highest ranking since rising to 16th in 2021 entering the American Athletic Conference Championship.

“Being ranked is something that you want to have happen to your team. We got a lot of other things we would like to accomplish this season – the first one is going to go play great against West Virginia this weekend,” Fritz said.

The Cougars outlasted Arizona State last week 24-16 for their third consecutive win, beating the then 24th ranked Sun Devis, marking the first win over a ranked opponent on the road since 2017 and snapped Arizona State’s 10-game home winning streak dating to 2023.

Conner Weigman spent his first three seasons at Texas A&M where he made 13 starts in 15 appearances for the Aggies. The junior has thrown for 1,581 yards and 12 touchdowns this season. In the Cougars lone loss of the season against Texas Tech, he left the game in the second quarter with a concussion. Taking the tech game out of the equation, Weigman is averaging 215.7 passing yards per game. He’s also second on the team with 354 rushing yards.

Weigman threw for 201 yards, rushed for a career-best 111 yards, threw a touchdown pass and rushed for two touchdowns at Arizona State, marking the first Houston quarterback to throw for 200+ yards, rush for 100+ yards, rush for two touchdowns pass for a touchdown and not throw an interception since Greg Ward against Tennessee Tech in 2015.

“I think he’s getting more and more comfortable every single week,” Fritz said. I thought he played really, really well Saturday night. I thought he ran the ball extremely well. We got to a better job of running the football with our backs – take some hits off of Conner. I thought he threw the ball extremely well. He was smart – there’s a lot stuff going on with the quarterback and I thought he played a really good overall football game.”

Senior tight end Tanner Koziol has hauled in a team-high 43 receptions for 450 yards. The Ball State transfer registered seven receptions for a season-high 100 yards, the third 100-yard game of his career, in the win against Arizona State.

Amare Thomas’ 17.8 yards per reception ranks fifth in the Big 12. The UAB transfer receiver recorded a season-best seven receptions and for a career-high 157 yards in the win at Oklahoma State in the second week of Oct.

Dean Conners is fifth in the league with 535 rushing yards on the season. The senior put up season-highs 123 yards and two touchdowns against his former teammates at Rice in game two. He also has 18 receptions for 130 yards and a touchdown.

The Cougar defense is led by coordinator Austin Armstrong. The base of the defense is a 3-3-5 stack, but the Mountaineers will get multiple looks on Saturday.

Senior linebacker Jalen Garner has tallied a team-best 53 total tackles and senior defensive lineman Carlos Allen Jr. is right behind with 52 tackles, including 4.5 tackles for a loss.

FIU transfer, senior defense end, Eddie Walls has team-highs eight tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks on the season, three sacks came against Arizona State.

“He played great,” Fritz said. “He’s just getting better and better. He’s getting more healthy every week. He had some injuries when we got him back in May. Our Doc’s did a great job of getting him full speed. I think he’s just feeling better and better. He plays with fantastic leverage, plays with fantastic effort, loves football. He had three sacks and a tackle for loss. He played extremely well on Saturday. Had a couple hits on the quarterback as well as hurries.”

JACK Brandon Mack II is second on the team with five tackles for loss and four sacks.

Senior corners Lattrell McCuthin Sr. and Zelmar Vedder have combined for 13 pass breakups.

West Virginia and Houston will kickoff at noon EST with the action broadcasting on FS1.

No. 22 Houston Cougars Eye Fourth Straight Win vs. West Virginia

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