{"id":362950,"date":"2026-07-06T18:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T18:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/362950\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T18:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T18:52:09","slug":"trio-named-preseason-all-big-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/362950\/","title":{"rendered":"Trio Named Preseason All-Big 12"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON \u2013 Three Houston Cougar Football players were named to the All-Big 12 Conference Team by the media on Monday \u2014 offensive lineman <a href=\"https:\/\/uhcougars.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/shadre-hurst\/10008\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"10008\" target=\"_blank\">Shadre Hurst<\/a>, defensive back <a href=\"https:\/\/uhcougars.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/will-james\/9873\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9873\" target=\"_blank\">Will James<\/a> and wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/uhcougars.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/amare-thomas\/9909\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9909\" target=\"_blank\">Amare Thomas<\/a> earned the honors.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe preseason all-conference accolades are the third this summer for all three.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHurst was an All-American at Tulane before transferring to Houston ahead of the 2026 season, while Thomas (First Team) and James (Second Team) were both All-Conference selections in 2025.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHurst, a Cartersville, Ga., native, was the top graded offensive lineman in the American Conference in 2025 and the sixth-best guard in the country according to his PFF grading. Hurst earned three all-conference selections during his time in New Orleans and was a 2023 Freshman All-American.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nJames led Houston with three interceptions, four turnovers gained and two forced fumbles while finishing second on the team with eight pass breakups. The Grand Bay, Ala., native earned PFF National Team of the Week and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors in 2025 following his performance against TCU that included five tackles, two interceptions and a forced fumble.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThomas is coming off an All-American season in 2025 where his 966 receiving yards and 12 receiving touchdowns were the most by a Cougar since Tank Dell in 2022. The Birmingham, Ala., native recorded six 20-yard touchdown receptions and three touchdowns of 50+ yards.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nFor the list of every Cougar 2026 preseason accolade, <a href=\"https:\/\/uhcougars.com\/sports\/2026\/7\/2\/2026-preseason-awards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nSEASON TICKETS<br \/>\nUniversity of Houston Football season tickets are on sale for the 2026 season. For as low as $150, fans can get in on the excitement of Year 3 of the Head Coach <a href=\"https:\/\/uhcougars.com\/sports\/football\/roster\/coaches\/willie-fritz\/1726\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"1726\" target=\"_blank\">Willie Fritz<\/a> era with pivotal matchups against Oregon State, Southern, UCF, Oklahoma State, Cincinnati and Baylor as the Cougars look to improve on their 10-win season in 2025.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nTo purchase season tickets, <a href=\"https:\/\/uh.evenue.net\/events\/FBST\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">click here<\/a>. The online seat upgrade process will begin later this year.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nSUPPORT YOUR COOGS<br \/>\nFans can make a direct impact on the success of Houston Football by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/app.uhcougars.com\/UH25PartnerWSA\" title=\"https:\/\/app.uhcougars.com\/UH25PartnerWSA\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">providing NIL opportunities<\/a>\u00a0and by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/uhcougarpride.com\/membership-center\/giving-opportunities\/sport-specific-clubs\/huddle-46ers\/\" title=\"https:\/\/uhcougarpride.com\/sport-specific\/football.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">joining The Huddle<\/a>\u00a0which\u00a0provides financial support directly to Houston Football for needs beyond its operating budget.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nSTAY CONNECTED<br \/>\nFans can receive updates by following\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uhcougarfb\" title=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/uhcougarfb\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@UHCougarFB<\/a>\u00a0on X, formerly known as Twitter, and catch up with the latest news and notes on the team by clicking\u00a0LIKE\u00a0on the team&#8217;s Facebook page at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HoustonCougarFootball\/\" title=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HoustonCougarFootball\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Cougar Football<\/a>. Fans can also follow the team on Instagram at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uhcougarfb\/\" title=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/uhcougarfb\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">uhcougarfb<\/a>.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2014UHCougars\u2014<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Three Houston Cougar Football players were named to the All-Big 12 Conference Team by the media&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-362950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}