{"id":472486,"date":"2026-10-21T08:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/472486\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T08:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T08:50:14","slug":"houston-coach-willie-fritz-previews-marquee-matchup-at-utah-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/472486\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston coach Willie Fritz previews marquee matchup at Utah \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

No. 10 Utah\u2019s matchup against No. 14 Houston will be a big test for both teams.<\/p>\n

While the Cougars have already faced two ranked teams in then-No. 13 Texas Tech (a 28-26 loss that came down to an inch) and No. 18 Oklahoma State (a 35-32 win), the Utes will play their first ranked team this season in a marquee Big 12 matchup.<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s \u2018College GameDay\u2019 show will air live from the University of Utah\u2019s Presidents Circle at 7 a.m. MDT on Saturday morning to set the stage for one of the biggest games of the week\u2019s college football slate.<\/p>\n

Houston coach Willie Fritz, whose team is on a four-game winning streak, knows the challenge the undefeated Utes pose, even if Utah didn\u2019t play its best game in a tight 27-24 win over Colorado last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have another big test coming up against Utah. They\u2019re very well-coached. Their new head coach has been there a while, so he knows their system,\u201d Fritz said in his weekly press conference on Monday.<\/p>\n

While Utah\u2019s offense took a step backward in the win over Colorado, the Utes are still averaging 40.2 points and 486.5 yards per game, both top-10 marks in the nation.<\/p>\n

The two-quarterback system is unique and has caused defenses problems in the past, but Colorado successfully slowed it down. Byrd Ficklin played nine snaps on Saturday \u2014 one at quarterback, four in the backfield and four at receiver \u2014 and didn\u2019t see much success, rushing for two yards and catching three passes for 13 yards.<\/p>\n

Houston is preparing for Ficklin to get plenty of touches on Saturday, along with an entire cast of characters. Utah\u2019s leading receiver seems to change every week; Last week, it was Creed Whittemore getting his turn with 88 yards on three catches, including a 43-yard reception. Braden Pegan also continued his excellent season with 86 yards and two scores on eight receptions.<\/p>\n

Offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven\u2019s bag of tricks didn\u2019t work as well as it usually does against Colorado, but as Scalley said, what some might call \u201ctrick plays\u201d is just part of Utah\u2019s normal offense.<\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s offense has raised the bar so high this season that a 409-yard, 27-point performance was mildly disappointing \u2014 only because Utah\u2019s players knew that they should have put more points on the scoreboard, especially in the red zone. Devon Dampier\u2019s two interceptions didn\u2019t help matters, either.<\/p>\n

Despite the performance last game, Utah\u2019s offense is one that can keep opposing defensive coordinators and head coaches up at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cOffensively they do a bunch of stuff. I mean, a bunch of stuff. They\u2019ll play with two quarterbacks, they\u2019ll play with one quarterback and another one off,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cRhino\u201d tight end Semi Taulanga earned a mention from Houston\u2019s head coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got a big extra tight end guy who\u2019s, I don\u2019t know how big he is. He\u2019s a big dude. He\u2019s probably 6-2, 330, 340 pounds, something like that. Lead blocker, he actually caught a touchdown pass a couple of weeks ago against Kansas. So (they) really do a lot of things. We\u2019re going to have to be on point during the game,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

The challenge for Fritz and his staff this week is to try and simplify all of the wrinkles of Utah\u2019s offense so he can prepare his players without overwhelming them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting in our meetings this morning and we\u2019re obviously trying to simplify it as much as we can, but they do a lot of stuff,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you watch some of their games, you\u2019ll see them in all sorts of different formations and sets and run a bunch of option and halfback passes, double passes. They do a lot of stuff offensively. The main thing is you got to line up right. If you line up right, you got a chance. If you don\u2019t line up right, there\u2019s going to be some problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Utes are 0-5 all-time against the Cougars, including a 17-14 loss at a barren TDECU Stadium in 2024 that was the low-water mark of a forgettable season for the Utes. For Houston, it\u2019s the first trip to Salt Lake City since 1977, a 34-16 win for the Cougars.<\/p>\n

Fritz, who took over at Houston in 2024 after a great run at Tulane, is making his first-ever trip to Rice-Eccles Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re playing up there. I\u2019ve never played there before. I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s a great venue to play at, so we\u2019re looking forward to it,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

The well-traveled head coach, who worked his way up from Blinn College to Houston, has surveyed other coaches in the Big 12 to get a feel for Rice-Eccles Stadium. The 51,444-seat stadium punches above its weight in noise and Ute fans will bring it for the first \u201cbig\u201d game in the stadium this season.<\/p>\n

The 8:15 p.m. kickoff is the annual \u201cdark mode\u201d game with fans wearing black to the late-night contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019ll work with a lot of noise this week during practice because it\u2019s going to be loud. I always check with people that have played them maybe a couple weeks before, the locker room, distance to the field, the crowd noise, turf, altitude, different things like that. The only thing we do differently is the flight\u2019s a little longer. That\u2019s it,\u201d Fritz said.<\/p>\n

At 7 a.m., more than 13 hours before kickoff, \u2018College GameDay\u2019 will begin its show live from Salt Lake City. It\u2019s the seventh time Utah has hosted the show, but for Fritz, it\u2019s the first time a team he has coached has had a game featured on the traveling pregame show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the kids were excited about it. I kind of mentioned it this morning. I think they all knew already. That\u2019ll be exciting. I\u2019ve never been a part of \u2018GameDay\u2019 and I always get a big kick out of the last time Houston was on \u2018College GameDay.\u2019 Coach (Lee) Corso kind of threw one out there with my friend Carl Lewis up there on stage,\u201d Fritz said, referring to Corso\u2019s expletive while picking Houston when the show was on campus in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always get a little chuckle out of that. We\u2019re excited about being on it. I think all the people on there are really pro-college sports. They do a great job of really getting the sport out there and doing it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HoustonHouston coach Willie Fritz speaks during the Big 12 Conference media days in Las Vegas, Wednesday, July 10, 2024. | AP <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No. 10 Utah\u2019s matchup against No. 14 Houston will be a big test for both teams. While the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,17092],"class_list":["post-472486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news-feed-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472486","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=472486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}