{"id":693394,"date":"2026-06-09T11:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693394\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T11:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T11:43:08","slug":"big-12-coach-calls-willie-fritz-big-time-details-reasons-for-optimism-at-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/693394\/","title":{"rendered":"Big 12 coach calls Willie Fritz ‘big-time,’ details reasons for optimism at Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"

An anonymous Big 12 coach likes what Willie Fritz<\/a> is doing with the Houston Cougars.<\/a> Athlon Sports recently spoke to the coach about how Houston looks for the 2026 season. <\/p>\n

\u201c(Willie Fritz) is a ball coach. You win 10 games at Houston in Year 2 \u2014 that\u2019s big-time,\u201d the Big 12 coach said.<\/a> \u201cLast year, they weren\u2019t as good up front as they\u2019re going to be this year. I thought they got one of the better guards in the portal from Tulane (Shadre Hurst)<\/a>. Getting (Oregon<\/a> running back transfer) Makhi Hughes<\/a> will help.\u201d<\/p>\n

[ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]<\/a><\/p>\n

The coach added, \u201c(QB) Conner Weigman<\/a> is a stud. Tough, gritty, winner. Can beat you with his legs, and they\u2019ll run the hell out of him, too. He really understands how to run their offense they want to run.\u00a0 They\u2019ve got a couple of really good receivers back. They\u2019ve always been an explosive team, and that\u2019s what I expect them to be again. They lost their best DT, but their DC (Austin Armstrong) is good. They have a lot of speed everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025, Houston went 10-3 and finished tied for fourth in the Big 12. It was the first 10-win season for the Cougars since 2021 when they finished 12-2 and 8-0 in AAC play.<\/p>\n

Willie Fritz reacts to Houston winning 10 games in 2025<\/p>\n

Fritz is entering his third season at Houston. He joined the Cougars after having successful runs at Tulane<\/a>, Georgia Southern<\/a> and Sam Houston State. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s big,\u201d Fritz said after Houston beat LSU<\/a> in the Texas Bowl in December, per <\/a>Sports Illustrated<\/a>. \u201cI know that Houston has had some 10-win seasons in the past, but you know, but 1990 was the last time Houston had 10 wins in a Power Four conference. I\u2019ve played in some of those other leagues Houston was playing in at that time, and those were great teams that U of H had, but to do it every single week in the Big 12 is difficult, and then to play an SEC opponent in this bowl game, every week you gotta be ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no gimmes in the Big 12; it\u2019s really good from top to bottom,\u201d Fritz added. \u201c10 wins is big, not a whole lot of teams in the country got 10 wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Athlon Sports took a closer look at Houston\u2019s 2026 season in its annual College Football Preview Magazine. Fans can order a copy of the magazine by clicking HERE<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An anonymous Big 12 coach likes what Willie Fritz is doing with the Houston Cougars. Athlon Sports recently…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":693395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,300657,398,396,397,99,4652,32699],"class_list":["post-693394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-houston-cougars-houston","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports","tag-tx","tag-willie-fritz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=693394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/693394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/693395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=693394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=693394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=693394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}