The turnaround of the Houston Cougars football program over the past two years has been tremendous. It's been led by coach Willie Fritz, who was hired at Houston back on Dec. 3, 2023. Fritz has been a winning coach wherever he's gone in the college football landscape, and was given the opportunity to do it at the Power Four level.
The hope was that Fritz would bring Houston to relevance in the Big 12 and turn the program around the way he's done at other spots. That hope has turned into reality for the Cougars. Fritz led Houston to the largest turnaround in the FBS last season, going from four wins in 2024 to 10 wins in 2025.
That included a Texas Bowl win over LSU in the first bowl appearance for UH since 2022, and a final AP Poll ranking of No. 22. It was the first time Houston had been ranked in the final season poll since 2021. Houston won 10 games as a Power Conference school for the first time since 1990.
Year two under Fritz also featured the first ranked road win since 2017 at No. 25 Arizona State. Fritz was nominated for the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Watch List by the American Heart Association last season. He's now been nominated for that again this season.
Fritz on Top Coaches Watchlist
Fritz was a 2022 Bear Bryant Award finalist at Tulane. During his storied 2022 season with the Green Wave, Fritz also won the Dodd Trophy and the George Munger College Coach of the Year Award. Fritz led the largest turnaround in FBS history that year, going from 2-10 to 12-2.
The 66-year-old Fritz has positioned Houston with a 6-1 record just past the halfway point of this season. The Cougars are currently ranked No. 14, which is the highest mark since 2016. Houston just came off a ranked matchup win at home for the first time since 2015 over a No. 18 Oklahoma State team.
Houston is now a Big 12 contender and is also contending for a College Football Playoff spot heading into Week 8. Fritz is one of three Big 12 Conference coaches to be named to the Bear Bryant watchlist, joining Kalani Sitake of BYU and Joey McGuire of Texas Tech.
He's also one of four Texas school coaches on the watchlist, along with McGuire, Steve Sarkisian of Texas and Rhett Lashlee of SMU. Fritz was also named to the Dodd Trophy Midseason Watchlist.
Houston's balanced offensive attack has mirrored Fritz's identity. Fritz has mentioned many times that his ultimate goal for Houston is to win national championships.
"We feel like here at the University of Houston with our facilites, location and the league we play in, we've got an opportunity to win a national championship. That's our overall goal for this football program," Fritz said.
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