Saturday was a big day for the Oklahoma State Cowboys and head coach Eric Morris — and not just because the 42-28 win over UCF was a Big 12 victory.
The victory was the 50th of Morris’ head-coaching career, which goes back to his time at FCS Incarnate Word. But he knows that pales in comparison to Houston coach Willie Fritz, who has won 266 games since he became a head coach at Blinn College in Brenham, Texas.
Morris joked on Tuesday during his weekly press conference that win total is one area where Fritz already has him beat.
“He has, you know, 200 and some odd wins — 266 or something — and there ain't no way in hell I'm going to be get to 266,” Morris joked. “I can tell you that right now. I'll be retired and doing something else at that point in my life.”
But, on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. when the No. 18 Cowboys (4-1, 2-0 in Big 12) face the No. 20 Cougars (5-1, 2-1), Morris would like to cut into Fritz’s win total by one game.
Eric Morris on Willie Fritz
Morris took the Incarnate Word job after several years as the offensive coordinator at Texas Tech. He said during Big 12 Media Days that many told him taking the job was “career suicide” because the football program was barely a decade old and was at the FCS level. He took the Cardinals to a 6-5 record in 2018, which included a tie for first place in the Southland Conference and an FCS playoff berth.
Three more seasons at UIW paved his way to North Texas, and three seasons with the Mean Green paved his way to Stillwater.
Morris had great respect for Fritz’s journey, which started in junior college and saw him climb the latter to Division II, FCS and FBS.
“All he's done is build programs and win everywhere he's been,” Morris said. “He does it with different schemes, but he always has the same key ingredients to it — and you see it when you turn on the tape.”
Morris pointed out that Fritz has run a triple option attack, which was during Fritz’s time at Georgia Southern. He’s worked with both running and passing quarterbacks and has one with the perfect combination of both in Houston’s Conner Weigman. Fritz won a national title at Blinn, led Sam Houston to a pair of FCS championship game appearances and helped Tulane win the Cotton Bowl over USC a few years ago.
Fritz is 66 years old. The last time he wasn’t a head coach was 1992 when he was a defensive backs coach at Sam Houston. Morris clearly doesn’t intend to coach that long. But he’s looking forward to matching wits with someone he considers to be one of the best coaches in the game.
“If I was an AD [athletic director] right now, he might be at the top of my list,” Morris said. “I don't care where I was.”
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