Houston Head Coach Willie Fritz on Building Off a 10-Win Season | Sports Illustrated

Brian Fisher here for Sports Illustrated at Big 12 Media Day joined by Houston head coach Willie Fritz.

Well, it always seems like this is the time when you know football is right around the corner.

Yeah, it really does.

Media day.

I've been through quite a few of them.

I, I mentioned a little earlier, uh, my first one was at, uh, Navarro Community College cafeteria in 1993.

We didn't have nearly the crowd that we have here today, but it's always fun to see the other coaches and everybody's got high expectations right now.

At the beginning of the season.

We're certainly no different.

Does it, does it feel a little bit different walking in after having a 10-win season?

Well, yeah, I, I just, uh, I, I'm excited about the, the guys we have coming back and also the additions.

Uh, we really brought some great kids, uh, from the high school class, uh, the portal class.

And then we've got a lot of experience in production coming back offensively and defensively in the kicking game.

So, you know, we're very excited about all that.

I mean, you might have the most returning production in the entire Big 12 coming back in terms of the, the amount of starts, the amount of, uh, just yards and, and all that, especially on offense.

You know, I saw something with, uh, reps.

I think we were 7th in the nation in the amount of reps coming back.

Now, that's not all accumulated at.

At, uh, University of Houston, somewhere there are other schools, but, you know, we've, I think we've over 35,000, uh, Division One college football reps that we have returning.

How, how is that going to translate in the, in the fall having so many guys back?

Well, you know, something happens nowadays, and it's always been this way, but it's even probably more prevalent now with the portal.

I , uh, you know, you play a lot of guys early in the season to kind of figure out what they do well, maybe what they don't do quite so well, who should be playing 50 snaps, who should maybe be playing 20 snaps.

So, there's a lot of competition, uh, You know, for play, uh, early in the season, uh, particularly in the portal era.

You brought your quarterback here and in Connor.

He had a great season last year, stayed healthy for, for most of it too.

What, what are you expecting out of him, uh, kind of going into this year?

Well, I thought he really finished the year in a, in a great manner.

I thought he had a great bowl game in our win against LSU in the Texas Bowl, uh, played almost a perfect game, which is really difficult to do at the quarterback position because you're involved in every single play.

Uh, I think he's, he's healthy.

He'd never gone through an offseason till this last year at the college level, healthy.

So he's a little faster, a little bigger, stronger, a little more velocity on the ball.

And then this is the first time since high school he's been in the same system two years in a row.

So he's got the same offensive coordinator, he's got the same head coach, obviously, the same quarterback.

Coach, uh, same terminology.

So, uh, you know, we're, we have high expectations for him this upcoming season.

I mean, it, it's interesting because if somebody's talking about your team, they are, they are talking about Connor, but they might even be talking about the freshman that you got as well coming in.

Talk, talk to me about how you manage that room right now.

Well, I don't have to.

Those two, those two are really, really good young men.

They're both really smart, uh, you know, they cheer for each other.

They're very competitive, obviously.

I think it's a perfect situation for Keyshawn, uh, with, with having Connor there and, and luckily, you know, Connor's a, a, a good mentor and, and, uh, you know, they're just 22 really good young people.

You know, when you go out and you recruit, you want to find guys who are unselfish and team-first kind of guys and both Connor and Keyshaw are that way.

You've been around the state for a long time.

I mean, you guys won 10 games.

A&M made the playoff, Tech made the playoff, won their first ever title.

You had good years at SMU, TCU.

Is this the most competitive in terms of college football that the state has been?

Well, I think it's, you know, the best state in the nation for, uh, high school football, and, and that allows you to have great college programs because I would guess by and large, uh, the other schools that you mentioned are, you know , probably, you know, 75, 80%.

Texas kids like we are, and, uh, it allows you to have great, great teams and, uh, you know, so it's, it's gonna help you if you're from the state of Texas where the guys have been developed.

In high school.

It's not like that every place.

I've, I've coached a few different areas of the country and it's not like, uh, Texas, uh, anywhere else.

And as competitive as it seems like it's on the field, I mean, it is off the field as well.

How much are you working with your administration and making sure that, you know, the, the boosters are fired up as well in terms of, well, that's part of the game now, you know, it's a big part of my job is, uh, making sure that I go around and meet all the people that help out financially at the University of Houston.

You know, in this day and age, if you want to have a great program, that's part of the equation.

I think a lot of people would have circled your Big 12 opener against Texas Tech, uh, regardless of what happened this summer, but I'm curious what your reaction was to everything going on with Brendan Soursby and how you reacted to that.

You know, I probably look at it a little different.

None of my business, to be quite honest with you.

I don't, I, I, I have enough going on with, you know, worrying about those different.

Things and I let the people in charge take care of all that stuff.

Did you like that though, that that is that first game in terms of kind of setting a mile marker in terms of where your team is and especially relative to the competition?

Yeah, you know, obviously they're the king of the hill.

They, you know, won the conference and, and, uh, you know, made the college football playoffs.

So, you know, we're going to find out early in the year exactly where we're at.

Do you feel like you have the makings of one of those special seasons because you've, you've had a couple of them under your bed?

Yeah, you know, the, the, the reason that I have a lot of optimism is, uh, You know, we've got more depth than what we've had in the past.

We didn't have a lot of depth last year and thank goodness, we didn't have very many major injuries and We had to practice that way, but we've got more high school guys that we've developed over the last couple of years that are going to either start for us or play a bunch for us, and that's going to provide the depth you need if you want to be a championship program.

How much do you look at when you look at your roster and you look at it holistically, how much of it is your focus just focused solely on retention, you know, making sure you keep getting those guys?

Well, we hope we provide a culture where our guys can thrive and grow in the classroom, on the field and off the field and.

You know, I tell them all when we recruit them, you know, if you come here, we want you here for 4 or 5 years.

I guess now 5, you know, with a 5 for 5 play.

If you're from the portal and you got 2 years left, we want you here for 2 years.

You know, we want this to be a place that you come back, you know, year after year for homecoming .

You can only go to 1 homecoming.

You know, you can't go to 4, all right?

And, uh, we want that that homecoming to be University of Houston.

How, how do you still though go about making sure that that culture is, is there, given there is, it's so much more transactional in college football nowadays.

You know, once we get into the Houston this season , we just worry about the University of Houston and our team, and I don't worry about all that other stuff.

One of the things, you know, my college coaches did it for me.

I treat everybody the same in our program.

They do something good.

I love them up, they do something bad, I get after them, but that's just the way we do it at UFH and And, uh, that offends some people, so be it.

But, uh, we feel like we do a better job developing guys, you know, in all three phases than anyplace else they can go.

And a lot of that is I've hired the right coaches and I've been doing this a long time.

You hear so much about parity here in the Big 12, and, and it does seem like every game comes down to that 4th quarter, a couple, couple of plays here, a couple of plays there.

Is that almost a detriment to the league in terms of producing more than one college football playoff team?

Well, I don't think so.

You know, I, I agree with you.

I've been in some leagues where you had 3 or 4 games that, you know, you kind of roll the ball out and you're going to win if you're a pretty good team.

That is not the case in this conference.

Uh, it's really good top to bottom and, You know, I, I think, uh, I think the powers should be, uh, you know, understand that they need to look at that as well.

Uh, you know, a tougher schedule, I think should only help you, not hurt you.

As, as difficult as that schedule might be, is there something that you're looking forward to in terms of, all right, we, we've got that game circled on the calendar.

Are you, are you all?

True coach speaking one game at a time.

I, I'm, uh, I'm one day at a time, you know, I'm, I, I guess I'm a simpleton.

I don't know, but I, we, we are very consistent with our work ethic and our preparation day after day after day after day.

I don't look down the road at whoever we're playing.

I, you know, I just want to have that next day be the best day that we can possi.

Having our kids understand that that's the way we approach things at UH.

Has there been anything holistically in college football that has changed on the field?

We talk about all these off-field changes, but have you noticed something, especially in the last couple of years, that really sticks out in your mind in terms of on-field changes?

You know, I just keep hearing about, you know, on-field changes , off-field changes.

I think by and large that, you know, It's still about relationships and being a positive role model and mentor to your student-athletes.

We got really good kids.

I'm very, very proud of them.

Uh, so, you know, I, I'm not, you know, other than negotiations and raising money and things like that, I'm, I'm really not doing anything different than I did 30 years ago.

Exciting times there at Houston, Willie, thank you so much for stopping by here at Sports Illustrated at the Big 12 Media Days in Frisco.