Houston Coach Willie Fritz Broke Down Areas of Struggle Against Oregon State
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The Houston Cougars took care of business in Week 1 with a 33-20 win over the Oregon State Beavers and got the 2026 season started on the right note, result-wise.
However, it wasn't the best performance from Houston overall. It was just a one-possession game in the fourth quarter, and the Cougars weren't able to blow Oregon State out, even after going up 26-7 in the second half.
There are clearly areas that Houston really needs to improve going forward, but that is a key part of Week 1. The first game of the season has shown the Cougars what needs to be fixed, and it's honestly not anything out of their control.
Coach Willie Fritz spoke in the postgame press conference and immediately discussed his thoughts on some of the shortcomings, while he also gave praise to what the team did well.
Fritz Knows Improvement is Needed
“I don’t think we played as well as we’re capable of playing. Minus two in turnover takeaway, 10 penalties,” Fritz said. “There were some things we did well. We ran the ball well. We ran it when we needed to. Had some big pass plays. That was a huge play by Amare late in the ball game.”
Fritz referred to the contested catch by senior wide receiver Amare Thomas in the fourth quarter when the offense faced a critical third-and-six just up by six points.
The penalties and turnover issues in this game were quite uncharacteristic for a Fritz-led team. Those are two areas that his teams specifically work on to be more disciplined. It’s a key part of their game plan. The Cougars were successful in running the ball, as he pointed out, with 228 yards on the ground.
Senior running back Makhi Hughes led the way with 17 carries for 98 yards and one touchdown. Redshirt junior Re’Shaun Sanford II ran for a 56-yard touchdown.
Another key facet of the game that’s typically emphasized for Fritz is tackling. The Cougars struggled in that area as well, specifically on the back end of the defense.
“I thought our tackling wasn’t really crisp. There were simple pass concepts that we didn’t do a very good job of covering and denying. Lost leverage a few times,” Fritz said.
Houston’s head coach mentioned the problems in coverage that the team faced and what exactly happened. There were some positives on the defensive end, holding Oregon State to 26 yards rushing.
Fritz mentioned the sack by junior safety Javion White at the end of the game as a huge play by the defense.
It was an experienced secondary that had a lot of expectations entering the season, and that’s why the mistakes can quickly be addressed and taken care of. However, tackling across the board seems to be a point of emphasis for Fritz. That’s no surprise considering how many times he’s preached tackling since his time at Houston.
“I blame part of this on myself. We don’t tackle very much during practice. We didn’t do it this camp, and it showed up quite a bit,” Fritz said.
Houston got its first attempts at full-out tackling right in Week 1, and the rust might be out of the way now.
“We did tackle today, though,” Fritz said with a chuckle. “We are used to it, and we’ll be able to teach off of it.”
Due to the fumble by Hughes and an unlucky tipped interception by Weigman, Houston missed out on a couple more scoring opportunities.
“When you have 300 yards passing and 200 yards rushing, that’s always a good combination. We just can’t turn the ball over,” Fritz said.
The 533 yards of total offense were the most in a season opener since 2018 against Rice.
Fritz mentioned that some of the issues in the secondary coverage of allowing big passing plays were a mix of what Oregon State did and busted coverage.
“We also could’ve had three picks. We came real close. A couple of them might’ve been pick sixes. We’ve got to catch those balls. They throw it to you; you better catch the ball. A part of it was good route concepts by Oregon State,” Fritz said.
Overall, the 66-year-old Fritz didn’t seem too worried about the problems. Houston’s experience across the board in general can take care of mistakes such as these.
“We’ll get a lot better. There are a lot of correctable mistakes that we made, and we’re going to get better. Everybody has a goal of getting better from Week 1 to Week 2,” Fritz said. “We’ll learn some valuable lessons.”
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Maanav Gupta is a staff writer for Houston Cougars on SI. He graduated from the University of Houston in the summer of 2025 with his bachelor’s in journalism and a minor in Spanish. Gupta spent three years at the student newspaper, The Daily Cougar, and also covered the 2025 Final Four and National Championship as Houston beat writer for College Basketball Review. He also has his own YouTube channel, Maanav’s Sports Talk, where he has interviewed professional athletes and broadcasters like Jim Nantz, Jose Altuve, J.J. Watt, Rich Eisen, and Alperen Sengun. Gupta was also a contributor to the Houston athletic program as a student. You can find Gupta on X, Instagram and TikTok @MGSportsTalk.