Houston LB Sione Fotu Earns Notable Honor After Win vs. Oregon State
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The Houston Cougars will have to quickly move past their come-from-behind victory over the Oregon State Beavers last Friday and shift their focus to a big-time matchup awaiting them on Saturday as the Cougars host the visiting No. 11 Texas Tech Red Raiders.
The Beavers proved to be a much more difficult task than maybe the Cougars were expecting, as Oregon State entered the matchup winless and coming off a blowout loss the week before. However, the Cougars found themselves down headed into the fourth quarter, needing two passing touchdowns from Conner Weigman in order to push the game to overtime, where Houston managed to seal the victory.
While much of the attention was on Weigman and the Cougars' offense leading the comeback, one of Houston's top defensive playmakers in linebacker Sione Fotu, who was all over the field recording 15 tackles (seven solo) against the Beavers, and was recognized as the week's Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week for Week 5 for the performance.
Career high ☑️
— Houston Football (@UHCougarFB) September 29, 2025
Week 5 Big 12 tackle leader ☑️
Defensive Player of the Week ☑️@_sionefotu's 15 tackles lead to Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week honors. pic.twitter.com/XleLexaS7J
Head Coach Willie Fritz speaks on Fotu's Recognition
Fotu's 15-tackle performance was both Fotu's career high in tackles for a single game, doubling his previous high of seven tackles, and led the entire Big 12 in tackles for Week 5. Cougars head coach Willie Fritz began his weekly press conference by congratulating Fotu on the weekly honor.
"I just found out that Sione Fotu was named conference defensive player of the week, had an outstanding game for us, so congratulations to him," Fritz said.
The junior linebacker is the Cougars' third leading tackler through the first four games of the season, only trailing defensive tackle Carlos Allen Jr. and fellow linebacker Jalen Garner. Fotu has recorded a total of 25 tackles and half a sack through the Cougars' unbeaten start to the season.
Fotu's Journey to Houston
The 2025 season is the first season for Fotu in the Cougars' red and white after spending four years with the Utah Utes. A three-star prospect coming out of high school, Fotu committed to the Utes ahead of the 2020 college football season.
Over the course of his tenure in Salt Lake City, the linebacker saw action in 25 games, earned six starts while recording 50 tackles, four pass deflections, and clocked in 415 career defensive snaps across three seasons.
And after the 2024 season, Fotu decided to enter his name into the transfer portal and, in mid-December, made his decision to commit to the Cougars, where, through the first few weeks of the season, Fotu has been a big piece of Houston's defense.
