Why Houston Cougars’ Fans Were Disappointed in Game Day Experience vs. West Virginia

It was not a great football Saturday at TDECU Stadium for the Houston Cougars, who shockingly got upset by a 2-6 West Virginia team at home in a 45-35 loss.

That knocked Houston out of the AP poll just one week after being ranked no. 22. It was not just the game result that got bad, but the experience that many UH fans had at the stadium was less than ideal.

Issues with Security

Multiple Houston fans and even parents of the players had issues with security during the game. During the fourth quarter, there was a group of fans that went to the top corner section of TDECU Stadium, took off their shirts and looked to be having a good time doing ‘tarps off’. While the crowd continued to get bigger up there, a security guard was stopping additional fans from joining the original group.

@EddieNunezAD there are many reasons to be embarrassed for today’s game. But the #1 most embarrassing thing was UH stadium security literally stopping people from going up and doing tarps off. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I don’t blame her, she said the university told her to stop people pic.twitter.com/mEqxqCntTi
— Average Coog Enjoyer (@SkywalkerCullen) November 1, 2025

In the video on X, the fan mentioned security was blocking the fans as it was “dangerous”. According to the post, the university was the one that told security to stop additional people. This was surprising to see as multiple other schools have had fans do the exact same thing, most notably Oklahoma State against Houston earlier this year.

I witnessed many people try to come up and get turned away, including myself. We can never have ANYTHING fun. This… + the $50 parking, $20 beers, $20 burgers are why people don’t show up even for a ranked football team. PLAYERS DESERVE BETTER @EddieNunezAD
— Average Coog Enjoyer (@SkywalkerCullen) November 1, 2025

Additionally, even the parents of some of the football players had issues with a security guard. The parents of these student-athletes do all they can to support, and they were clearly not happy.

Also personally witnessed several parents of University of Houston players being bothered by a security guard for stepping over a line in concrete you could barely see behind the end zone section. The parents of players who are putting it all out on the line for the university.… https://t.co/gp4krf1JDI
— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) November 1, 2025

Student Section on Blast

Houston football and the athletic department did a lot of promoting for this game on social media throughout the week. Saturday had the 10-year anniversary of the 2015 Peach Bowl champion team and it was a blackout game to honor late strength and conditioning coach Kurt Hester.

Houston was ranked for the first time in over three years with a 7-1 record. With all that being said, leading up to the game, the official attendance was 25,049 in a 40,000-capacity stadium.

A post on X by Barstool Coogs showed all the empty seats in the student section that were not even half full at the start of the game.

Like seriously words cannot express my frustration with our fans.

We’re 22nd in the country. Let’s be serious.
There is absolutely zero excuse for this to be the student section and for the rest of the stadium to look similar when we’re 7-1. https://t.co/dPIs4mn4JM pic.twitter.com/NoJg4WHCO0
— #2 🏀Barstool Coogs (@BarstoolCoogs) November 1, 2025

While it was the morning after Halloween night, all other top 25 programs had packed attendance. Houston’s was the only one that didn’t. That caught a lot of attention on social media.

Houston student section post on Instagram — thecollegefootballu: Instagram

There have been a lot of reasons put out on why this may have been the case. UH, being a commuter campus, has been noted, but back in 2015 and 2016, TDECU Stadium was packed.

Even a 1-8 Oklahoma State team averages over 40k for their home games, according to the Barstool Coogs post. While Houston’s culture is still developing under head coach Willie Fritz, UH has a winning team.

Fans gave plenty of suggestions to athletic director Eddie Nunez on how to make the game day experience more enjoyable and ideas on how to get students in seats.

My rant on UH football attendance, coming from a recent UH alum and diehard who shows up every game… 🧵
1. The UH athletic department needs to take a hard look in the mirror and realize that we are struggling in this aspect, and then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. pic.twitter.com/q1FhIxxSvP
— Average Coog Enjoyer (@SkywalkerCullen) November 1, 2025

The cost of parking and concessions also does not help the fans out. While those may be excuses at the end of the day, Houston’s tactics to draw fans have clearly not been working and changes need to be made.