Willie Fritz Breaks Down Tanner Koziol and Amare Thomas' Impact on Houston's Offense
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The Houston Cougars will have to shift quickly from their comeback victory over the Oregon State Beavers last Friday as they look to take on their toughest challenge so far through the first part, as the Cougars host the No. 11 Texas Tech Red Raiders on Saturday night.
The unbeaten Cougars will welcome the unbeaten Red Raiders into TDECU Stadium in what should be Houston's biggest home game in quite some time. With Texas Tech currently sitting as the highest-ranked Big 12 team in the recent AP Poll before their bye week last week, the Red Raiders scored their biggest victory of the season with a road win over then No. 16-ranked Utah.
The Cougars will need a big game from their offense to keep up with the Red Raiders' offense, which is currently humming like a well-oiled machine, scoring a combined 208 points through four games for an average of 52 points per game. At his media availability on Monday, Willie Fritz praised his two biggest weapons in the passing game in tight end Tanner Koziol and wide receiver Amare Thomas.
Fritz Discusses Koziol and Thomas' Recent Performances
The six-foot-seven tight end came up big late in the game against the Beavers for the Cougars as Koziol was on the end of a 50-yard catch and run for a touchdown that equalized the game late in the fourth quarter, with Koziol finishing the game with six receptions for 86 yards and a touchdown. Fritz spoke about the impressive performance Koziol had against Oregon State.
"There are a couple of balls where he was covered, and Tanner did a good job of really hitting him in there; he's got great hands," Fritz said. "As I've mentioned before, he catches the ball away from his body, and then he's got great speed. Nice job by him on the 50-yard touchdown reception as well."
As for Thomas, his performance against the Beavers was equally impressive with his breakout game of the season on Friday night. The third-year wide receiver finished the game with six receptions for 104 yards. Fritz noted the wide receivers' development through his first year with the Cougars after transferring in from the UAB Blazers.
"Really has improved and gotten better throughout the course of the summer and preseason camp and now heading into Week 5," Fritz said. "The thing I'm impressed with about Amare is he lines up right and he does his assignment correctly, which I don't think we give enough credit to guys for. Sometimes they have a great play and that kind of nullifies four bad plays, and that's not the case with him, he lines up right and is in the right position 99.9 percent of the time, so smart football player."
