Willie Fritz has Houston football moving fast.
In just his second season guiding the Cougars, Fritz took a team that had been near the bottom of the Big 12 and pushed it all the way to a 10-3 finish last year. Houston is clearly trending upward, but the bigger question hanging over the program is simple: how far away is it from standing shoulder to shoulder with Texas Tech and BYU?
Right now, those two schools still sit a step ahead. Texas Tech and BYU were the class of the Big 12 in 2025, and both backed it up on the field.
The Red Raiders lost just once in the regular season, then hammered BYU 34-7 to win the Big 12 Conference Championship Title. Texas Tech followed that by earning its first CFP berth, though Oregon shut the door with a 23-0 win.
BYU had a strong year of its own, finishing with only one regular-season loss - to Texas Tech - and narrowly missing the playoff. When the conference standings were finalized, Texas Tech was No.
1, BYU was No. 2 and Houston came in at No. 4.
The biggest separator between those programs and Houston is money. Texas Tech and BYU have far more resources to spend on players, and that financial edge helps them keep landing high-end talent.
Houston, though, is making progress anyway. The Cougars put together the highest-rated recruiting class in program history with the 2026 group, headlined by freshman quarterback Keisean Henderson, the No. 1 player in the country.
That kind of momentum has been central to Fritz’s rise in Houston. Recruiting has driven the turnaround, and the 2025 transfer portal class was a major piece of it. In this NIL era, building through both high school recruiting and the portal matters, and Fritz has shown he can do both.
Conner Weigman, Amare Thomas, Dean Connors and Tanner Koziol were among the key additions, and they helped fuel an offense that averaged 29.1 points per game last season.
Houston finished the year by beating LSU 38-35 in the Texas Bowl at NRG Stadium, a win that served as a fitting cap to what Fritz and his staff are putting together.
The gap between Houston and the Big 12’s top tier is still there, but it looks a lot smaller than it did two seasons ago. The Cougars will get a direct measuring stick on Sept. 18, when they travel to Lubbock to face defending Big 12 champion Texas Tech at 7 p.m.
In Other News...
One Houston Freshman Is Already Forcing His Way Onto The Field
Houstons 2026 recruiting class is already drawing attention for the obvious reasons, with five-star quarterback Keisean Henderson headlining a group ranked No. 32 nationally and No. 5 in the Big 12 by 247Sports. But one of the more intriguing pieces in that class is athlete Paris Melvin Jr., who has spent spring practices showing why Houston is eager to find ways to get him on the field early.
Melvin Jr. has flashed enough that the staff has been exploring him on both sides of the ball, with work at kick returner and cornerback and a look at him as a possible option on offense, too. He stood out in the spring game and throughout practice, and the conversation around him is less about whether hell play and more about how many jobs Houston can realistically hand him once the season arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Houston Recruiting Momentum Finally Feels Like Something Real
Houstons recruiting picture is starting to look a lot different, and not just because of the usual late-summer optimism. After a season that restored some credibility on the field, the Cougars are finding it easier to sell a program that feels steadier, more competitive and more relevant in the Big 12 conversation. The combination of recent success and a more settled direction under Willie Fritz is giving Houston something it has needed for a while: proof that recruits can look at the program and see a real path forward.
The changing college football landscape is helping, too, with the transfer portal and NIL reshaping how players evaluate their options and how schools build classes. Houston also has room for new faces after losing players to graduation, transfers and the draft, which opens the door for younger talent to step in sooner than it might elsewhere. For a program trying to turn momentum into something lasting, that kind of timing matters almost as much as the wins themselves. [Read more 🡒]
Houstons Biggest Edge Against Cincinnati Isnt The One Fans Expect
The matchup in Cincinnati figures to turn on more than just the quarterbacks, even if Conner Weigman and Samaj Jones will get most of the attention when the ball is in the air. Houston comes in with a chance to lean on a passing game that has a clear focal point in Amare Thomas, and that gives the Cougars a different kind of edge heading into a game where both defenses will be tested early.
Cincinnatis offseason roster makeover has added fresh depth and new position battles, but it also leaves some uncertainty in the secondary that Houston can try to press. If the Cougars are going to come home with the kind of road win that can shape a season, Thomas may be the player who tilts the field, forcing Cincinnati to prove its rebuilt back end is ready for a real stress test. [Read more 🡒]