Houston enters 2026 with plenty of experience already baked into the roster, but the Cougars’ ceiling may come down to a few new faces as much as the familiar ones.
That’s the real appeal for Willie Fritz’s team, which brings back 12 starters and more than 35,000 snaps of production. It’s a big reason Houston is sitting at No. 23 in the Preseason AP poll and has real expectations in the Big 12.
The returnees matter, of course. So do the headliners already in place: senior quarterback Conner Weigman, senior wide receiver Amare Thomas and redshirt junior corner Will James.
But the transfer portal may be what pushes this group from solid to dangerous.
At receiver, Houston needed help beyond Thomas. Last season, the Cougars didn’t have much reliable depth there and leaned on tight end Tanner Koziol as Weigman’s second option.
That should look different now with senior transfer Trent Walker in the mix. At 6-foot-2, Walker gives Houston a legitimate target on the outside, and his sixth season of college football brings the kind of polish this offense can use.
Walker arrives after posting 823 receiving yards and two touchdowns on 68 catches last season at Oregon State. If he settles in quickly and pulls some attention away from Thomas, it changes the way defenses can play Houston.
The backfield could get a similar boost from Makhi Hughes, a senior transfer from Oregon. Dean Conners handled the job well last season and finished with almost 1000 rushing yards, but Hughes gives the Cougars a chance to add more balance and more punch in key spots. He’s the kind of runner who can handle short-yardage work, finish drives in the red zone and reduce the burden on Weigman’s legs.
Hughes’ 2024 season at Oregon was slowed by injuries, but his earlier work at Tulane showed exactly why Houston wanted him. Under Fritz in 2023, he was a Freshman All-American with over 1300 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.
The next year, he took another jump, piling up 1401 rushing yards and 17 total touchdowns while carrying the ball 265 times. At 6-foot and 210 pounds, he’s built to be the kind of steady workhorse Houston could lean on.
There’s also help coming on defense, where Houston already has a good amount of experience back. James returns at corner, and both safeties - seniors Kentrell Webb and Jordan Allen - are back, along with senior transfer Jalen Mayo from Stephen F. Austin.
Now the Cougars may have added another piece that makes the whole unit tougher to deal with in junior defensive back Javion White from Tulane. White earned American All-Conference Third Team honors last year, finishing with three interceptions, six pass break-ups and 50 total tackles. He’s also been strong in fall camp, which only adds to the sense that Houston’s secondary can become a real problem for opposing quarterbacks.
For Houston, these are the kinds of additions that can reshape a season. Walker, Hughes and White fill obvious needs and give the Cougars more ways to win in 2026.
In Other News...
Houston Linebackers Could Quietly Become A Defensive Strength
Houstons linebacker room is shaping up as one of the more interesting groups to watch going into the upcoming season. Sione Fotu and Carmycah Glass return, and Houston also added Jayden Yates from Ole Miss, a transfer who is expected to be a key starter. After losing Jalen Garner and Corey Platt, the Cougars need that unit to absorb some of the production that walked out the door, but the early message from the program has been steady growth and better play on the back end.
Christian Brathwaite and Richmond Ugochukwu are part of the depth picture, and their development through practice and game snaps could matter more than it might in a typical year. The staff and players have pointed to confidence and coverage improvement as the biggest themes for the group, which makes this one of those spots where Houston may not need a headline-grabbing overhaul to get better. It just needs the linebackers to keep stacking progress and turn that quiet work into something that holds up on Saturdays. [Read more 🡒]
Houston Hype Just Reached A Level Cougars Fans Can't Ignore
Houston heads into its Sept. 5 opener against Oregon State carrying a kind of preseason attention it has not seen often in recent memory. The Cougars are sitting at No. 23 in the AP poll and No. 24 in the Coaches Poll, and for a program that has only been ranked in the preseason three times since 1991, that alone says a lot about how much national curiosity surrounds this group.
The buzz has only grown because of where some outside observers think this season could go in the Big 12. ESPN analyst EJ Manuel has gone as far as to suggest Houston could be the leagues team most likely to break through to the College Football Playoff, and he pointed to senior quarterback Conner Weigman as a major reason for that belief, along with the upside brought by senior running back Makhi Hughes and senior wide receiver Amare Thomas. For a program trying to turn preseason respect into something sturdier, that kind of conversation is hard to ignore. [Read more 🡒]
Houston Has A Big 12 Storyline Fans Can't Ignore This Fall
Preseason Big 12 chatter already has a way of shaping the way Houston fans look at the fall, and this years conversation comes with a few familiar points of intrigue. Texas Tech is the conference favorite in the forecast, while the individual projections point to a league that could be driven by big plays and fresh faces, with names like Drew Mestemaker and LJ Martin expected to help define the race for the top statistical spots.
For Houston, the storyline worth watching is more specific than the wider title chase. The Cougars have an offensive piece projected to stand out among Big 12 receivers, and the expectation around him only adds to the sense that this team could matter in more than one way this season, especially with new personnel around the league threatening to change the balance of power. Whether that early projection holds up will tell us plenty about how far Houstons offense can push in conference play. [Read more 🡒]