November 13, 2024 • 7 mins
Prior to their bye week, the Houston Cougars pulled off an upset over ranked Kansas State, defeating the Wildcats 24-19 on Nov. 2. The Cougars will look to carry this momentum into Tucson, where they will face the Arizona Wildcats on Friday. Head coach Willie Fritz joins "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" to preview the upcoming matchup but also talk about the future of the team and his recent recruiting efforts within the greater Houston area.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time out for our weekly visit with the head football
coach of your Houston Cougar's. Our Cougars are gonna be
on the road this Friday and Tucson, Arizona to take
on the Wildcats. It'll be an eight to fifteen pregame
show on nine to fifty KPRC. Kicktime at nine to fifteen,
which means, Coach Fritz Willie, you guys can get back
to Houston Saturday morning just enough to cook breakfast with
(00:21):
the team about six o'clock in the morning. It feels
like exactly right.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
It's gonna be a little bit different game. We played
some late games so far this season, so this will
be another one, but this will be even later. So
we're doing a few things a little different in terms
of when we get up, letting the guys go back
to sleep in the afternoon. I'm sure they'll enjoy that,
and the kind of fixing our are adjusting our eighty
(00:47):
schedule as well too, so it'll be interesting. We're excited
about going out there. I've never played a game there before.
I heard it's really nice stadium and venues. I'm looking
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Let me ask you this, and you have been around
and played all different time slots from eleven to nine
o'clock at night. What is the best time to play
a football game on the road and what's the worst,
And maybe does it change for home games too?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh, I'll be honest. I like playing early games myself.
You a little bit of time off after the ball
game and things, so you don't have the you know,
anticipation in the game, you know, hanging over you, you know,
all morning, afternoon and the end of the evening. So
that's what I like. It doesn't matter whatever it is,
and they tell us to do, we'll adjust to it
(01:35):
to the very best we can.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Look. You put in your players, do your staff? Does
the heart and soul of an entire week of play?
And if you win a game or you lose a game,
you're gonna obviously be still, you know, full of emotions.
Is it easy to go to bed after a game?
Do you need an hour to decompress? Does it make
it a sleepless night? How does the Fritz family, you,
(01:57):
the bride, the kids? What is it like trying to
decompressed after working so hard for six days to play
that one game on the seventh day?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh, we usually had to go home, watch a little
DIRID TV. So you know, I've been watching games and
my wife and I sitting around and talk and visit
because I I had had a chance to see you
a whole lot, especially in home games. I stayed in
the hotel at home games, and she stays at the house.
So it's good that we're able to talk and visit
(02:25):
for a little while. And then and then we start,
you know, about one o'clock on Sunday, so we have
a little bit of time, you know, on Sunday morning.
So that's how we kind of do.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I'm assuming during this time you had some guys heel
up a little bit. Uh, you had a chance to
probably use a coaching staff to get on the road
and do some recruiting. This would be your first in
season run recruiting the state of Texas wearing the University
of Houston gear. What are some observations you've seen so
far from Texas high school football this season?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh, it's been great. I went to a game last
Friday night. I guess I can't say game I went to,
but want the top games in the state and it
was really exciting. So I sold that of crowd and
two really good teams, very competitive game, and really enjoyed
it it. Kind of after first quarter, I kind of
(03:15):
talk to the guy who standing next to me and say,
you know, this is why I came back to the
state of Texas to see great high school games like this.
And then I went around there a few schools on
Thursday and Friday, and so did my staff. So it's
fun to jump in a car and have any direction
and find great football players.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Do you balance on the big scale of things, what
they do on a Friday night as compared to what
they do when they come to your camps or you've
had a chance to visit with them. How do you
balance that out?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
It's fun to watching from the sideline. I'm getting an
opportunity to do that very often, but you need to
see out the interact teammates, you know, and then how
hard I really do play. You were able to kind
of see that a little bit differently when you're out there,
you know, blocking on the perimeter if their receiver. Now
are they chase the ball if they're a defensive player.
(04:08):
So yeah, there's a huge advantage to actually going to games.
I've gone to games before where I was on the fence,
and I recruiting the guy, and I said, you know, hey,
this is a guy I gotta have in our programs.
And I've maybe, hey, this is a guy I really
got to have, and I've got to watch him play
in Personally, Man, I don't want this guy playing for me.
I don't know if I could get him switch to
(04:29):
how we do things here at the University Houston or wherever.
I was at a huge advantage for the games and
watching guys in. Unfortunately, the limits you how many games
you can go to, and you just don't get to
do it very often.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Welly, I know that the off time is good, but man,
the momentum that this program had after beating Kansastate the
way that it did, there had to be a large
second segment of your guys that wanted to get back
on the football field and play as soon as humanly possible.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You know, we've gone quite a bit of a run
and we were a little banged up. I think it
was good for us having the time off. You know,
you got to approach it that way because that's the
way the schedule is anyway. So we took a little
bit of time off, We practiced a couple of days
hard last week, and obviously we just pushed everything up today.
(05:20):
You know, Sunday, it was a Monday, Mondays and Tuesday,
et cetera leading up to a Friday night game. So
I think the bye weeks are good, just you know,
need to understand you got a little bit of time
off and then you got to crank it back up
when it's time to go to work.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You've got momentum on your side. The team you're playing against,
the Wildcast, is not They have not won in a
long period of time. They got blown out by Central
Florida the last time they took the football field. The
one thing I noticed was that they're having a difficult
time rushing the football. So I would think that's, you know,
you want to maintain that as one of the things
for a key for victory of you for you this
(05:57):
week is not letting their ground game become a difference.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
No, you're exactly right. It's one of the keys to
to winning football games. I was looking at some stats
the other day and you wanted to turnover takeaway and
the run battle and the teams that have done that
Division one football one of the ballgames, so those that
status very very important. We want to do a good
(06:21):
job running the football and do a super job playing
leverage and tackling. Every week, we want to try to
make the opposing team be one dimensional. There was something
we did a good job of our last outing team
that was averaging I believe, over two hundred and twenty
yards a game rushing. We held a bit eighty two yards,
and you know, that was a big reason for the
(06:42):
success that we had. So we've got to do that
against Arizona as well.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And lastly, I'm going to assume I don't know this
for a fact, but quarterbacks that don't throw any incompletions
usually win their games too, right, I mean, is NA
do that for you for you again this week?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I guess there hadn't been a we're back and completed
you know, more than ten and been one hundred percent.
I don't think that's happened for a little while. And yeah,
he did a great good job of it, you know,
part of that, you know, limiting how many times through
the balls. You know, he was writing pretty hard during
the game, and we kind of found out that we
were able to run it and doing a good job defensively.
(07:20):
You know, wanted them to go to the big deal,
so every week it's a little bit different. You know
your path to victory and we'll happy to see who
that is you know on Friday night.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Great visitors, always coach. Safe travels Arizona. We'll talk again
next weekend. Thanks for the timing and congratulations on the
last couple of victories have been a lot of fun
to watch. Thank you, ed got it. We see you
got it. That is the head football coach of our
Houston Cougars. Well he Fritz joining us and he's brought
to you by the Joint Chiropractical, the official chiropractor of
University of Houston Athletics.
Time out for our weekly visit with the head football
coach of your Houston Cougar's. Our Cougars are gonna be
on the road this Friday and Tucson, Arizona to take
on the Wildcats. It'll be an eight to fifteen pregame
show on nine to fifty KPRC. Kicktime at nine to fifteen,
which means, Coach Fritz Willie, you guys can get back
to Houston Saturday morning just enough to cook breakfast with
(00:21):
the team about six o'clock in the morning. It feels
like exactly right.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
It's gonna be a little bit different game. We played
some late games so far this season, so this will
be another one, but this will be even later. So
we're doing a few things a little different in terms
of when we get up, letting the guys go back
to sleep in the afternoon. I'm sure they'll enjoy that,
and the kind of fixing our are adjusting our eighty
(00:47):
schedule as well too, so it'll be interesting. We're excited
about going out there. I've never played a game there before.
I heard it's really nice stadium and venues. I'm looking
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Let me ask you this, and you have been around
and played all different time slots from eleven to nine
o'clock at night. What is the best time to play
a football game on the road and what's the worst,
And maybe does it change for home games too?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh, I'll be honest. I like playing early games myself.
You a little bit of time off after the ball
game and things, so you don't have the you know,
anticipation in the game, you know, hanging over you, you know,
all morning, afternoon and the end of the evening. So
that's what I like. It doesn't matter whatever it is,
and they tell us to do, we'll adjust to it
(01:35):
to the very best we can.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Look. You put in your players, do your staff? Does
the heart and soul of an entire week of play?
And if you win a game or you lose a game,
you're gonna obviously be still, you know, full of emotions.
Is it easy to go to bed after a game?
Do you need an hour to decompress? Does it make
it a sleepless night? How does the Fritz family, you,
(01:57):
the bride, the kids? What is it like trying to
decompressed after working so hard for six days to play
that one game on the seventh day?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Oh, we usually had to go home, watch a little
DIRID TV. So you know, I've been watching games and
my wife and I sitting around and talk and visit
because I I had had a chance to see you
a whole lot, especially in home games. I stayed in
the hotel at home games, and she stays at the house.
So it's good that we're able to talk and visit
(02:25):
for a little while. And then and then we start,
you know, about one o'clock on Sunday, so we have
a little bit of time, you know, on Sunday morning.
So that's how we kind of do.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
I'm assuming during this time you had some guys heel
up a little bit. Uh, you had a chance to
probably use a coaching staff to get on the road
and do some recruiting. This would be your first in
season run recruiting the state of Texas wearing the University
of Houston gear. What are some observations you've seen so
far from Texas high school football this season?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh, it's been great. I went to a game last
Friday night. I guess I can't say game I went to,
but want the top games in the state and it
was really exciting. So I sold that of crowd and
two really good teams, very competitive game, and really enjoyed
it it. Kind of after first quarter, I kind of
(03:15):
talk to the guy who standing next to me and say,
you know, this is why I came back to the
state of Texas to see great high school games like this.
And then I went around there a few schools on
Thursday and Friday, and so did my staff. So it's
fun to jump in a car and have any direction
and find great football players.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Do you balance on the big scale of things, what
they do on a Friday night as compared to what
they do when they come to your camps or you've
had a chance to visit with them. How do you
balance that out?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
It's fun to watching from the sideline. I'm getting an
opportunity to do that very often, but you need to
see out the interact teammates, you know, and then how
hard I really do play. You were able to kind
of see that a little bit differently when you're out there,
you know, blocking on the perimeter if their receiver. Now
are they chase the ball if they're a defensive player.
(04:08):
So yeah, there's a huge advantage to actually going to games.
I've gone to games before where I was on the fence,
and I recruiting the guy, and I said, you know, hey,
this is a guy I gotta have in our programs.
And I've maybe, hey, this is a guy I really
got to have, and I've got to watch him play
in Personally, Man, I don't want this guy playing for me.
I don't know if I could get him switch to
(04:29):
how we do things here at the University Houston or wherever.
I was at a huge advantage for the games and
watching guys in. Unfortunately, the limits you how many games
you can go to, and you just don't get to
do it very often.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Welly, I know that the off time is good, but man,
the momentum that this program had after beating Kansastate the
way that it did, there had to be a large
second segment of your guys that wanted to get back
on the football field and play as soon as humanly possible.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You know, we've gone quite a bit of a run
and we were a little banged up. I think it
was good for us having the time off. You know,
you got to approach it that way because that's the
way the schedule is anyway. So we took a little
bit of time off, We practiced a couple of days
hard last week, and obviously we just pushed everything up today.
(05:20):
You know, Sunday, it was a Monday, Mondays and Tuesday,
et cetera leading up to a Friday night game. So
I think the bye weeks are good, just you know,
need to understand you got a little bit of time
off and then you got to crank it back up
when it's time to go to work.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You've got momentum on your side. The team you're playing against,
the Wildcast, is not They have not won in a
long period of time. They got blown out by Central
Florida the last time they took the football field. The
one thing I noticed was that they're having a difficult
time rushing the football. So I would think that's, you know,
you want to maintain that as one of the things
for a key for victory of you for you this
(05:57):
week is not letting their ground game become a difference.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
No, you're exactly right. It's one of the keys to
to winning football games. I was looking at some stats
the other day and you wanted to turnover takeaway and
the run battle and the teams that have done that
Division one football one of the ballgames, so those that
status very very important. We want to do a good
(06:21):
job running the football and do a super job playing
leverage and tackling. Every week, we want to try to
make the opposing team be one dimensional. There was something
we did a good job of our last outing team
that was averaging I believe, over two hundred and twenty
yards a game rushing. We held a bit eighty two yards,
and you know, that was a big reason for the
(06:42):
success that we had. So we've got to do that
against Arizona as well.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
And lastly, I'm going to assume I don't know this
for a fact, but quarterbacks that don't throw any incompletions
usually win their games too, right, I mean, is NA
do that for you for you again this week?
Speaker 2 (06:58):
I guess there hadn't been a we're back and completed
you know, more than ten and been one hundred percent.
I don't think that's happened for a little while. And yeah,
he did a great good job of it, you know,
part of that, you know, limiting how many times through
the balls. You know, he was writing pretty hard during
the game, and we kind of found out that we
were able to run it and doing a good job defensively.
(07:20):
You know, wanted them to go to the big deal,
so every week it's a little bit different. You know
your path to victory and we'll happy to see who
that is you know on Friday night.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Great visitors, always coach. Safe travels Arizona. We'll talk again
next weekend. Thanks for the timing and congratulations on the
last couple of victories have been a lot of fun
to watch. Thank you, ed got it. We see you
got it. That is the head football coach of our
Houston Cougars. Well he Fritz joining us and he's brought
to you by the Joint Chiropractical, the official chiropractor of
University of Houston Athletics.
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