November 5, 2025 • 8 mins
Head Coach Willie Fritz Joins Ahead of Their Match Up vs UCF
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
That Thomas Show with rowsome here in Memphis for Rockets
and Grizzly Tonight, let's go back to Houston for a
few minutes to say high to the head football coach
of our Houston Cougar's Willie Fritzen. Is presented to you
by the Joint Chiropractic, the official chiropractor of a Houston
Cougar athletics coach. I always like to ask you about
the film study with the kids after a loss, disappointing
(00:24):
against West Virginia. What was that like? How long did
you look at it and how long did you hit
the erase of file? After breaking down that game against
the Mountaineers.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, we you know, we're playing this Friday, so we
had a little bit of a different week, kicked everything
up a day and you know, we came in on
Sunday and we watched the tape. You know, we didn't
get through all of it, but we wanted to move
on ahead to Central Florida punt this Friday, but we
wanted to let MEAs some of the mistakes we made
and you know, kind of put it to bed. You know,
(00:55):
sometimes people when they have a tough game, they don't
really address it. We wanted to make sure we addressed
it and don't don't do that again. That's uh, that's
way too many turnovers minus four turnover takeaway margin and
on your mind as four, you have a tough time
winning the game.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
On the turnover front, trying to make things happen carelessness,
a little bit of both. Do you dissect turnovers as
all turnovers being equal or do you go all right,
I see what you were trying to do there, But
unfortunately things in that workout to our advantage.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Sometimes that hey, it just happens. You know, there was
a all through a go ball Harvey, and you know
the ball got kicked up in the air and it
came over and got an interception on it. You know,
but the part of it was it was tough, was
you know, we didn't make the tackle on it and
I've getten a boy another twenty twenty five yards on
the play. But you know, we we feel like no turnovers,
(01:50):
good turnover. We just want to stay even as much
as possible. And you know, all the games we've won
this year, we've been even or plus the two games
was lost, we've been my career as the head coach,
I got one ninety one percent of games and within
plus one or better. So it's a pretty good parometer
on your success a team.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I've had a chance to talk to you a couple
of your dan linemen. I'm sure they were very, very
disappointed with the run defense. Again, the Skins and Mountaineers
as well, correct and.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
They ran the ball well against this. It really didn't
miss some tackles, but they've had a few plays. We
just didn't sit up right some plays out on the perimeter,
and and I did a good job of keep going
back to it before until we got it fixed. Uh,
we're gonna have to play a lot better against the
run this weekend. CenTra Floor's got a couple of good backs,
and you played good leverage. You know, do a good
(02:40):
job of tackling. If you play the leverage, you know,
they might get a play on you here there, but
it's not going to be a big one. And uh,
that's what happened to this last Saturday. I had a
few big ones.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
You mentioned the short weeks. So what gets Does everything
get sped up? Is there something that doesn't that gets
a minute or is it just a case of just
less recovery time?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, a little less recovery time. We came in on Sunday,
we actually did a team yoga and everybody after we
watched the film, you know, and then Monday it was
kind of like a Tuesday. Tuesday, it was kind of
like a Wednesday, et cetera. Going through the week. You know,
you want to be careful not to do too much,
you know, as a younger head coach, we try to
fit it all in and you know, a shorter amount
(03:23):
of time and sometimes that you know, done a lot
of guys to recover and be fresh, and Frisky's wanted
to be on you know, game day, so there were
some of the important things we wanted to get done.
Our big work day was yesterday. We had a good
workout this morning, and then tomorrow will be like a
regular day before ball game where we you know, basically,
(03:43):
you know, it's kind of a jog through, walk through
all the different things, and then we do a lot
of meeting on the day before the game, so we
only get too much of a different schedule.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You mentioned Willie yoga. When did you incorporate that into
your program? Was that from a strength and conditioning coach?
Was that from somebody that you used to work with
and how do the kids how to eighteen and nineteen
year olds em brace yoga in twenty twenty five, they
kind of.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Like it, you know they and we'll do it is
you know, we're going to be flying to the game tomorrow.
It's gonna be a couple hour flight. When we get
off the plane, we get to the hotel, that's the
first thing we'll do. Put our bags in the room.
But you know, getting this big ballroom and we'll do
a yoga about twenty thirty minutes into you can hear
(04:29):
some guys snoring, You get some relaxed a little bit.
But you know, we kind of did a little bit
different on Sundays more to you know, speed up the
recovery process. There's some different things that our strength coaches
did with it. And you know, guys felt like they
felt better on Monday when we came out and had
a practice.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I'm curious, did the three hundred pound lineman like the
yoga too, or is that more goods.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
They enjoy they really do? You know, coach has talked
about a lot. He went and got certified and and
he does the same thing for all of them, you know,
and the strength coaches. We've got a couple of them
that are certified doing it for us, and uh, you know,
the big guys, they seem to enjoy it just as
much as the smaller guys do. And I think it's
(05:18):
good for us to incorporate, incorporated with the whole team.
Some of the coaches even jumping there and get into
it as well.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Are you doing it yourself?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
No, I am not.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
On the sea to ask you know that?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Right?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, I understand the UCF Knights only scored three points
against Florida, turned the ball over, uh punt of the lot.
I mean, basically, that's good tape for your kids to
look at, saying, hey, we show up like we normally
do defensively, we can stop this UCF offense.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, they kind of an off week, kind of like
we in an off week. The week before that played
West Virginia got at you know, so, you know, I
don't think that's indicative of their season so far. They've
had a tough schedule early in the season. I guess
Week three of the guy from North Carolina pretty good,
you know, just a team that doesn't make a whole
(06:14):
lot of mistakes. But just like us last week, they
made a lot of mistakes against Baylor. So offense, defense,
kicking game, they haven't given up much many points defensively. Offensively,
they did a good job running the ball. We got
to prove that with six what was broken last week,
and then we got a couple of really good return guys.
So we have to do a nice job with our
(06:35):
coverage units.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
You've had to be overall very pleasing your special teams
group in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Correct, there's been some good stuff. You know, Ethan Sangez
sixteen to nineteen on field goals, which is excellent. We've
done a good solid job and kickoff and punt coverage.
You know, we're still looking for that you know, big return,
whether it's part return or kick return. We've had a
couple blocks we've done a nice job with so I think,
(07:03):
you know, we look at this deal called Pro Football
Focused PSF and hey, ranks everybody. I think we're second
or third out of sixteen teams right now, but we
still we feel like we can really improve in the
in the return part of the game.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Lastly, coach, look, you got a week off after this,
then you got the TCU Baylor to close out the
regular season and the ball situation will settle itself. But
I would think, uh, and not that you need must
wins at any point, but to have this game for
you against this UCF team, get on the road, your
last legitimate plane flip trip, getting out there to get
(07:40):
the victory would be a great way for these guys
to kind of segue into the final two weeks of
the season.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, it woll it'd be a great way to go
into the bye week. You know, all of them are
must wins for us. We've always felt that way. You know,
it's gonna be a you know, a big time challenge.
They're a good ball club. We got to between both
of us, it's going to you know, kind of see
who read first. You know, we want to start good.
I don't think we have started good, you know for
(08:06):
three or four law you know, we did one game
against Arizona State. Some other weeks we did not start
very good. So we want to really do a great
job in the first quarter. We've been working on our
openers and you know, we really start the game off
with the bang.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Willie, thank you for the time as always, Safe travels
to Central Florida and we'll talk again in a couple
of weeks, hopefully celebrating a victory against UCF.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Thanks for the time, you bet you, Thank you, gokoog
That Thomas Show with rowsome here in Memphis for Rockets
and Grizzly Tonight, let's go back to Houston for a
few minutes to say high to the head football coach
of our Houston Cougar's Willie Fritzen. Is presented to you
by the Joint Chiropractic, the official chiropractor of a Houston
Cougar athletics coach. I always like to ask you about
the film study with the kids after a loss, disappointing
(00:24):
against West Virginia. What was that like? How long did
you look at it and how long did you hit
the erase of file? After breaking down that game against
the Mountaineers.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, we you know, we're playing this Friday, so we
had a little bit of a different week, kicked everything
up a day and you know, we came in on
Sunday and we watched the tape. You know, we didn't
get through all of it, but we wanted to move
on ahead to Central Florida punt this Friday, but we
wanted to let MEAs some of the mistakes we made
and you know, kind of put it to bed. You know,
(00:55):
sometimes people when they have a tough game, they don't
really address it. We wanted to make sure we addressed
it and don't don't do that again. That's uh, that's
way too many turnovers minus four turnover takeaway margin and
on your mind as four, you have a tough time
winning the game.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
On the turnover front, trying to make things happen carelessness,
a little bit of both. Do you dissect turnovers as
all turnovers being equal or do you go all right,
I see what you were trying to do there, But
unfortunately things in that workout to our advantage.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Sometimes that hey, it just happens. You know, there was
a all through a go ball Harvey, and you know
the ball got kicked up in the air and it
came over and got an interception on it. You know,
but the part of it was it was tough, was
you know, we didn't make the tackle on it and
I've getten a boy another twenty twenty five yards on
the play. But you know, we we feel like no turnovers,
(01:50):
good turnover. We just want to stay even as much
as possible. And you know, all the games we've won
this year, we've been even or plus the two games
was lost, we've been my career as the head coach,
I got one ninety one percent of games and within
plus one or better. So it's a pretty good parometer
on your success a team.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I've had a chance to talk to you a couple
of your dan linemen. I'm sure they were very, very
disappointed with the run defense. Again, the Skins and Mountaineers
as well, correct and.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
They ran the ball well against this. It really didn't
miss some tackles, but they've had a few plays. We
just didn't sit up right some plays out on the perimeter,
and and I did a good job of keep going
back to it before until we got it fixed. Uh,
we're gonna have to play a lot better against the
run this weekend. CenTra Floor's got a couple of good backs,
and you played good leverage. You know, do a good
(02:40):
job of tackling. If you play the leverage, you know,
they might get a play on you here there, but
it's not going to be a big one. And uh,
that's what happened to this last Saturday. I had a
few big ones.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
You mentioned the short weeks. So what gets Does everything
get sped up? Is there something that doesn't that gets
a minute or is it just a case of just
less recovery time?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yeah, a little less recovery time. We came in on Sunday,
we actually did a team yoga and everybody after we
watched the film, you know, and then Monday it was
kind of like a Tuesday. Tuesday, it was kind of
like a Wednesday, et cetera. Going through the week. You know,
you want to be careful not to do too much,
you know, as a younger head coach, we try to
fit it all in and you know, a shorter amount
(03:23):
of time and sometimes that you know, done a lot
of guys to recover and be fresh, and Frisky's wanted
to be on you know, game day, so there were
some of the important things we wanted to get done.
Our big work day was yesterday. We had a good
workout this morning, and then tomorrow will be like a
regular day before ball game where we you know, basically,
(03:43):
you know, it's kind of a jog through, walk through
all the different things, and then we do a lot
of meeting on the day before the game, so we
only get too much of a different schedule.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
You mentioned Willie yoga. When did you incorporate that into
your program? Was that from a strength and conditioning coach?
Was that from somebody that you used to work with
and how do the kids how to eighteen and nineteen
year olds em brace yoga in twenty twenty five, they
kind of.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Like it, you know they and we'll do it is
you know, we're going to be flying to the game tomorrow.
It's gonna be a couple hour flight. When we get
off the plane, we get to the hotel, that's the
first thing we'll do. Put our bags in the room.
But you know, getting this big ballroom and we'll do
a yoga about twenty thirty minutes into you can hear
(04:29):
some guys snoring, You get some relaxed a little bit.
But you know, we kind of did a little bit
different on Sundays more to you know, speed up the
recovery process. There's some different things that our strength coaches
did with it. And you know, guys felt like they
felt better on Monday when we came out and had
a practice.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
I'm curious, did the three hundred pound lineman like the
yoga too, or is that more goods.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
They enjoy they really do? You know, coach has talked
about a lot. He went and got certified and and
he does the same thing for all of them, you know,
and the strength coaches. We've got a couple of them
that are certified doing it for us, and uh, you know,
the big guys, they seem to enjoy it just as
much as the smaller guys do. And I think it's
(05:18):
good for us to incorporate, incorporated with the whole team.
Some of the coaches even jumping there and get into
it as well.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Are you doing it yourself?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
No, I am not.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
On the sea to ask you know that?
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Right?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Yeah, I understand the UCF Knights only scored three points
against Florida, turned the ball over, uh punt of the lot.
I mean, basically, that's good tape for your kids to
look at, saying, hey, we show up like we normally
do defensively, we can stop this UCF offense.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, they kind of an off week, kind of like
we in an off week. The week before that played
West Virginia got at you know, so, you know, I
don't think that's indicative of their season so far. They've
had a tough schedule early in the season. I guess
Week three of the guy from North Carolina pretty good,
you know, just a team that doesn't make a whole
(06:14):
lot of mistakes. But just like us last week, they
made a lot of mistakes against Baylor. So offense, defense,
kicking game, they haven't given up much many points defensively. Offensively,
they did a good job running the ball. We got
to prove that with six what was broken last week,
and then we got a couple of really good return guys.
So we have to do a nice job with our
(06:35):
coverage units.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
You've had to be overall very pleasing your special teams
group in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Correct, there's been some good stuff. You know, Ethan Sangez
sixteen to nineteen on field goals, which is excellent. We've
done a good solid job and kickoff and punt coverage.
You know, we're still looking for that you know, big return,
whether it's part return or kick return. We've had a
couple blocks we've done a nice job with so I think,
(07:03):
you know, we look at this deal called Pro Football
Focused PSF and hey, ranks everybody. I think we're second
or third out of sixteen teams right now, but we
still we feel like we can really improve in the
in the return part of the game.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Lastly, coach, look, you got a week off after this,
then you got the TCU Baylor to close out the
regular season and the ball situation will settle itself. But
I would think, uh, and not that you need must
wins at any point, but to have this game for
you against this UCF team, get on the road, your
last legitimate plane flip trip, getting out there to get
(07:40):
the victory would be a great way for these guys
to kind of segue into the final two weeks of
the season.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Yeah, it woll it'd be a great way to go
into the bye week. You know, all of them are
must wins for us. We've always felt that way. You know,
it's gonna be a you know, a big time challenge.
They're a good ball club. We got to between both
of us, it's going to you know, kind of see
who read first. You know, we want to start good.
I don't think we have started good, you know for
(08:06):
three or four law you know, we did one game
against Arizona State. Some other weeks we did not start
very good. So we want to really do a great
job in the first quarter. We've been working on our
openers and you know, we really start the game off
with the bang.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Willie, thank you for the time as always, Safe travels
to Central Florida and we'll talk again in a couple
of weeks, hopefully celebrating a victory against UCF.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Thanks for the time, you bet you, Thank you, gokoog
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