Willie Fritz will use a unique plan to take Houston to the top of the Big 12

LAS VEGAS — Willie Fritz swears he has no secret formula for success, even as he stirs up plenty of intrigue that ultimately led to his new job as head coach of the Houston Cougars.

If he could bottle his winning talents, his sales would surpass those of Sweet Baby Ray.

“It’s not just one thing,” Fritz told us at Big 12 Media Days. “I’ve had good (assistant) coaches. I’ve had good players. We had a good plan and we executed it.”

He won two junior college national championships in four seasons as head coach at Blinn Junior College. Fritz led Central Missouri to 11 winning seasons in 13 seasons, becoming the program’s all-time leader in wins. He then led Sam Houston to back-to-back Southland Conference championships and an NCAA Division I championship game appearance before helping Georgia Southern become the first team in NCAA history to record an undefeated conference season in its first year as an FBS team.

Oh, and at Tulane, a program that spent decades in the basement, Fritz built a G5 juggernaut that finished ninth in the AP poll in 2022. The season was highlighted by a Cotton Bowl victory over USC and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams. Over the course of his career, Fritz has led eight teams to 10-plus wins and ranks fifth nationally among active FBS coaches with 208 victories. He has coached 73 players who were either NFL draft picks or free agents in 31 seasons as a head coach.

Fritz loves to make plans. He admits that each of his stops required a new direction. What worked at Blinn Junior College couldn’t work at Sam Houston. And what worked so well at Tulane won’t propel Houston to the top of the Big 12. The jobs are different, and so is his approach.

“Adapting to your environment is key,” Fritz said. “What is college about? What are your strengths? What are your current strengths and weaknesses? Every stage is different. The head coach’s job is to find a way to maximize the strengths and erase the weaknesses.”

Adjusting to his position isn’t the only evolution Fritz has experienced in his four decades of coaching college football. He’s also had to adapt to an ever-changing sports landscape. The transfer portal. NIL. Fritz enjoys connecting with former players. Taking over the job in Houston allowed some of those former Sam Houston and Blinn athletes to attend a few practices at Third Ward this spring. Fritz admits he’s a lot more positive with his current players than he was with his former ones. And they don’t let him forget it.

Fritz used to yell during practice. A lot. To save his voice, the team’s coach began using a megaphone to relay his messages to the players during practice. Come to the Houston campus for practice and you’ll hear Fritz’s voice commanding practice through his megaphone.

“Some of my players who came to watch us in training played for me at Blinn, my first coaching job, and they all said I had gone soft,” joked Fritz. “I had to remind them that I would be thrown in jail if I treated the current players the same way you did.”

Fritz happily chatted with anyone who wanted to ask him about Cougars football at his Big 12 media day. He’s been waiting a long time for this opportunity. He knows his career can’t last forever, and he’s won at every level except one: the Power Four. Fritz is nothing if not competitive. His whole life revolves around sports and family. And many of his close friends are coaches.

His first media event came in 1993, when he was the head coach at Blinn Junior College. The event was held in the library at Navarro Junior College in Corsicana, Texas. Fritz says three members of the media were there to cover the event. The sport has changed a lot, but Fritz says the game is similar. Sure, he’ll need a new plan to help Houston climb a crowded Big 12 mountain, but the attributes required to win on Saturday afternoon remain the same.

“It always comes down to blocking and tackling,” he said. “Teams that block and tackle better have a better chance of winning, so that’s what we work on every day.”