Willie Fritz Lauds The Culture Of New-Look Houston Cougars

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A new season brings a new story, and this 2026-27 Houston football program has begun to write it as spring ball is right around the corner.

Head coach Willie Fritz is leading this new group of players, whom he has had a chance to see during the team's practices, and he seems pleased and impressed with the way the guys have approached this upcoming season.

With a new group of men in the facilities and on the field who have been part of the team in recent years or have come in from the transfer portal or recruiting class, it has been an exciting moment for Fritz and Co. to assess where everyone is at and how everyone has embraced the opportunity.

"I'm just excited about the guys that we have brought in," Fritz said. "They have adapted to how we do things."

Praising Players and Culture

One of the topics that stood out to the third-year head coach for the Cougars was how tight this group already is, given the little time it has had to adjust to the system he runs.

"The young men we brought in from the portal really fit in," Fritz said. "The high school kids that reported early have really fit in, and that's what you're looking for. To win a bunch of games, you have to play really good players, really good coaches, but you have to have great culture, and every place that we've been, we have been successful. We have had great culture."

Although it will take time for all the players to get used to the system that some of the coaches run, like offensive coordinator Slade Nagle and defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong, one of the bigger things Fritz wants to run through and accomplish is building on the basics.

"The big thing you are trying to accomplish in spring ball is getting better schematically, technique fundamentally, but you also want to keep your guys healthy," Fritz said. "We feel like we have a lot of good kids coming back. I want to make darn sure they are available for us when we report to camp on August the 4th, so I'm excited about it."

With the seniors returning for their final season of eligibility, Fritz harped on taking the front door or back door, and that's the message he wants those leaders to carry over from the previous campaign.

"They're really good young men, I just really enjoyed working with those guys," Fritz said. "Some of those guys, I've known them for a couple of years. Some of those guys, I'd only known them for six months. I always tell guys, when you get finished playing at a school, you can either walk in the front door every day, or you have to go in the back door because you didn't do things the right way. All those guys can walk directly in the front door because they did things right."

It's all those steps this Houston football program is taking toward the next stage, and it's trending in the right direction with the right culture, chemistry, and maturity.

This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/houston as Willie Fritz Lauds The Culture Of New-Look Houston Cougars.

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