Willie Fritz Embraces Houston's Expectations in Suddenly Wide Open Big 12
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A dozen starters are back from the best Houston team in years. That puts the Cougars near the top of the country in returning production for 2026 — and raises expectations for what could be a special season.
Texas Tech, one of Houston’s toughest opponents in the characteristically chaotic Big 12, also enjoys strong stability after a successful season of its own. But Brendan Sorsby’s unceremonious exit from college football threatens the Red Raiders’ standing atop the conference. Might the Cougars be the team to take advantage of Texas Tech’s misfortune?
“I think people have got expectations for us after last season,” Houston coach Willie Fritz told Athlon Sports in April. “And we got expectations. We’re looking forward to the year.”
The Cougars were picked to finish third in the Big 12, behind Texas Tech and BYU, in Athlon’s conference predictions on the heels of a fourth-place finish in 2025. And if their No. 19 ranking in Athlon’s Top 138 holds, this will be the first time since 2022 they open the season ranked in the AP Top 25. Houston (10-3) just posted its winningest season since 2021, capped off by a thrilling victory over LSU in the Texas Bowl.
The only game the Cougars were uncompetitive in was a 35-11 loss at home to eventual conference champion Texas Tech. That lopsided outcome put a spotlight on Houston’s return trip to face the Red Raiders in September.
Already seen as a pivotal game in the Big 12 title race, the stakes were upped even further when it was supposed to double as Sorsby’s Red Raiders debut and his return from suspension. With Sorsby out of college football and Texas Tech moving forward with Will Hammond as its starting quarterback, the Cougars have to like their chances at challenging the champs a bit more than they did just a few weeks ago.
Several Houston players who were on the field for that game are back with the team this season. Fritz didn’t let on that the degree of continuity from the 2025 roster made for an easier installation of the Cougars’ system in the offseason. He went up and down the depth chart, singling out the changes.
One linebacker. A tight end who’s gonna be new. Three offensive linemen will start who are new guys.
Still, Houston leads the Big 12 in returning starters with six back on both sides of the ball. The average team in the conference returned just six starters total. Iowa State had none.
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The Cougars didn’t have to hit the portal as hard as Fritz’s first two years in charge. Houston brought in 25 newcomers in 2024 and 30 last offseason. Houston took just 19 transfers this time around, two of whom Fritz previously coached and one whom he recruited to Tulane.
Running back Makhi Hughes and offensive lineman Shadre Hurst both earned freshman All-America honors for Fritz with the Green Wave in 2023. Hughes later transferred to Oregon, where he appeared in just six games last season. Hurst stayed with Tulane. They both reunited with their former coach when the portal opened in December.
“When you go recruit somebody, you want to be a talent evaluator,” Fritz said. “They’ve all got great talent, but you also have to be an information gatherer and find guys that are gonna fit in your culture and even help enhance your culture — and those guys certainly do.”
Fritz recruited defensive back Javion White to Tulane back in 2023. While Fritz left for Houston later that year, White went on to earn all-conference honors for the Green Wave. Two years later, he’ll finally play for the coach who recruited him after he joined the Cougars in the transfer portal.
Like many college football coaches, Fritz was pleased when transfer activity was confined to a single winter window rather than one in December and another in April. Houston lost a handful of defensive starters last spring. However, the Cougars also landed their leading pass-catcher in the late window.
“I like the fact that this is our team, and we know who we got,” Fritz said. “And if you do have weaknesses, you got plenty of time to try to fix any weakness that you might have.”
There aren’t any obvious areas of need for Houston to address. The Cougars rank in the upper half of the Big 12 in all of Athlon’s unit rankings. Their strength lies in the linebacker room and secondary. And Fritz is confident in his reserves, too.
“We got some depth on the offensive line, which we really haven’t had before,” Fritz said. “We got some pretty good depth at a lot of different positions, so that’s neat.”
Having depth in the trenches is a luxury for any team. Depth at quarterback is virtually unheard of. Houston has a claim to one of the best one-two punches under center in returning starter Conner Weigman and incoming freshman and 2026 No. 1 recruit Keisean Henderson.
Weigman, also a former five-star prospect from the Lone Star State, enjoyed a breakout season in 2025. He set career-highs across the board with 2,705 passing yards and 25 touchdowns, and he added 700 yards and 11 scores on the ground.
“Conner Weigman is a stud,” an anonymous Big 12 assistant coach said in Athlon Sports’ College Football Preview magazine. “Tough, gritty, winner. Can beat you with his legs, and they’ll run the hell out of him, too. He really understands how to run the offense they want to run.”
After a turbulent tenure at Texas A&M, Fritz is excited for Weigman to have stability with the same offensive coordinator and quarterback coach in place for another season at Houston. He’ll also have wide receiver Amare Thomas back. The preseason All-America pick accounted for more than a third of Weigman’s passing yards and hauled in 11 touchdowns in 2025.
Henderson will learn from — and push — Weigman before he takes the reins in 2027. Even just Henderson’s presence at Houston is an indicator of the health of the program, on and off the field. The dual-threat talent is the highest-rated recruit in Cougars’ history. And, according to On3, Henderson has an NIL evaluation of $1 million.
The financial aspect of fielding a competitive team in the NIL and revenue sharing era is not lost on Fritz, who made an undisclosed donation with his wife to the athletic department earlier this offseason.
“Our goal here is to win a national championship,” Fritz said. “And one area that we’re away from some other people is our total NIL.
“We just gotta keep doing a good job of narrowing the distance between us and some other people.”
Considering one of the biggest and brashest spenders in the sport resides in the Cougars’ conference — and state, for that matter — it’s not hard to imagine which people Fritz might be talking about.
Texas Tech has been a disruptor to the sport’s traditional power structure in the last few years. And even without Sorsby, the Red Raiders remain the favorite to repeat in the Big 12 with talent on par with SEC and Big Ten contenders.
Fritz maintains that many teams in the Big 12 are capable of winning the conference. Houston is one of them. And the Cougars are the only team projected to finish in the top quarter of the conference that the reigning champions will face in the regular season.
It’s just one game, but Houston’s Sept. 18 trip to Texas Tech has taken on even greater importance to the Big 12 race after the events of the last several weeks.
Related: Athlon Sports 2026 College Football Preview Magazine Available Now
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Jun 26, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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