The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Cougars Head Coach Willie Fritz Emphasizes Cleaning Up Turnovers Ahead Of Homecoming Game Against Utah

Episode Date: October 24, 2024

The Houston Cougars were unable to return home with a win after losing 42-12 to the Kansas Jayhawks on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium. After starter Zeon Chriss left the game with a quad/hamstring injury, Donovan Smith came in and went 15 of 24 for 173 passing yards, with two touchdowns and three picks. Jalon Daniels had three passing touchdowns to help Kansas snap their five-game losing streak. "When you don't win [the turnover battle], you're going to have a tough time winning the ball game," head coach Willie Fritz said. Fritz joins "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" ahead of the Cougars' Homecoming matchup against the Utah Utes. "They're a strong run team," and their defense "doesn't read and react... they're trying to make something happen," Fritz said. The Cougars will look to earn their third win of the season and second against a Big 12 opponent.

Time for us spend a few quality minutes with the head football coach of your Houston Cougars. Cougars against the Utah Uts this Saturday night. ESPN Plus the TV side of it radio over on 950 KPRC. And I'll have the pregame show. And right now we are joined by head coach Willie Fritz. Willie, good afternoon. How are things? Good.

How are you doing, Matt? I got no complaints, Coach. Thanks for taking some time with this. Look, there was times where penalties got to you. And then unfortunately, the turnover bug got to you Saturday in Kansas City. As you look back at the film, look obviously you want to correct all those types of things but was it intense pressure or some some mental mistakes by your squad that turned into a high turnover count yeah you know both

you know it's hard to you know like i've said a few times you know we got to play really well this season to be able to win in big 12 and you know the week before that we played tCU more plus four turnover takeaway and win and then last week were minus four and and didn't win so we just got a clean it up and do a better job coaching and playing and understand how important, you know, possession of the ball is, not giving them a free series of downs without anything happening good for you. So that's big for us. We talk about the plan to win every week, and the first component of it is winning the turnover takeaway battle. And when you don't win it, you're going to have a tough time winning the ball game,

so we've got to do a much better job in that area. How do you in-game go to the, well, if a ball gets deflected or intercepted or a fumble? And look, these kids are human. They don't want to be making these types of mistakes. But how do you try to as a coach reinforce the let's not get into this? Here we go again mode when you're in the middle of coaching a football game. Well, you really do it throughout the course of the week. We try to, you know, it's the number one thing that's printed up all over our buildings, all that kind of stuff.

And that's good, but we spend a lot of time with drill work, you know, an individual team, you know, working with proper ball security. And then, you know, you've got to make sure that on pass routes or you're, you know, throwing balls that are you got a great chance to complete. I know that sounds simple. But, you know, when you're, you know, putting together a game plan, you know, you got to make sure you got the correct Jimmy against the correct Joe. And hopefully there's some separation. and you're a guy's able to compete and catch the football. And, you know, so all those things, and they're just making sure every day in practice,

you know, carrying the ball the right way. You know, it's, we tell them over and over again, it's not the guy you can see who's going to create the turnover. It's the guy you can't see. It's a guy's in your blind spot. The guy coming at the sides. You've got to always be protecting the ball, and you basically got our program in your hands when you're carrying the ball.

So something we emphasize in great detail, but we've got to go. out and execute it, and we've got to coach it better because, you know, it's not, it's not sticking right now. We've got to do better job with it. You lost the on Chris early in the game to injury on Saturday. How has he been for you this week at practice? You know, better. We're hoping he's going to be able to play on Saturday, you know, but if he's not able to, you know, we've got to Donovan and Huey have got to do a good job coming in and playing for us. And, you know, so we're going to find that out.

You know, unfortunately, he's been banged up a little bit this season. And, you know, we're hoping he's going to be able to finish a home stretch where he's healthy and able to get out there and participate and play because he does some great things when he is able to play. So how do you, if we were to partake in watching some of your practice, are you splitting quarterback time up 33, 33, 33? I mean, is there a percentage you can put on the three guys you've had take snaps for you so far this year? Well, you know, there was a couple days there where Zeon wasn't able to take any stamps at all,

so you just split it with the other two guys. You know, it's hard to split evenly two guys, much less three. So you've got to really, you know, figure out each day, you know, who's healthy, who's able to go. And then you try to split it up amongst two guys at the very most. Wellie, you have been a great motivator no matter where you have been. I've watched you from the distance motivate your guys just before we leave the hotel to go to the stadium and I don't,

you call that something in particular, right? Or is that just something you just walk in and talk to the guys for you got on the bus? Oh, we do. We call it a little hype session. You know, I don't know, I got somebody years and years ago, you kind of show a highlight tape from things during the course of the week. You know, sometimes show that hype video the night before the game.

Yeah. It didn't really help you out. If it's a good video and you get talk, they have a hard time sleeping, you know, want that. So we try to, do right before we get on the bus and head to the game and hopefully it generates some genuine enthusiasm. Well, I'm always fired up to have a better broadcast when you're doing that,

so I tell you, it's great motivation. Who motivated you in your life? You have been around a lot of great college coaches. You played, obviously, and worked from the ground up to where you are now. Who is, in your mind, has been the greatest motivator when it comes to getting, you're talking about 90 young men, basically, on a week-to-week basis, ready to play a football game? Oh, you know, I've motivated myself, you know, basically, and that's kind of how I was raised with my mom and dad. But the coach that has motivated me the most, the guy named Ron Rangelman.

Ron was my college coach at small school called Pittsburgh State up in Kansas, and he took the reins at San Houston State University, and really he was the first guy to win on a consistent level there. Sam Houston, and he and I talk every week. He'll beat the game this weekend, and he's my number one motivator. All right. As far as Utah is concerned, you're going to be going against a new offensive coordinator as Kyle Winningham as they've decided to move on from Andy Ludwig. A thought or two about that football team, they're also going through quarterback issues of their own. They've got a young freshman that's getting snaps.

And they really struggled offensively against TCU last Saturday. When you turned the tape on, what did you see? Well, exactly what you said. They had a very veteran quarterback. I think he was in his seventh season here, Cam Rising. and unfortunately for the young man he got injured. You know, they're just trying to find their way. You know, when you have a quarterback in whatever position,

what does he do well, get him to do that, what does he do not so well, stay away from that. You know, and you can't really find those things out until you play a few ball games. And that's kind of what's happening to us right now. You go through spring ball and preseason camp, and, you know, the quarterback's not alive. And you really get to, you know, diagnose where they're at during a season.

they're a strong run team. They've always done that, and then they're really, really good on defense. Poor man front, they're penetrating type of front. They're jumping off the ball. They're not a reading react. They're trying to make something happen with penetration, and they play a ton of man coverage.

You're in your eye. They're one of the better defenses in the country. So we've got to make sure we get bodies on bodies, not allowed to get back there quick and disrupt the quarterback and turn the ball over. We've been working on all that. different bliss combinations this week. So we want that to, you know, really play out on Saturday night, 602.

All right, very good. Coach, always great to have you on my show. We appreciate it. And best luck this Saturday against the Utes. Thank you. We'll see it. You got it. That's Willie Fritz with us here on Sports Talk 7 in in in running.

Willie's visits every week are brought to you by the joint chiropractic, the official chiropractor of University of Houston Athletics.