The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Cougars Head Coach Willie Fritz On The Firing Of Offensive Coordinator Kevin Barbay: 'Just Didn't Have The Success That We Wanted To Have'

Episode Date: November 26, 2024

The Houston Cougars fired offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay following Saturday's 20-10 loss to the Baylor Bears. The decision comes with the Cougars ranking last in the nation in scoring and near the bottom in total offensive. "We just didn't have the success that we wanted to have," head coach Willie Fritz said. "Unfortunately, it's part of the job that you have to do time-to-time." Quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator Shawn Bell will be the interim play-caller as the Cougars look for next season's replacement. "We're going to have a nationwide search," Fritz said. "I want a guy that can play complimentary football." The Cougars' offensive struggles were amplified against Baylor as quarterback Zeon Chriss finished 13 of 24 for 126 yards passing and threw three interceptions while the run game yielded 92 yards. The Cougars will not reach bowl eligibility for the second consecutive year and will wrap up their season Saturday at No. 19 BYU.

It'll be the final game of the 2020-season for Coach Willie Fritz, and he has brought to you today as he is every week by the Joint Chiropractor, the official chiropractor of the Houston Cougars. Coach, needless to say, probably a tough day for you with the decision to make a move with your offensive coordinator's spot. Take us through what it's been like the last couple days and the decision ultimately to make a change for this week's game. Well, Kevin's a Barbade.

He's a fantastic person. And we just, you know, just didn't have the success we wanted to have this year offensively. And, you know, I tried to wait as long as I can. I was just hoping that we could, you know, have some success and just was tough. And, you know, it's coaching, it's playing, it's everything, execution. And, you know, but I wanted to get out in front of this a little bit earlier. There's a cycle involved with hiring coaches. It's kind of right now, so I just needed to do it now and talk to the team early this morning

and then released a little statement. And, you know, Sean Bell is going to be our interim offensive coordinator. And, you know, had a good, lively practice this morning. And, you know, we want to go up and play great in Provo Saturday night. So, but unfortunately, it's part of the job that you got to do from time to time. It is a tough from a timing standpoint because obviously you want to find the next list of candidates. You almost feel like listening to what you're telling us is that you kind of had to do it now just so you can get out in front of it. Is that fair to say?

Yeah, a little bit. You know, you just hadn't had much success here, particularly recently, offensively. And you know, and you wanted to, you know, I had all sorts of, I came back in from practice. I had about 30 text messages. So now that people know it's open, you see who's out there and who's available. I told our kids, hey, we're going to have a nationwide search. We're going to find the very best person to help put us in position to be big 12 champions. And that's what I've got to do is head coach, and I've got to find the right guy.

And the more time you have, obviously, the easier that is for you. obviously coach when you look down the road for the future and that's what we're looking forward to obviously seeing what you do and who you make on the hire it has to be about the coach that fits the players and vice versa so if i gave you a dream scenario obviously you want a team that scores a lot and gets in the end zone a bunch and is exciting but what kind of things characteristics do you want from a guy that's going to ultimately be your play caller well number one you want a good person you know that's very important to me guy's going to be a good guy's going to be a good good role model mentor to our student athletes.

I want a guy that can play complimentary football. You know, sometimes get offences. The coordinators are just trying to score as many points they can. Don't worry about field position or turnovers or, you know, kind of possession and ends up hurting your defense and your kicking game and then play field position or score the game, all those different kind of things. So, and I do believe we want to be a 50-50 team, you know, I want to be able to you know, run the ball for 70-play game, you know, 35 times run and 35 times pass.

And, you know, we weren't able to get to that point. And then we've got to go out and do a great job recruit. That's another part of it with getting the guy in here is, you know, helping, you know, to see what he, you know, needs and looks for and, you know, different position groups. and we've got some good guys coming back offensively, but we've got some positions that we need some help and be able to play with the same kind of guys as everybody else is playing with in the Big 12.

So it's going to be important for us to get a guy in here and not help us with the freshman class. We've already got that figured out and help us with the guys any additions that we might make from the portal. Let's start thinking about this BYU team. They're frankly shell-shocked the way they performed themselves the last couple of weeks. They still have a chance at this Big 12 championship. I think a lot of things have to obviously line up.

But take me through what you've seen so far for them this year. And I'm not saying anything's vulnerable because obviously they're in a bad mood, but they've been a double football team in the last two weeks. Well, they've had a great year other than the last couple of weeks. I haven't had the outcome they wanted almost did last week. but you know it's a team that was projected pretty low in the Big 12 prior to the season and it has done a great job I think won their first nine ball games you know offensively what you think you know big offensive line you know they're they're going to be the most

mature team we play I think they average 23 24 years of age someplace in that vicinity excellent quarterback, you know, big tall receivers, good strong running game, defensively, you know, play a lot of man coverage, which is, you know, I don't know if they've always done that or not, but they're playing a bunch of man coverage this year and just really well-coached club. I got a lot of respect for their head coach. He does it the right way, and they play extremely hard, so we're going to have to come in there in a hostile environment and playing in the evening and, you know, playing on national TV,

and we're going to have to play great. We know that. I've said that every week. You know, in order for us to have the success we want to have, we've got to play well in all three phases, and we're certainly going to have to do that Saturday night. All right. We have had our share of games that are temperatures in the mid-90s. This week's game could be a temperature is in the 20s, 25, 30-degree range.

your equipment staff probably going to have to put some extra time in this week loading up the plane. Yeah, they're going to have to do that. It's, you know, I think it'll be fun. They'll kind of challenge everybody. I've played a bunch of cold games, but may not have as many guys that have done that before. So we'll, you know, get out there. Once you get out there playing and coaching, you know, you really don't notice it much. So that'll be a great challenge for us.

we're looking forward to it. Last question for you, Coach. Let's do this season recap here, and obviously still one game left to go. Give me the high watermark of the year and then take us through what your next few weeks will be beyond the fact of recruiting and obviously trying to fill a coaching position. What other forms of evaluation will you be doing once the dust settles of this season is over? Well, you know, you hit on the two main ones, you know, hiring an office coordinator and then also, So, you know, I'm sure there'll be some guys that we'll add to our roster via the portal.

We've got National Signing Day a week from tomorrow, I think, December 4th for high school guys. We're going to sign a great high school class. We're really excited about that. And, you know, that'll be a – and then we'll have a recap, you know, we'll visit with all our players and, you know, talk to them about things they did well, things they need to prove on. I'll visit with all the coaches also and give my observations and sum up this season. So there's a lot of stuff to do.

And then take a little bit of time off at the end of December and jump back into and the kids return in January. And I'm assuming getting ready to move in that football facility in the not-due-distance too, correct? Yeah, July. We should be getting in there. I took a walkthrough on it a couple of weeks ago, and it was going to be spectacular. but we'll have facilities on par with anybody in the state of Texas.

So that's another added bonus to being here at the University of Houston. Coach, we appreciate our weekly visits. I know the better times are ahead. Thanks again for your honest assessment of what's going on, and we look forward to surprises and folks in Provo this weekend, and we will see you, and happy Thanksgiving to you and the family. Same to you all. Go Coos.

Thank you very much. Willie Fritz joining us here on Sports Talk 790. again, a decision made by coach to relieve offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay of his duties. Sean Bell will be the, who's a quarterback's coach, and passing game coordinator will be calling plays this week.