The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Cougars Head Coach Willie Fritz: 'We Got To Be A Lot Better' In The Red Zone Against Baylor

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

After two strong wins against Utah and Kansas State, the Houston Cougars could not extend their winning streak, losing to the Arizona Wildcats 27-3 on Friday. While both teams struggled offensively in the first half, the Cougars were outscored 17-0 in the third quarter. "We didn't play as well as we were capable of," head coach Willie Fritz said. The Cougars had a plethora of turnovers, losing two fumbles, throwing an interception and turning the ball over on downs four times. "We got to do a much better job of hanging onto the football," Fritz said. The Cougars have another tough test ahead of them when they host Big 12 Conference rival Baylor on Saturday. "They've really played well the last four weeks." The Cougars will be wearing their "Houston Blue" uniforms against their in-state opponent, paying homage to the City of Houston.

Coach Willie Fritz, and it's brought to you by the joint chiropractor, the official chiropractor of the Houston Cougars. Cougars taking on the Baylor Bears this Saturday TDCU Stadium at 6 o'clock. Coach, obviously, disappointment with the performance against Arizona. How long to take the boys to kind of get their feet back on the ground after playing a late-night game on the West Coast and having to come all the way back to Houston when you wake up when the sun's rising? Yeah, we got back about 6 in the morning on Saturday. but, you know, they had the weekend off for the players.

We worked as coaches. You know, it's part of, unfortunately, as far as sports, you got to bounce back. You know, you have a poor outing, and then when you have a good outing, you got to also make sure that you move on on the next game as well. So we're disappointed.

It didn't play as well as we're capable of. And we need to play really, really good this weekend. It's a very good bailout. Overly simplistic, but, man, the turnover, is going to kill you every single time, isn't it? Yeah, it is. You know, I know I've said it on your show many times.

We're just, we're at a point where we've got to play real good, you know, in all three phases. And part of that's not turning the ball over and also getting some takeaways. And, you know, we didn't do that. And if that happens, you know, where we're at right now, it's going to make a difficult to win games. So we've got to do a much better job hanging out of football and create some takeaways as well. You know, the numbers, you've got bounce passing, you got balance rushing, you got close to, you know, and then the red zone multiple times. And look, you can't necessarily reinvent the wheel this late this season, but your general thought about red zone execution is, it necessarily play calls, because you guys go through this all the time. But sometimes you just got to be able to take the play that's called and finish things off because you work so hard to get it inside the 20-yard line.

You'd like to get something out of it. No, you're exactly right. You know, big deal. We talk about four-point plays all the time. touchdowns and you've got a few goals and you know when you get down in that area

especially when you're on the one yard line you know you got to get point making touchdowns and you know it's just as you know we try to try our best

you know put them in good positions to you know make plays and you know you got to execute the play and wherever the play call is you know

sometimes it might not be the perfect play call but you got to execute in the better of your ability and you know that gives you a chance you know, to score a touchdown. But, you know, we've had our difficulties.

So this season, the Red Zone, got to be a lot better in that area, Saturday. You have put games to bed everything in good times and in bad. Do you sometimes when you get the clicker gone, do you look at the body language of the kids? Do you like to see them go, oh, man, I should have done this, or, hey, I need to pay more attention to that. And do you sometimes get the nonverbal cues from mistakes that are made and kind of see what the character is? your squad based off nights where you have to show the tape of a 27 to 3 loss? Well, you know, part of it. You know, we watch every single play on Monday morning after a Saturday game.

You know, we look at it all. I tell the guys, be very critical of yourself. Now, we're very critical for ourselves as coaches. You've got to be very critical of yourself as a player. You know, there's a difference in, you know, maybe, you know, You know, you had a, their Joe beat your gym, you know, on the field. But not if we, if Jim didn't execute properly, you know, that's, that's an issue. We just got to make sure that we're doing a super job of that.

And, you know, we just, you know, it's everybody. It's not just, you know, the assistant coaches is the head coach. You know, it's, you know, errors and everybody to connect with the program. We just, you know, we got to do a great job of, of play. playing well in all three phases. You know, the games we've won this year. We've done a good job with turnover, takeaway margin. We've done a good job running the ball, playing defense, tackling.

So all three phases got to play well for us to be successful. You know, I told them that at the beginning of the season. There's been some years where maybe we could have, you know, give our C game and still win. You know, we just got to play well. This is, you know, big boy of football in the Big 12, and we've got to play extremely well. And kids know that, and the coaches do also. Bailers have a bounce back season.

They're up to 6 and 4. They went to West Virginia and scored 49 points. I'm going to assume you do not want to get into an offensive shootout with them, correct? No, we certainly don't. They've really played well the last four weeks, you know, and been very opportunistic in defense. You've got a really good kicking game. Might have the, you know, the best.

That's part return, kick returner, kicker, and punter in the country. They really did a good job. They got four really good players in those areas. So that's another area that we got played much better in and then what we did on last Friday night. Lastly, coach, the guys are going to be wearing the Houston blue uniforms. And look, you and I have talked about this ad nauseum all the course of the year. it used to not care about what you wore just putting the uniform on and playing, but today's

kids are a little bit different, but I'll say this for a large section of people that were fans of a former professional team in this town, the fact that the Houston blue uniforms were so good last year and looked so clean and a tremendous energy for a set of some blue uniforms will be on

the field on Saturday night. Yeah, I think there's a long tradition with Houston and that color and I think it's, you know, I know a lot of people are excited about it. And hopefully everybody comes out and wears their blue on Saturday, 605 kickoff. And I think we'll have a great atmosphere. And we're looking forward to it.

Do you spend a little extra time with the seniors? Do you have that pregame speech already kind of locked and loaded? Because you've had a few of these over your career. Yeah, you know, we, it's great to honor this seniors. We'll have their parents out there as well in pregame. And, you know, obviously, I recruit very many of these guys, and they've really been a lot of fun to work with. And they've been, you know, just played their tails off for University of Houston. We appreciate that.

And another thing is on Saturday night. Coach, thanks for the visit, as always. We'll do this one more time next week. Getting ready for that trip to BYU. Good luck this Saturday against the Bears. Thank you. Appreciate it. Go Coug.

You got it. Thank you. Willie Fritz joining us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross and his interviews are brought to you by our friends at the joint chiropractor, the official chiropractor of University of Houston Athletics.