The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Eddie Nuñez Talks UH vs. Oregon State Matchup Ahead of Season Opener

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

Eddie Nuñez Talks UH vs. Oregon State Matchup Ahead of Season Opener

This is Matt and Ross in the morning. All right, I've been telling you all week long, the game of the week, in my mind, is U of H versus Oregon State. 11 o'clock at Td.ECU Stadium. 11 o'clock, 713-go Cougars.com slash tickets. A man that's going to further getting you into the building is our next guest.

Athletic Director Eddie Nunez here on 790. Eddie, good morning. Tell the whole world why we're all going to be. need to be at TDCU tomorrow at 11 o'clock. Fun times. We've got a great game coming up this weekend here tomorrow versus Oregon State. This is the first chance to see our team live action, a top 25 ranked team in the country. I mean, this is it. This is what we've all talked about. I know the time isn't perfect, but guess what? There's about another dozen schools, many in the Power 4 that are playing at the same time.

So come on out. Let's make this a great experience for our coogs. And frankly, Willie and the crew needs it and deserves it because the momentum, the excitement, 10 wins is always great, winning against LSU inside Reliance Stadium or Energy, whatever it was called at the time. And Willie's just got it going. It's tough to be a coach.

It just is. And he's been able to put together a good roster, a lot of pre-season top 25 hype, a lot of all-conference pre-selections. this is worthy of getting out and seeing these boys firsthand. Yeah, this is, the team has been, I mean, again, we've got a great team. What Willie's done with the culture and everything else, it's an exciting time. And the people keep asking, you know, they want to wait for the next game,

but this is that this is our opportunity to show the country. We're on ESPN, show them that we're not just a one-hit wonder. We're here to come out, show America that the University of Houston, Houston is a national presence. And again, this will help us, not just for this game, but for every game along, getting better times, better opportunities to showcase on national television. And it also continues to build our brand across the country.

So our fans definitely need to come out, see this team. It's exciting. I've been to a couple practices, I'm telling you right now. From the quarterback to running backs, the depth on the lines and the defense, I mean, they've got a great team. Now it's all about going out there and showing what they can do. And frankly, Eddie, with all the stuff going on in this industry in the last few months off the fields, it's kind of nice to be actually focused on live college football because I think we as Americans as football fans kind of need this right now, don't you think?

Yeah. Was there something going on that I missed? Oh, really? Is that what you're going to go with? Okay. That's fine. It's pretty quiet. Yeah, it's pretty quiet.

Nothing, nothing from the legal side recently, nothing. No, no, honestly, you're right. Let's play some football. And with everything else that's going on, yes, we have to continue to navigate this whole five-for-five and everything else that's going on. We've got a couple things that we're watching for us. We've got a couple players that are fall in that window. But more than anything, it's time to play football. And we've got a great, we've done so much. We've listened to our fans this year more than ever, coming off last year, we wanted to know what the challenges were from traffic to parking. We've reduced parking in many of the lots, if not all.

We've offered more opportunities to our students in lots that they've never had previously. Our concession prices are lower. I know people keep talking about this, you know, certain costs. There is costs for some things that are premium, but across the board, we've lowered prices, we've made it more of a fan experience. we've improved our game operations, our fan experience, the music, the DJ, the fireworks. We're trying to do everything we've been asked to do. Is it going to happen perfectly tomorrow?

That's what we're trying for, and we hope for it. But you know what? If it doesn't, know that we're getting better and we are listening and we're trying to improve it in every way we can. There's always millions of questions I want to ask you. But one of the things on the basketball side that Kelvin is running into that hopefully soon Willie will be in the same spot is that he's running into non-conference scheduling challenges. Describe that for you as an administrator watching your two coaches trying to schedule opponents with the future. Yeah, it's not easy.

It's not easy. With success comes people making excuses of why not to come play you at your place. The Furtita Center has become a home court advantage in a lot of ways, and especially with the way coach and his guys compete, makes it even harder. So getting teams to want to play a home-and-home is hard. And I know firsthand from watching Coach Sampson call some of the who's the who, and it's always, hey, can we start off at our place?

No, we're not going to make it easier for you. But we've got to find ways to come to the finish line and get it passed and say, okay, we're going to do a home-and-home, and football's no different. I mean, we're trying to schedule for 29, 30, you know, and years beyond to get a team to come here. We're talking with a couple of ACC schools. We've got an SEC school that we are talking to. Of course, next year we start the year off at Reliant with LSU. That will be a fun one.

But it isn't as easy as it probably was at one point when people said, hey, yeah, sure, we'll play Houston and thinking that this was going to be an easy game or for one reason or another. that's not there anymore. And it's not just in those two sports. It's across the board, which is shocking because we're in the city of Houston. It's easy to get in and out of the city. There's a lot of things that we can put on the table to make it enticing for those teams. But yeah, it's a challenge every day.

Are we going to lose, and I think we're losing a little bit here and there. And obviously there's some financial components too, but are we losing more natural home venues and seeing more neutral site put into play, especially in the football side? I think you're going to see the neutral site game become a little bit more enticing just because of the NIL configuration that basketball has done. The NIL opportunities to go play at a neutral side game to generate additional NIL dollars is driving a lot of what's happening. That's why those big teams don't want to play. They'd rather play you in a neutral site. They get money.

We get money. And it bounces off. we still have a certain number of home games we want to play in basketball, football, you're going to start seeing that same thing. You're going to see a one-off every year that goes to a neutral site, and NIL is going to become more a part of that until the NCAA allows a little more leniency for us to be able to do stuff at home that maybe allow us to have an NIL component out of the gate or this or that. We're going to still, you're going to see some more of these games happening.

All right, I tried to delay this as long as I could. Are you on a group chat with other eight? about so what's our rule today kind of be on variety of things because I feel like if I was in your spot I would be asking my friends can we do this can we not do this are we suing this are we in this are we against it what how confusing now again you have challenges for your job you had before all this but now with legislation and lawsuits constantly moving and changing by the day do you have somebody cross-checking I mean who do you go to for this kind of stuff right now well first of all I know you're old enough like I am to know the whole Abbegiselo kind of who's on first deal.

Right. That's kind of how if you're, if us as ADs are going back and forth, it's basically who's on first, what's on second kind of deal because we're all asking each other. We're all understanding every state is different. What's happening in Texas may be different than it's happening in Colorado or Arizona. So we do have a lot of active conversations, but we all, the same questions are asking each other sometimes we don't have answers or they're different. We do depend very heavily on the conference's general counsel. They're meeting with other general counsels from the power fours of the, of course, the ACC, the Big Ten, and the SEC as well. That's where we're relying a lot of on guidance because they're the ones that are listening, following every lawsuit, everything that's happening. We are constantly in communication with them. So I would say, yes, they're the ones that are helping us have some understanding.

Is it perfect science? No. So as ADs, we are doing what we can to be one or two or three steps ahead. But understanding that, I mean, heck, just our neighbors in Louisiana just had some recent stuff happened yesterday. And that's going to have another thing come about it. So it's never going to stop until we get something from a. federal side that allows some structure for all sports. Does Willie go to you and say, can I do this?

Can I not do this? Or, I mean, I'm sure he's in his group chats with his buddies, too, right? The wonderful thing that I have is I have a lot. I have 17 great, or 14 great coaches, 17 teams. 14 of those head coaches, everyone, they'll all come at some point and then say, hey, what can we do? Is this possible? Is this not?

It's usually, they're very good on asking about the, possibilities now. They'll bring things to me and saying, hey, this is what such and such is doing. Is that allowable? And we go down that rabbit hole trying to find out if we can, but I am very fortunate to have great coaches like in Willie and Kelvin, all these other ones, that actually we talk. We actually have good conversations. We try to find out what's best for us so that we can be competitive and not fall behind. We're not going to do something that's illegal. We're not going to do something that, and they're the first ones to say we're not even crossing that bridge.

So I'm very fortunate to have coaches that get it. They see it. So it makes my life easier. I'm willing to go down whatever rabbit hole you want me to look into and find the way as long as at the end of the day, it makes us better and we're not doing something that's inappropriate or wrong or going to put us in a bad situation. All right.

Last push, Eddie, for tomorrow. 11 o'clock inside TDCU Stadium. Go for it. Yeah. So listen, all Cougs, anybody, all Houstonian, come on out. This is a great opportunity to see our Cougars this year. It's coming off a 10-win season. The team's even better than they were last year. They've got a lot of great pieces, a lot of great parts. This is it. Come early. I know it's an early game. Come early. Enjoy yourselves. And then this is the first of many great games this year. So come on out. Cheer on these Cougs. They need you right now more than ever. Not for dollars. Don't think of anything else. Think about what the impact you can be. for our cougars. So truly appreciate. Look forward to having everybody out there. And if there's anything we can do better, as we've always said, email us. Let us know we are

trying to do everything we can to be the best we can be. Thank you for the time. As always, we'll see you tomorrow at the stadium. Thank you, friend, for the time. Thanks, guys. Have a great one. You got it. Eddie Nunez. Vice President, Athletic Director, University of Houston again, 11 o'clock for a 7-13-go-coogues Houston v. Oregon State game tomorrow at T-DECU Stadium.