The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Head Coach Willie Fritz: Cougars Have 'Moved On' From Win Over Utah, Focusing On Kansas State

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

The Houston Cougars secured a win on Homecoming with a 43-yard field goal as time expired to take down the Utah Utes 17-14 on Saturday. Quarterback Zeon Chriss was 6 of 13 for 61 yards passing with two touchdowns and 45 yards rushing. The Cougars found success in the running game, rushing for 228 yards. "You never know what your path to victory is going to be," head coach Willie Fritz said. Fritz, who joined "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross," discussed the win, which was his 250th head coaching victory, but was eager to switch the focus to the Cougars' next opponent, the No. 17 Kansas State Wildcats. "We've moved on... we got another big one coming up."

He's Willie Fritz, and he's brought to you by the joint chiropractor, the official chiropractor of the University of Houston Athletics. Coach Fritz, I saw the ice cream truck outside the facility after last week's game. Is that all you can eat for the players when they win a big game like that? It's always a good thing when you see the ice cream truck. It means you won, so they don't get all that can, but they get quite a bit. That's good. Congratulations.

What a nice way to bounce back after the disappointment against Kansas. It felt like to me, was going to be similar in some respects to the Kansas game where you every possession was going to mean a little bit more because let's face it, Utah's had their troubles with quarterbacks. You guys have had your troubles as well offensively scoring. Did it kind of feel like that you had to make the most of every opportunity, whether it would be a turnover or a long time-consuming drive? No, we really did. You know, when you got the ball, generally speaking, you're playing pretty good defense. We did a good job with running the ball. You know, there's a dude.

There's a statistic that we look at, I guess, as far as coaches are concerned about, the top defense in the country. They're the fourth ranked defense in the nation. I had a 134 Division I schools. We knew it was going to be tough to score on them. Unfortunately, we had a couple opportunities at the one-yard line we weren't able to punch in, but did a good job at the very end of the game,

getting a touchdown and then a big field goal by Jack Martin. So we're very, very happy with the win, and we've moved on. Like I tell you all the time, it's kind of like we played that game a few months ago, but we've got another big one coming up this weekend against a ranked Kansas State team. It'll be another challenge. For sure.

Let me give you an opportunity here to discuss eight straight running plays after HALC with the interception. Now, I know for a fact you've called eight straight running plays, but do you even keep track of that kind of thing? Was that a concerted effort? Did you go, you know what? We've got to put ourselves in the best possible position, and the best thing to do that was to establish the ground game late in the contest. You know, they had a really good defensive line.

And right now we're struggling a little bit, we're drop back pass. And then they play press coverage on the perimeter. And, you know, they did a great job of sticking with our guys like glue on the outside. We were having success running the ball. So we went ahead and kept having a little bit of success. Stayed with it. So often coaches get away from what's working, you know,

and they want to surprise you. They can't throw it three times in a row or run it five times in a row. They got to go to something else. And I thought Coach Barbary did a good job of driving it down the field and setting it up not for an easy field goal, but a 43-yard or certainly something within Jack's range and he was able to hit it. And we ran out all the time too.

So at the very least we're going to overtime at the best. We're walking off the field with a win. You know, a lot of teams, maybe every team in college football, when the fourth quarter comes up, all the players and the coaches put the four fingers up and you're down to 15 minutes. And sometimes it may be just, just hey, this is what's coming up

or, hey, this is we got to play our best. It felt like to me, watching the game that you wanted to get something out of the guys that you'd work so hard to keep the game close, you needed 15 really good minutes and you got so weak because you scored the last 10 points in the game. Yeah, we really did. We do high fours.

Everybody goes around and gets high force to each other. and just, you know, we want to start fast and finish, you know, even faster. You know, we hadn't had, you know, the great fortune, like I talked about, with having the ball on the one-yard line twice, and, you know, not coming away with points, you know, which would have been, you know, awesome against the defense like Utah's, but we were able to play better in the fourth quarter and, you know, A.J. Halsey, big interception. They were having a tough time throwing the ball, too,

and that set us up for that final drive. Well, Willie, the only blemish so far for Kansas State this year was a loss to BYU would have to be probably the biggest surprise right now in the conference of the way the Cougars are playing. A thought or two about Kansas State, they are putting up some huge numbers offensively this year, what multiple games in the 40s so far. Yeah, they've, you know, they're primarily a running team, but they've got some great receivers. Their quarterback is, you know,

The young man, there was a really good player for him, and they kind of let him go to Ohio State, you know, and this guy's the, you know, because he's shown so much their last four or five games of the year. You know, he's a quarterback similar to the, you know, kid we played against Kansas a few weeks ago. You can run it and you can throw it. He's, you know, really does a good job of manufacturing plays

when you think he got everybody covered, you know, but they're a very, very potent offense. they'll run it right at you and just have had a lot of success. They've kind of dominated the big 12 over the last few seasons. And I know Zeon only threw the ball 13 times. First of all,

when I ask about his health going into the game against the Walcats, and secondly, I'm going to assume, now you're not expecting him to throw the ball 30 times, but if you're at 13, that probably means either your team has not been on the offensive on the field very much offensively or your ground game is having an

amazing afternoon. Yeah, you're right. You know, you never know what your path to victory is going to be. And, you know, once you, you know, figure that out, second quarter, third quarter, you need to make sure you emphasize that. But, you know, we'd like to, you know, be a 50-50 team. You know, that's our goal every year coming in. And some years you're capable of it and some years you're not. Sometimes you, some teams you throw the ball a little more than you run it and vice versa.

But whatever it takes to, you know, keeping the game, to give you the opportunity to win. It's like I've said many times, our players, media, and everybody, you know, we've got to play real, real good to win this year. You know, I'm not going to roll the ball out and just whip somebody. And, you know, if we play real good,

we've got an opportunity against every team. We've got left on our schedule. That includes this weekend. So we just got to play good, offensively, defensively, and then the kicking game. And I've noticed in the last 20 years of following college athletics really closely, these kids are big uniform guys. and I'm assuming they're loving these black uniforms, right?

Oh, my goodness. They're excited about it. We told them that's what we're going to do on Monday. They were pumped up. So you'll be a black eye. We need all the Houston fans to come out and wear black, be proud, be loud. And you'll see a really good ranked Kansas State team, and it's going to be a tremendous challenge for us.

We need all the help we can get. We'll leave it at that, my man. Congratulations again, the huge victory. Look forward to seeing you in the same. squad on Saturday at 2.30 at TDCU Stadium. Thank you, Matt. Go Coogs. You got it. Willie Fritz with us here on Sports Talk 790, and he

is brought to you by the joint chiropractic, the official chiropractor of the University of Houston Athletics.