Heavy-Hearted Coogs Ranked and Rollin’
BY Garrett Ross | 365 Sports
The Coogs won’t be denied. Head coach Willie Fritz has taken a program that finished 4-8 last season and has them 7-1 and ranked 22nd in the AP Top 25 after upsetting a ranked Arizona State team 24-16 in Tempe on Saturday, earning the program’s first ranked road win since 2017.
Fritz has been around the block long enough to know how to keep his team focused on the task at hand and avoid distractions. While being ranked might look cool on the resume, it doesn’t mean anything if you get beaten this weekend.
“Like we talked about last week with getting bowl eligibility, that’s a goal and being ranked is something you want to have happen to your team but we got a lot of other things we would like to accomplish this season,” stated Fritz. “The first one is going and playing great against West Virginia this weekend.”
Houston physically dominated the Sun Devils, holding them to just 98 rushing yards the entire game. The Coogs’ defense held Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt to 270 passing yards and one passing touchdown on the night, while he split time with backup Jeff Sims.
The defensive line earned All-Conference honors for their performance against the Sun Devils. Senior defensive lineman Eddie Walls III was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Week following a five-tackle performance, including a career-high three sacks.
Fritz was very impressed by Walls’ performance, but even more pleased to see him back playing healthy once again.
“He played great. He’s just getting better and better, he’s getting more healthy every week. He had some injuries when we got him back in May and Andrew Crane and our docs, they all did a great job of getting him full speed,” Fritz said. “I think he’s just feeling better and better and he plays with fantastic leverage, plays with fantastic effort, loves football. He had three sacks and I think a tackle for loss, just played extremely well on Saturday. He also had a couple of hits on the quarterback as well, some hurries so he had an excellent game.”
Conner Weigman was the best quarterback on the field Saturday. Weigman finished the day with another three-touchdown performance, throwing for 201 yards and one touchdown, while rushing for 111 yards and two touchdowns. It’s the third straight three-touchdown performance for Weigman and his fourth in the past five games.
Weigman was also named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week. Fritz and his staff have noticed Weigman’s newfound confidence and see him becoming a complete quarterback right before their eyes.
“I think he’s getting more and more comfortable every single week. I thought he had played really, really well Saturday night. I thought he ran the ball extremely well, we got to do a better job of running the football with our backs and taking some hits off of Conner. I thought he threw the ball extremely well, and he was smart,” said Fritz. “There’s a lot of stuff going on with the quarterback, and I thought he played a really good overall football game. He did a good job throwing the ball. He did a great job running the ball. Got us out of some bad situations and I think he’s just feeling more comfortable with the offense and knowing the guys.”
Tight end Tanner Koziol finished the night as Houston’s leading receiver, with seven receptions for 100 yards and one touchdown. Dean Connors finished the day with 20 attempts for 48 yards.
It also marked the Coogs’ second consecutive game played with heavy hearts. Houston Director of Strength and Performance Kurt Hester passed away before Saturday’s game after a battle with stage IV melanoma.
Following the game, Koziel spoke on the impact Hester had on the program.
“He’s been such a light in such a dark time in his life. It goes to show the impact that someone can have on hundreds of people, thousands of people. He stared death in the face – and he didn’t blink. He was truly unbreakable.”
Fritz opened his weekly press conference discussing how the team plans to honor Hester for the remainder of the season.
“I know I talked about it post-game, unfortunately we lost coach Hester Saturday a few hours before the game and our thoughts and prayers are with his family,” said Fritz. “We’re going to do some things to honor him at the game this weekend. We have unbreakable on our helmet and his initials and then we’re also going to wear black because all of his unbreakable merchandise apparel that he was using, he always had it in black.”
Kickoff is set for 11:00 am at TDECU Stadium for No. 22 Houston (7-1, 4-1) and West Virginia (2-6, 0-5) and will be televised on FS1.