Senior Day vs. Frogs, Hoops outlasts #22 Auburn
BY Garrett Ross | 365 Sports
The Coogs are coming off their second bye week of the season as they prepare to host TCU at 3:00 pm on Saturday at TDECU Stadium for Senior Day. Head coach Willie Fritz is extremely proud of this group of seniors and their ability to buy in and lay the foundation for his culture in Third Ward.
“This weekend is going to be senior day; they’ve gone ahead and set the game time for 3:00 pm We’d love to have a fantastic crowd out and honor these great seniors. Some of them have been here for not real long, and some have been here a long time, so we would really like to get a great crowd out here and honor those guys. They’ve done a great job,” said Fritz on Monday. “I was talking to them this morning, we had team meeting, just talking about being able to walk through the front door of a place because you’ve done a good job, done everything the way you’re supposed to do it and these guys are going to be able to walk through the front door of the University of Houston for the rest of their lives. Really proud of these guys and look forward to honoring them and their families this weekend at three o’clock.”
Houston entered the game against the Frogs ranked once again, rejoining the polls at No. 25 in the AP Poll and No. 24 in the Coaches Poll. Last time the Coogs were ranked, they were embarrassed at home by West Virginia, so avoiding that same fate this time around could go a long way for the program.
“Well, yeah, that’s good, I did see that this morning. That’s always a goal, you want to be in the rankings, but we sure as heck want to be in the rankings at the end of the season as high as we possibly can,” stated Fritz. “It’s good for our university, it’s good for our football program, good for the athletic department, but we want to keep getting better and better.”
Having a bye this late in the season is very beneficial. Being able to get your guys healthy before facing two in-state rivals to close out the regular season is something that Fritz is very appreciative of.
“I think it was really good for us. That is the number one goal. We had a team meeting on Monday, and I told them my number one goal is to get as healthy as we possibly can,” said Fritz. “We were very careful with probably five or six guys that were a little banged up, and we’ve been getting them through the last two, three games. Just getting done with practice right now, it looks like all those guys were really healthy, and now we got to be careful about doing too much this week, too.”
TCU (6-4, 3-4) is coming into this game off a shellacking in Provo, where BYU took the Frogs to the woodshed 44-13. For the second consecutive week, TCU has been held to 20 or fewer points, and quarterback Josh Hoover is in a slump, throwing just one touchdown and four interceptions over the past three games.
Despite their recent struggles, Fritz knows that his team can’t take TCU for granted on Saturday.
“Well, offensively, they’ve really got a good group of receivers, running backs. They’re very, very explosive. Their offensive coordinator is a Houston grad, played here at the University of Houston, Coach Briles. They have one of the top quarterbacks in the country, and defensively they do a good job of not allowing you to run the football, and then they’re very explosive in the kicking game,” Fritz said. “They got a great staff, I got a lot of respect for Coach Dykes and what he’s done there at TCU and every place in his career. When I was head coach at Blinn many years ago, he was on the offensive staff at Navarro, and I knew his dad a little bit years ago, and his brother was a coach at one time. They just run a good program and are good in all three areas, offense, defense and kicking game.”
Saturday marks the third consecutive meeting between the Coogs and Frogs, with Houston winning last season’s game 30-19. The game will be televised on Fox.
Bowl Projections
There are a few different bowl scenarios for Houston right now with two weeks remaining in the regular season. Brett McMurphy of On3 has the Coogs projected to face USC in the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, TX, on December 30.
ESPN analyst Kyle Bonagura has Houston taking on Miami in the Pop-Tarts Bowl at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, on December 27. Fellow ESPN analyst Mark Schlabach predicts the same matchup for the Coogs as McMurphy.
Hoops
Kelvin Sampson and No. 2 Houston (4-0) escaped a battle with No. 22 Auburn (3-1) over the weekend, 73-72 in the Battleground 2K25 game in Birmingham, Alabama. The Tigers had two opportunities to upset the Coogs down the stretch, but tremendous defensive pressure by Houston sealed the victory.
The Coogs’ dynamic freshman duo of Chris Cenac Jr. (18 points) and Kingston Flimmings (22 points) led the way for Houston, while seniors Emanuel Sharp (13 points) and Milos Uzan (11 points) balled out as well.
Flemmings was rewarded for his performance by being named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week and Player of the Week. He currently leads the Coogs with 17.3 points and 5.3 assists per game.