Report: Houston 'finalizing' deal to hire Tulane's Willie Fritz as next head football coach

The Houston Cougars are finalizing a deal to hire Willie Fritz as the program’s next head football coach, per a report by Ross Dellenger.

Along with this report, a team meeting has been called. There, the move is set to be announced.

Willie Fritz has been the head coach at Tulane since 2016, in the process of building the Green Wave into a Group of Five power. That included winning the AAC and the Cotton Bowl last season, before playing for the AAC Championship again this season. During that time, Houston saw him first-hand as AAC rivals, with Fritz going 3-4 against Houston.

During his time with the Green Wave, Willie Fritz took Tulane to five bowl games, including this season. The program has gone to 16 bowl games all time. The only time the program went to three bowls in a row was under Fritz and he won the first major bowl for Tulane since the 1934 Sugar Bowl last season.

Willie Fritz ended his time at Tulane with a record of 54-47. That’s second all-time in wins for a Tulane head coach, only behind Clark Shaughnessy who last coached with the team in 1926. His winning percentage is the best of any coach after 1951.

Prior to his time at Tulane, Fritz worked his way up from Central Missouri, to Sam Houston State, to Georgia Southern. A Kansas native, Fritz played for Pittsburg State before starting as a coach in the early 1980s. At each stop, he found success by doing more with less.

Willie Fritz is replacing Dana Holgorsen at Houston. Holgorsen came to Houston in 2019 and only had two winning seasons in five seasons. However, after a 12-2 season in 2021, it looked like the Cougars were about to take off under him. Then, Houston suffered a disappointing final season in the AAC and a bad first season in the Big 12. With that, the program moved on from him.

From the moment that the Houston job came open, Willie Fritz was rumored in relation to the job. In particular, his time at Sam Houston State and relationships in the state of Texas because of that job were very appealing to Houston. At Sam Houston State, Fritz led the Bearkats to a 40–15 record in four seasons with two trips to the FCS National Championship Game.

For Fritz, this will be his first stop at a Power Five school. Houston, meanwhile, is getting a coach known for his ability to build up programs.