Report: Houston 'closing in' on Tulane's Willie Fritz as next head coach

Houston is “closing in” on a decision to hire Willie Fritz as its next head coach, The Houston Chronicle’s Joseph Duarte reported. He will replace Dana Holgorsen, who was fired last week after five years at the helm.

Fritz spent the last eight years at Tulane and got the Green Wave back to the American Athletic Conference championship game — which kicks off Saturday at 4 p.m. ET. In 2022, Tulane bounced back from a 2-10 record to finish 12-2 and knock off USC in a thrilling Cotton Bowl.

This year, the Green Wave picked up where they left off, taking an 11-1 mark into Saturday’s AAC title game. The only loss came to Ole Miss in Week 2 — a game in which quarterback Michael Pratt didn’t play.

Houston struggled in its first year in the Big 12 after leaving the American Athletic Conference, finishing with a 4-8 record this season. The Cougars went 27-20 in Holgorsen’s first four seasons as head coach, but after the rough first season in the new conference, the university decided to make a switch. UH made it to three bowl games under his watch, and the Cougars finished with a 12-2 record in 2021.

By doing so, Houston owed Holgorsen a roughly $15 million buyout, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported.

A look at Willie Fritz’s coaching career

Fritz played defensive back at Pittsburg State from 1978-81 and immediately got into coaching as a student assistant in 1982. Following a year as an assistant at the high school level, he latched on at Sam Houston State as a graduate assistant from 1984-85 before returning to the high school ranks in 1986.

In 1987, Fritz took over as the defensive coordinator at Coffeyville Community College and stayed in that role until 1990 when he returned to Sam Houston State as defensive backs coach. He got his first head coaching opportunity in 1993 at Blinn at the JUCO level, and eventually jumped to the Division II level at Central Missouri from 1997-2009.

Sam Houston State again came calling in 2010, bringing Fritz aboard as head coach from 2010-13. He then spent two years as the head coach at Georgia Southern before taking over at Tulane in 2016.

On the whole, Fritz had a 208-115 record as a head coach entering the AAC Championship against SMU. At Tulane, that mark was 54-46 with an undefeated regular season this past year. Additionally, the Green Wave made it to four bowl games under his watch, and they’ll play in one more this year.