BIG 12 CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA DAYS

July 7, 2026

Wille Fritz

Ford Center at The Star

Houston Cougars

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Continuing today's press conferences at the 2026 Monster Energy Big 12 Football Media Days, we welcome Head Coach Willie Fritz. Coach, we'll start with your opening statement.

WILLIE FRITZ: Thank you for that introduction right there. We appreciate y'all, all the Cougs that are here today. Excited about being here. What a great venue. I think our Commissioner has done a fantastic job having the event here with the Cowboys.

My first Media Day was in 1993 at Navarro Community College cafeteria, so this is a few more people than I had back in '93.

With that, I'll go ahead and open it up for questions.

Q. You've been open about talking about the national championship that Houston eventually (audio interruption). How important do you think that is to verbalize for your fans and your program? How much do you talk to your team about goals?

WILLIE FRITZ: You know, we don't talk about it a whole lot as far as season goals are concerned. We talk about doing the very best we can day after day after day after day. You know, we've certainly got the location. We've got the university. We've got the facilities. There's no reason why we can't do that at the University of Houston.

A good template for us has been Coach Sampson and what he's done with men's basketball. I think every program in the University of Houston aspires to be national champs, and we certainly do in football.

Q. Willie, you had three games on Fridays last year. You got two this year with the conference opener against Texas Tech. Do you get used to those games that are not on Saturdays, or do you just kind of roll with it as the season goes along?

WILLIE FRITZ: Well, I think you just have to have a plan for either playing with one less day of preparation. Luckily, it's not the first or second game. It would be a little bit unique.

Yeah, you just got to have a plan for preparing one less day. I've been doing this long enough where I've done quite a few Thursday games, Friday games, and obviously a ton of Saturday games, but there's a different way of preparation when it's a Saturday morning game versus a Saturday night game.

So we have a plan that we follow at the University of Houston.

Q. You gave the Bell brothers a promotion, both of them, this past offseason. What have you seen in those coaches' development? I know you have a history with Brian. Are those guys on the rise in terms of their coaching development?

WILLIE FRITZ: They both do a fantastic job. He's talking about Shawn Bell, our assistant head coach, quarterback coach, passing game coordinator; and Brian Bell, who is our wide receiver coach. Brian was my starting quarterback at Sam Houston State for four years. I've known the family forever.

They do a super job recruiting. They're very good coaches. I think they're tremendous role models and mentors to our student-athletes. That's what you look for with all your coaches.

I'm very fortunate to have those two guys.

Q. With roster movement being a reality every year, can you tell me how you develop bringing in experienced transfers while also developing new (audio interruption) --

WILLIE FRITZ: Well, you've got to do both, no question about it. That's one of the areas I'm excited about this season is we're going to have a little bit more depth because we've got some of these high school guys that are going to be playing for us this upcoming year, maybe were red-shirted. I guess that's a thing of the past. We'll have these high school guys who have played for us and also the portal guys.

When you bring a guy in -- we've got a few of them back in the back -- you want to find a guy that fits your program. To be a great recruiter, you have to be a talent evaluator, and you've got to be an information gatherer, and you have to find guys that fit the way you do things.

I see three guys standing back there. McKenzie Agnello, he is a guy that has fit in perfectly. He's a Texas kid. Wanted to stay in the state of Texas. Kentrell Webb, he's a guy that played for me over at Tulane. He's from Houston. Wanted to get closer to home. Then Jordan Allen back over there who was at LSU and wanted to transfer to a place close to home where he could have immediate success.

All those guys have had that, so you have to make sure you find guys that fit in your culture. I think we've done a fantastic job of that as coaches utilizing the portal to our advantage.

Q. You've been a part of a lot of program rebuilds. What are the things that tell you things are going in the right direction before they show up in the win-loss record?

WILLIE FRITZ: Well, I think it's the culture that you have. You know, one of the proudest seasons I had was when I was at Tulane, and we had to leave New Orleans and went to Birmingham for 30 nights. We didn't have a great record that year, but I had zero problems. I think that's indicative of the culture that you have.

It's something that's hard to put your thumb on all the time. You know it when you got it, and everybody is striving to have it, but if you got good coaches and good players and great culture, you're going to have a fantastic team.

We're just around our guys all the time. As a head coach, I'm around our guys almost on a daily basis. My assistant coaches are as well. We just try to bring in the right guys. That's so important. I work too hard to be around a guy who doesn't know how to act. It's hard for me to change someone who has had a bad 18 years. We try to find those guys who have had a real good 18 years and we'll shine and polish him and help him through that transition from 18 to 22 years of age.

Q. I was curious if you could tell us a little bit what made you want to bring Michael Bishop on as an assistant coach, and now that you've been working with him for a little bit, what is he like as a coach?

WILLIE FRITZ: Well, he does an excellent job. Michael played for me at Blinn Junior College in 1995 and '96. I've been close to him ever since. I don't think a month ever went by where he and I didn't talk at least one time.

He's always visited me at all the different places that I've been at over the years. He just is a great person and great role model and mentor, but he's also a real smart football coach. We're just fortunate to have him around.

It's also good to have somebody that you can really trust. I've known him forever. He understands how I do things. He's always got my back.

Q. This offseason you know with some of the returning guys that y'all had come in and then obviously the amazing transfer portal class that y'all had come in, did y'all see a real opportunity to attack this season with the combination of returners and then having a great transfer portal class?

WILLIE FRITZ: Yeah, you know, you want to do that every single year. Everybody's expectations right now that's here today and tomorrow in the Big 12 is to win the Big 12 Championship. We're no different.

But obviously, it helps when you have more depth and talented players. We kept our coaches. We're one of the few teams in the country that have the same offensive, defensive, special teams coordinator and the same starting quarterback coming back. I think there's maybe 11 schools like that in the country.

I've got that. It's a really good building block for your program.

Q. You guys got one of the top-rated quarterback recruits this past season. Was there any conversation of who is going to start week one, or are you guys going to run a two-quarterback system?

WILLIE FRITZ: No, Conner is our starting quarterback, without question. What's been really neat is I've never had two five-star quarterbacks before anyplace I've ever been at. I've never had one, let alone two.

Those guys are both so unselfish. Everybody keeps asking me what kind of package you're going to run with Keisean. We're going to run our total package with him. He's really smart, can throw and run the ball. Those guys really, really work well together in the quarterback room. I think it's a perfect situation for Keisean to be in there and learn from not only great coaches, but a fellow great player in Conner.

Thank you. Go Cougs.