HOUSTON — A week after firing Dana Holgorsen as head football coach, the Houston Cougars have his replacement. Willie Fritz is coming over from Tulane to take over, the school announced Sunday morning.
Fritz has been head coach at Tulane for the last seven years. He led a major turnaround there, taking a 2-10 team in 2021 and turning it around to a 12-2 team with a No. 9 AP ranking the following year. Then this season, the success continued, as the Green Wave went 11-2, but fell in the conference championship to SMU.
Fritz takes over a Houston program that finished a disappointing 4-8 last season in their first year in the Big 12.
Overall, Fritz has been a college head football coach for 31 years, including 26 seasons leading programs at either Division I or Division II levels.
Fritz has ties to Southeast Texas. He was defensive backs and special teams coach at Sam Houston State from 1991 to 1992, then came back as head coach there from 2010 until 2013. He was also head football coach at Blinn College from 1993 until 1996.
He has a Bachelor's degree from Pittsburgh State and a Masters of Kinesiology from Sam Houston State.
As for his playing days, Fritz was a defensive back for Pittsburgh State from 1978 to 1981 and a point guard for the basketball team from 1979 until 1981.