Kelvin Sampson Voices Disappointment with Houston Cougars fans

After Houston basketball’s exhibition game win over Mississippi State this past Sunday, Sampson was asked about his thoughts on the football team’s big win. He was quick to praise the job that head coach Willie Fritz has done to turn the program around, but mentioned that Houston has to do a better job to support him. 

“We had homecoming last week, and 15,000 fans, come on man. Our fans got to support Willie. They got to support the kids,” Sampson said. 

The official attendance was 28,535 for their last home game against Arizona, but Sampson minces no words and tells it how it is. He was clearly disappointed in the showing and lack of fan turnout.

The stadium did not look like it had 28K inside. Houston won that game 31-28 and when senior kicker Ethan Sanchez hit the game-winning field goal, a large part of TDECU Stadium was empty. 

Crowds This Year

Only the game against Texas Tech was sold out so far this season, a big reason for that being all the Red Raider fans that showed up or made the trip down from Lubbock. The attendance for that matchup was 42,806, one of the highest attended games in TDECU Stadium history. 

A good crowd of 37,899 showed up to Houston’s first Big 12 game of the season against head coach Deion Sanders and Colorado. Besides that, the homecoming crowd was a letdown. A lot of fans used the 11 a.m. kickoff as a reason why, but the stadium has been filled up in the past when this program was nationally relevant. They are now a top 25 program again.

“We’ve got a big game coming up this weekend, and we need to fill that place. That matters. Most fans want to wait till you win. OK, we’re winning, come on! Let’s fill up TDECU,” Sampson said. 

This was a direct call from UH basketball’s head man to Cougar fans to show up and support. Sampson clearly thinks very highly of the football team and had a lot of great words to say about their performance. 

“We’ve got a great coach, great coach staff, a bunch of kids that are fighting their hearts out. We just put the nation on alert with that Arizona State win,” Sampson said. 

Willie Fritz Asks for More Support

Fritz made it a point on Monday at his weekly press conference to encourage the fans to show up. 

“I hope we can get a great crowd out there. Every place I’ve been, the way you draw a crowd is if you win,” Fritz said. “We’ve done that part of it and we want to continue to do that part of it, and we’d love to get a big crowd out there.”

No. 22 Houston kicks off against West Virginia at 11 a.m. Saturday at TDECU Stadium. The game can be viewed on FS1. 

“I think that’s a perfect time for a ballgame. Let’s get everybody out to cheer on the Coogs,” Fritz said.