Houston Coach Willie Fritz on Oregon State: 'It's a business trip'

The Houston Cougars might be walking in to a trap game Friday, and head coach Willie Fritz knows it.

Monday, Fritz spoke with Houston-area media in preparation for this week's matchup with Oregon State at Reser Stadium in Corvallis. Houston's head coach elaborated on the challenge of a cross-country road trip to the Willamette Valley, shaking up the team's pregame routine in anticipation of a late kickoff, the prowess of Oregon State passer Maalik Murphy, and more.

"Your first true road game comes after a week off. How do you talk to your team about going on the road in this difficult of a trip?"

"Yeah, we're going to go a ways. You're exactly right. We're going to handle everything the same as we normally do. The only difference is we're going to be on a plane for a while, and it's going to be a very long plane trip, but every time I've ever taken a plane trip with a bunch of 18-to-22 year olds, everybody's out within the first 10 minutes. They think it was a short flight - and it might have been two hours or whatever it was - but that's the only thing that's different. We don't want to work them too much; when we get there, it's a business trip. We want to enjoy each other's company, but it's a business trip without question."

"With the 9:30 PM Houston start, does it change the pregame routine for you?"

"You know, we've played some night games already, and we've been staying at a hotel irregardless of whether we're playing at home or on the road. So we go ahead and meet in the morning, and then we give the guys a couple hours - get off their feet, take a nap, sleep, whatever the case may be - then we come back and have a pregame meal, then we have a little hype video, and we get on the bus and we head over. The other part that's a little different, too, is we're staying in Eugene and we're driving to Corvallis."

"Despite the 0-4 record for the Beavers, what are some things that they do that you have to keep an eye on?"

"They've got a veteran quarterback; he started last year at Duke. He started his career originally at Texas. Really throws a good ball. They got a good back that's rushed for a lot of yards at the Division I level. They've had some tough luck, they really have, and they're in the ball game for quite a period of time last week against a very good Oregon team. So we're going to have to play extremely well. We know that and that's something that we're chasing - that elusive perfect game - we're working on trying to get better and better every single day and every single week."

"With the winless Oregon State coming up, has there been a discussion with the staff and the players to try not to look ahead?"

I've got the ability to have laser focus on every single day, and I think that's been part of the reason for the success we've had at all these different places, and I know the staff understands that as well. One of the great things about our staff is, besides being great coaches and people, all that stuff, is a lot of these guys have been with me at numerous places or they've played for me. So, they understand how we do things."

"[Maalik] Murphy's had a lot of success at Duke. Have you seen flashes of that when you look at him?"

"Yeah, yeah. He's got a really good movement. He's got a quick release. Very strong arm, you know? It's like we've talked about before, you get in a new system, and it takes a little while to get the pieces together. It's as I've always said before, the quarterback gets too much credit when things go great, and gets too much blame when things don't go well. But he's a very talented quarterback without question. We're going to have to play at a high level defensively against these guys."