Houston Cougars head coach Willie Fritz speaks to the media during the Big 12 Media Days at Allegiant Stadium. Candice Ward-Imagn Images

Houston Cougars Football In Line For a Big Jump In 2025?

Originally posted on Houston Cougars on SI
By Diego Saenz | Last updated Aug 19, 2025 2:29 PM ET

It must be exhausting being a Houston Cougars fan during the offseason. Every conversation seems to circle back to the same tired narrative: the Cougars aren’t ready for the Big 12, they don’t belong, there is a long year ahead, blah blah blah.

But college football is rarely that simple, and the Big 12 even less so. With no clear-cut favorite and so much uncertainty across the league, no team is ever too far from the mix. And while most of the country is sleeping on a Houston squad that finished 3–6 in conference play last season, not everyone is down on the Cougs.

Our friends at LockedOn recently released its preseason Big 12 rankings, and Houston’s placement may leave a lot of people surprised.

Where Does Houston Rank in LockedOn’s Rankings?

Willie Fritz’s Cougars come in at No. 7 in LockedOn’s most recent Big 12 rankings. The six teams above them include Texas Tech, BYU, Utah, Kansas State, Arizona State, and Baylor.

The network even projected Houston to finish 8–4 this season, a complete turnaround from last year’s 4–8 record.

“I think Conner Weigman is solid. I think Willie Fritz is good. I think their roster has improved significantly from a year ago,” Spencer McLaughlin said on LockedOn’s prediction show. “It might take them a while to settle in with all the transfers, but I think Houston is worthy of being a top-half team in the Big 12.”

There are plenty of reasons Houston could be considered a sleeper, but the biggest one begins with Willie Fritz himself. Entering 2025, the veteran coach boasts 32 years of collegiate head coaching experience and back-to-back American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honors.

Throughout his career, Fritz has taken programs with limited football tradition—Central Missouri, Sam Houston State, and Georgia Southern—and raised them to new heights.

Most recently, he turned Tulane into a Group of Five power, guiding the Green Wave to a New Year’s Six bowl and building a sustained winning culture over eight seasons.

And history shows his teams make their biggest leap in year two. Across all his previous stops, Fritz’s squads went a combined 30–25–1 in their first seasons. In year two? They improved to 44–17.

It also helps that Houston’s roster is being reshaped with one of the Big 12’s more intriguing transfer classes. Headlined by former Texas A&M five-star quarterback Conner Weigman, the Cougars brought in 21 transfers this offseason, players who are expected to make an immediate impact as Fritz settles into his second year in Houston.

This article first appeared on Houston Cougars on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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