Football
- Title:
- Head Coach
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Coach Willie Fritz on X, formerly Twitter
• Willie Fritz, the back-to-back American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year who boasts 33 years of collegiate head coaching experience, was named the 16th head coach in University of Houston football history on Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023. The 2025 season will be his second with the Cougars and 33rd overall.
• Fritz, who ranks third nationally among active FBS head coaches with 213 victories, helped the Cougars earn victories in back-to-back weeks against the Big 12's top two preseason favorites during 2024, defeating Utah and #17/15 Kansas State. Houston's victory over the Wildcats marked its highest ranked win in seven seasons.
• At Tulane, Fritz led the Green Wave to consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship games between 2022-23. The Green Wave’s 23 wins between 2022-23 ranked fourth nationally while the program’s 15 conference wins were fifth in the country in that timeframe.
• The Shawnee Mission, Kan., native owns eight career 10-plus win seasons and seven conference championships, including the 2022 American Athletic Conference title. The 2023 Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year Award Watch List honoree is 251-129-1 all-time as a head coach dating to his 1993 beginnings at Blinn College.
• Fritz’s Tulane teams spent 19 weeks ranked inside the AP Top 25 in 2022-23, including topping out at #9 following a thrilling 46-45 Cotton Bowl victory against #8 USC on Jan. 10, 2023. The Green Wave appeared in the CFP Top 25 rankings in 11 of 12 polls (91.6%) between the 2022-23 seasons. Tulane's 11 weeks in the rankings in that timeframe ranked as the 10th most nationally.
• Fritz has spent each of the last 32 seasons as a head coach, at Blinn College (1993-96), Central Missouri (2007-09), Sam Houston (2010-13), Georgia Southern (2014-15), Tulane (2016-23) and Houston (2024-present). During that stretch, he has coached 73 players who were either NFL Draft selections or NFL free-agent signees.
• In 2022, Fritz led the Green Wave to complete the biggest turnaround season in FBS history, improving to 12-2 and a No. 9 final AP Poll ranking after finishing just 2-10 the previous season. The No. 9 finish was the highest final ranking since the program’s undefeated 1998 season.
• As a result of his leadership during the storied 2022 season, Fritz was awarded with both the Dodd Trophy and the George Munger College Coach of the Year Award. The Green Wave’s appearance in the 2023 Goodyear Cotton Bowl marked the 16th bowl appearance in the 128-year history of the program.
• In the 2021 regular season, Fritz guided the Green Wave to a 2-10 record after Hurricane Ida forced the team to evacuate for a month. Overall, five of the team’s 10 losses came by one score or less. Following the 2021 season, Tulane had four players that earned post-season recognition from the American Athletic Conference in Ryan Wright (First), Dorian Williams (Honorable Mention), Sincere Haynesworth (Honorable Mention) and Macon Clark (Honorable Mention). The program also had 12 players that earned selection by Phil Steele Magazine for its All-American Athletic Conference Team.
• In 2019, Fritz led the Green Wave to the best start to a season in over 20 years and came within one spot of cracking the top 25 in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Poll for the first time over 20 years. The Green Wave also established a strong home field advantage under Fritz’s direction in 2019, as they posted a 5-1 record inside Yulman Stadium. Tulane’s 2019 unit also featured an impressive rushing attack, which ranked 13th in the country, averaging 249.8 yards per game.
• In 2018, Fritz guided Tulane to its first bowl trip since 2013, a share of the American Athletic Conference title and just its sixth winning season in the last 37 years, while facing the second toughest schedule among teams from the conference.
• The 2017 campaign saw Tulane finish the year with its highest win total since 2013 despite facing one of the nation’s toughest schedules, as nine of its opponents earned invitations to bowl games. In addition, four of the Green Wave’s losses came by six points or fewer. The 2017 season also served as a milestone season for Fritz as he earned his 200th victory as a head coach and in the process became just the fourth active Football Bowl Subdivision head coach with 200 wins.
• Fritz was twice named the National Coach of the Year, including the American Football Coaches Association FCS Coach of the Year in 2011 and the Liberty Mutual FCS Coach of the Year in 2012. In his two seasons at Georgia Southern, he led the Eagles to a combined record of 17-7, a 2014 Sun Belt Conference title and the school’s first NCAA postseason bowl game with a berth in the 2015 GoDaddy.com Bowl.
• Georgia Southern concluded the 2015 regular season with an 8-4 overall record including a mark of 6-2 in conference play.
• Fritz led the Eagles to a 9-3 overall record and a perfect mark of 8-0 in conference play during his first season at Georgia Southern in 2014, and was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year. However, the school’s waiver claim to allow Georgia Southern to play in a bowl despite being in the second year of the NCAA’s transition period was denied. Georgia Southern was the first team in NCAA history to post an undefeated conference season in its first season at the Division I FBS level.
• Fritz served as head coach at Sam Houston from 2010-13, leading the Bearkats to back-to-back Southland Conference titles, NCAA Division I Championship game appearances in 2011 and 2012 and a third straight NCAA playoff berth in 2013. In 2011 and 2012, Sam Houston posted the two highest single-season win totals in program history with marks of 14-1 (2011) and 11-4 (2012) while more than 50 Bearkats student-athletes earned All-Southland Conference honors in his last four years, not including additional Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year awards. All-America status from national coaching and media outlets were bestowed on 11 Sam Houston State players during his tenure.
• Fritz revitalized Central Missouri and guided the Mules to 11 winning seasons in 13 years. The NCAA Division II program’s ledger included two 10-win seasons with the 2001 Mule squad earning its first postseason trip in more than 30 years. A 97-47 mark in 13 seasons ranked Fritz as the winningest coach in the program’s history. He was the only coach to ever win seven or more games in eight consecutive seasons, and his victory total ranked him 15th among active Division II coaches at the time.
• In addition to his impressive 67.4 winning percentage with the Mules, Fritz coached his student-athletes to achieve their potential on the field and in the classroom. More than 150 Mules were recognized with All-MIAA honors with 41 first-team selections and 24 All-Americans.
• Under Fritz, Central Missouri recorded a graduation rate of 84 percent with 144 MIAA Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll recipients, 14 Academic All-Region and three Academic All-Americans. For all of his accomplishments guiding Central Missouri, Fritz was honored by the school with induction into its Athletics Hall of Fame on Feb. 11, 2017.
• Prior to his time at Central Missouri and Sam Houston State as a head coach, Fritz spent two different stints as an assistant coach with the Bearkats. He first served as a graduate assistant during the 1984 and 1985 seasons when he earned a master’s degree in kinesiology. During that two-year stretch, Sam Houston State posted a 16-6 record and won the 1985 Gulf Star Conference championship. He returned to Sam Houston State a second time in 1991 after spending four years at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas under legendary coach Dick Foster, earning a promotion to defensive coordinator after one year. He stayed another two years to work for Coach Foster’s Skip and the Red Ravens. During the 1990 season, Fritz served as the defensive coordinator where he helped guide the Red Ravens to a national title.
• When Fritz was brought back to Sam Houston State in 1991 under Ron Randleman as secondary and special teams coach, he instilled an attitude of excellence on special teams that would last more than a decade. The Bearkats’ “block party” racked up 80 blocked punts, field goals and extra points beginning with Fritz in 1991 and lasting through 2004.
• In Fritz’s first year as a full-time assistant coach at Sam Houston State in 1991, the Bearkats won the Southland Conference. That league title and an eight-win season launched Sam Houston State to the program’s second-ever appearance in the NCAA Division I Football Championship.
• Fritz departed Huntsville for a second time prior to the 1993 season for an opportunity to be the head coach at Blinn College, where he would turn around a program that had only five wins in its previous three seasons.
• From 1993-96, Fritz and the Buccaneers would rack up 39 victories against only five losses with a tie and claim two national junior college championships. He was inducted into the NJCAA Football Hall of Fame for the environment of success he created at Blinn.
• One of seven children, Fritz is the son of the late Harry Fritz, who coached the Central Missouri football team in 1952 before continuing his career as the Executive Director at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in Kansas City. The elder Fritz also served at several colleges and universities in administration as an athletics director.
• Fritz played on two conference title teams and was a four-year starter at defensive back at Pittsburg State where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1983. While working as a graduate assistant during his first stint with Sam Houston from 1984-85, he earned his Master of Kinesiology in 1986. Early coaching stops included a year at Shawnee Mission Northwest (Kansas) High School in 1983 and Willis (Texas) High School in 1986, with his return to Sam Houston for graduate school in between those years.
• Fritz and his wife Susan have a son, Wesley, and two daughters, Lainie and Brooke.
