Three Things Houston Coach Willie Fritz Said Ahead of Oklahoma State’s Game Against the Cougars

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The Cowboys and Cougars will meet Saturday for a game that carries with it a hefty amount of Big 12 title implications.

Oklahoma State plays Houston at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in Houston. Cougar coach Willie Fritz met with reporters on Monday to preview the matchup. Here are three things he touched on.

1. Big Game in H-Town

When the AP Poll dropped Sunday, Oklahoma State was at No. 18 and Houston was at No. 20.

Houston hasn’t hosted a ranked-vs-ranked matchup since the 2015 American Athletic Conference championship game. That comes with a bit of a caveat, as to start the next season, a ranked Cougar squad played (and beat) a ranked Oklahoma team in Houston, but that game was at the Texans’ NRG Stadium rather than on campus.

So, Saturday’s game carries some weight.

“It’s a big game,” Fritz said. “It’s a big game for them. It’s a big game for us. This has a lot of implications for the Big 12 race, so this is a huge game. We’re very excited about the challenge. …

“That’s the reason we came here. We feel like we can compete for a national championship here at the University of Houston. We’ve got the facilities. We’ve got the location — without question. … We want to be in this situation all the time here at the University of Houston.”

2. Crowd Talk

College football Twitter (or X, if you prefer) poked fun at the Houston fanbase a few weeks back because of the Cougars’ crowd against UCF.

The official attendance for that game was 25,593 — about 64% of TDECU’s listed capacity of 40,000. The Cowboys played those same Knights this past weekend and drew a sellout crowd of 52,168.

It’s ‘Space City’ 🆚 ‘Space U’ in H-Town‼️

🏟️ TDECU Stadium
🏠 #20 Houston
🆚 UCF

#GoCoogs https://t.co/0Y2ykKCH0v

— College Football Campus Tour (@cfbcampustour) October 3, 2026

After Houston’s dominant win in Manhattan this past weekend, Fritz made a call to the Cougar faithful to show up this upcoming Saturday. He said he did so trying to help out Houston’s marketing department.

YOU HEARD THE HEADMAN🗣️

🎟️: https://t.co/pBIGXDW4Jb https://t.co/U0Dgr0Sp7t

— Houston Football (@UHCougarFB) October 10, 2026

Fritz was asked a few questions about the crowd on Monday and noted that with it being a Top 25 matchup at night, the crowd ought to be good.

“Like I’ve said a million times, there’s a lot to do in the city of Houston,” Fritz said. “There’s some towns where there may not be quite as much to do in the city, but there’s a lot to do in the city of Houston. We just feel like if we get people out here one time, they see what we have to offer, the quality of product that we put out on the field, the Big 12 puts out on the field.

“I know I say this, I say it in a joking manor, but every seat is a good seat at our place. That’s not the case at most stadiums. You’re way up there and you can’t quite see what’s going on down there. I think that’s another advantage for us, but I just think if people come out, they’ll really be impressed with our campus and everything about it.”

3. On OSU, Mestemaker

This won’t be the first time Fritz and Eric Morris are on opposite sidelines from each other.

The two met in 2023, which was Fritz’s final year at Tulane and Morris’ first year at North Texas. Fritz and Tulane won that game in New Orleans 35-28. North Texas came from down 21-0 at the half to tie the game at 28 early in the fourth quarter before a late Tulane score decided the contest.

The players and team colors have changed, but Fritz said Morris is doing a lot of what he did those three short years ago offensively.

“It’s identical,” Fritz said. “He does a very good job. I got a lot of respect for Eric and the way he runs his program. He’s hired a very, very good staff — defensive coordinator (Skyler Cassity), special teams coordinator (Drew Svoboda).”

Fritz was rather complimentary, as many are, about OSU quarterback Drew Mestemaker, particularly his athletic ability.

“Oklahoma State’s quarterback runs it better than you think, and you gotta play that part of it, as well,” Fritz said. “I was watching their film and saw a particular down-and-distance and formation, and I was like, ‘quarterback draw.’ Boom, that’s what they ran. You don’t do that unless you have confidence in your quarterback being able to run the football.

“He’s a dual-threat guy just like Conner (Weigman) is. They don’t wanna run him crazy, and we don’t want to run Conner like crazy, but sometimes you gotta play 11-on-11 football.”