LAS VEGAS – Willie Fritz swears he doesn’t have a secret recipe for success despite whipping up plenty of intrigue that eventually led to his new gig as head coach of the Houston Cougars.

If he could bottle his winning ways, it’d outsell Sweet Baby Ray’s. 

“It isn’t just one thing,” Fritz told us at Big 12 Media Days. “I’ve had good (assistant) coaches. I’ve had good players. We’ve had a good plan and we’ve executed that plan.” 

He won two national junior college championships in four seasons as head coach at Blinn Junior College. Fritz led Central Missouri to 11 winning seasons in 13 seasons, leaving as the program’s all-time leader in wins. He then led Sam Houston to consecutive Southland Conference championships and an NCAA Division I Championship game appearance before helping Georgia Southern become the first team in NCAA history to post an undefeated conference season in Year 1 as an FBS squad. 

Oh, and at Tulane – a program that spent decades in the basement – Fritz built a G5 juggernaut that finished ninth in the AP Poll in 2022. The season was highlighted by a Cotton Bowl win over USC and Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams. In his career, Fritz has led eight teams to 10-plus wins and ranks fifth nationally amongst active FBS coaches with 208 victories. He’s coached 73 players who were either NFL Draft picks or free-agent signees in 31 seasons as a head coach. 

Fritz loves formulating plans. He admits that each of his stops required a new direction. What worked at Blinn Junior College couldn’t work at Sam Houston. And what worked so well at Tulane won’t propel Houston to the top of the Big 12. The jobs are different, and so is his approach. 

“Adapting to your environment is the key,” Fritz said. “What is the university all about? What are your selling points? What are the current strengths and weaknesses? Each stop is different. The job of the head coach is to find a way to maximize the strengths and erase the weaknesses.” 

Adapting to the job isn’t the only evolution Fritz has undergone in his four decades of coaching college football. He also had to adapt to a changing landscape within the sport. The transfer portal. NIL. Fritz loves connecting with former players. Taking over the Houston job allowed some of those former athletes from Sam Houston and Blinn to attend a few practices in Third Ward this spring. Fritz admits he’s much more positive with his current players than with his old. And they’re not letting him forget it. 

Fritz used to yell at practices. A lot. To save his voice, the ball coach started using a bullhorn to relay his messages to players during practice. Head to Houston campus for practice and you’ll hear Fritz’s voice commanding practice with his bullhorn. 

“I have some guys that came and watched us practice who played for me at Blinn, which was my first coaching job, and they all said I’ve gotten soft,” Fritz joked. “. I had to remind them that I’d get thrown in jail if I treated the current players the way I treated you guys.”

Fritz happily chatted with anyone and everyone who wanted to ask him about Cougar football during his Big 12 media day. He’s waited for this opportunity for a long time. He knows his career can’t last forever, and he’s won at every level except one – the Power Four. Fritz is nothing if not competitive. His whole life revolves around sports and family. And a lot of his family coaches. 

His first media day was in 1993 as the head coach of Blinn Junior College. The event was held in the Navarro Junior College library in Corsicana, Texas. Fritz says there were three members of the media there to cover it. The sport has changed a lot, but Fritz contends the game is similar. Sure, he’ll need a new plan to help Houston climb a crowded Big 12 mountain, but the attributes required to win on Saturday afternoons remain the same. 

“It still comes down to blocking and tackling,” he said. “Teams that block and tackle better have a better opportunity to win, so we work on it every single day.”