Houston Cougars 2025 Football Preview, Prediction, Betting insights
Houston Cougars 2025
View from afar: This offseason must have felt like a bit of a letdown for Houston Cougar fans. I think many people had year two of Willie Fritz circled as potential breakout spot for this program, alas coordinator loss on defense and transfer portal exodus of some key pieces has this looking like another season where Fritz will continue to build this programs foundation. Leftwich the DC who had a legitimately salty defense departs to big spenders Texas Tech, while new OC Nagle comes in with a previous relationship with Fritz. Don’t sleep too much though on the Cougars they did manage to beat TCU, on the road mind you, and K-State in his first year at the helm. Bringing in Weigman from Texas AnM will be interesting also. This kid was being highly touted before the matchup with ND last season, and injuries and seemingly a loss of confidence derailed is Aggies career. Fritz will get this team to punch above their weight no doubt. Can he find some magic to get this team competitive with the current big dogs of the Big 12?
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Recruiting: ’25 rank in Big 12 11th, ’24 rank in Big 12 13- Houston fell a touch late in the cycle which was a touch of a disappointment, you’d like this team start to move into the top 10 range in its classes.
Portal: 11th in Big 12- Losing Haulcy (S First team all Big12) hurts bad. Scott transferred in then out to Miami, and Wilson heads to FSU just from the secondary. You hate to see these things happen especially given how good this secondary was. Weigman is the headliner at QB as far as incomers. Let’s see what Parker can do on the line, he graded out quite well at Tennessee Tech, will that translate??
Roster Tidbits: QB Weiman was a former 5 star prospect and comes in with real SEC experience. TE transfer Koiziol will be interesting to watch he had 8 TDs last season for Ball State, can him and the QB develop a nice chemistry? The line returns a bit so maybe there will be some chemistry there? Defensively, new coordinator from Florida Armstrong will look to transfers to get things going. Laufau, and Parker (previously mentioned) intrigue me from Washington St and Tennessee Tech respectively.
Statistical tidbits: Houston was 130th in the country last year in points per game at 14 per, not going to win a lot of games in the Big 12 like that. This team ranked second bottom in PFF pass rush grade last season. Imagine how good the secondary would have been if they had gotten a lot of pressure.
Schedule: Hosting Colorado to kick things off league-wise will be interesting for both teams. It’ll be a short week following a road game to Rice, not ideal. At Oregon St will be an interesting non conference game; the Beavers seem improved and will want to show their worth against a power conference team. Road trips to ASU, Baylor, and a 7-games in a row slate will be the biggest hurdle. If this team gets banged up, beware.
Prediction: You want to give Fritz the benefit of the doubt. He might end up making me look foolish, but he lost a lot here this offseason, and the recruiting pipeline doesn’t seem to be stacked. I’m going to say another 4-8 season for the Cougars. They’ll be feisty in most games, I just don’t see how they’ll score with the likes of Texas Tech, Arizona St, TCU, Baylor, and even games like Oregon St on the road appear a lot tougher with how the vibe is in Corvalis.
Actionable: I don’t think anyone got rich off betting under on Willie Fritz teams, he has a knack for getting more out of a player than most. The win total was over 6 earlier in the offseason, which I would have considered. Now it’s 5.5 heavily juiced to the over. So to me there is not much here in terms of intrigue.
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