Note: This story is featured in the 2026 edition of Dave Campbell's Texas Football's Summer Magazine, which you can order here.

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Willie Fritz, 66, and his wife, Susan, are from the Kansas City area so when the Houston Cougars basketball team was there for the Big 12 Tournament in March, Fritz and Susan attended and sat in the front row directly next to the Houston bench. Most of the eyes in attendance were on the court. But not Fritz’s.  

Instead, he was looking past Susan and at head basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, hoping to learn more about how one of the best college basketball coaches in history operates on the bench.  

That’s how much he still loves his profession. And basketball. Fritz says he contemplated becoming a basketball coach like his brother, Ed, who won over 800 games as a high school head coach in Kansas City. But it was mentors like Ron Randleman who drew Fritz to football after his playing career ended at Pittsburg State, where he played multiple sports including football and basketball. 

“It was fun to see a different perspective and watch a great coach practice his craft,” Fritz said. “There are a lot of similarities in coaching that apply to football and basketball, but there are a lot of differences, as well. Sometimes I think to myself, ‘man, it would have been a lot easier to coach 12 dudes in basketball than 120 in football.”  

Fritz has no regrets and he doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon, and that’s bad news for the rest of the Big 12. His alarm never goes off, as Susan regularly points out. Fritz set his alarm for 5:29 a.m. on April 2nd earlier this year, his birthday. He woke up at 5:05 a.m. and started his day with the same passion that’s led him to over 220 wins as a collegiate head coach, from the JUCO ranks at Blinn Junior College in the early 1990s and through nearly every level of college football since.  

“I probably got more juice than anybody else on the field,” Fritz said. “If I’m ever out there just standing around with my hands in my pocket, I’ll know it is time (to step away). I still enjoy going to work. The key to life is finding something you’re passionate about and I tell my players that all the time.”  

Fritz is passionate about football, obviously. But his main passion might be people. He likes to pour into them. And while college football has changed a lot in the 30-plus years he’s led programs, there remains a few universal truths. One of those, at least according to Fritz, is that good people create positive results and that who you allow into your program – coaches and players - is the best indication of success or failure.  

Fritz believes he’s surrounded himself with the right people and that’s why Houston improved from four wins in 2024 to 10 in 2025. The Cougars are a dark horse pick to play for the Big 12 championship because they’re one of the few programs in the country to return their head coach, all three coordinators, and the starting quarterback. Houston also returns eight starters on defense.  

Fritz has won conference championships at each of his previous five stops. That’s something the Cougars have only done twice this century and never at the Power Four level. He took the job at Houston because he loves the city and he searches out challenges. He’s won at every level and wanted to prove to himself that he could do the same at the top of the sport he’s dedicated his life to.  

“I got no hobbies,” he admitted. “I don’t fish. I don’t hunt. I don’t play golf. I work out a little bit and that’s about it. I just love football. And I love the connections that I’ve gotten through the years. That’s what drives me, trying to have some kind of impact, a positive impact, on these guys.”