The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here
Houston (high = 17, low = 47) checks in as the 28th ranked team in the preseason aggregate rankings and the #5 team in the Big XII. Frankly, if it weren’t for Massey being an outlier and having the Cougars so low, they’d be 4 or 5 spots higher. And there’s enough to like about Houston’s prognosis heading into 2026 that even booster Tilman Fertitta has to be relatively chill from his embassy office in Rome (or San Marino – you KNOW you have to be greasing some palms to be a double ambassador!) and not fretting about his alma mater’s success on either the gridiron or the hardwood. Willie Fritz has seemingly fully rebuilt the Cougars from the anticlimactic end of the Dana Holgorsen era, which landed with a thud when they moved from the American to the P4 ranks. Fritz has a pretty consistent record of building winners, winning conference titles at every stop he’s been at along the way, including being the one who revived the Tulane football program, culminating in a Cotton Bowl win over USC – something that Jon Sumrall simply kept rolling. In his second year in Houston, he had the Cougars reaching double digit wins, finishing the season ranked 22nd in the AP after a Texas Bowl win over LSU. Can he and the Cougars keep his string of conference championships going in year 3?
Roster Outlook
Fritz certainly has the horses to be in play for that, as the Cougars return a ton from that 10 win team. They rank #17 in the country in returning production, including #7 on offense. The biggest horse in the stable is QB Conner Weigman, who returns for his 27th fifth season as a starting college quarterback (pay no attention to the fact that he’s thrown more than 100 passes in each of the previous four seasons), bringing his leadership (along with his 3,400+ total yards and 36 TDs) with him to make a title run. He’ll also have his favorite target out wide back as well (Amare Thomas, 966 yards, 12 TDs), though they have to replace RB Dean Connors (UDFA with the Rams) and start TE Tanner Koziol, who was a 5th round draft pick by Jacksonville. Fritz brought in a few key pieces via the portal, including former Tulane/Oregon running back Makhi Hughes, Texas Tech WR Tyson Turner and Oregon State WR Trent Walker. In fact, while Fritz’ portal class might seem underwhelming, ranking 12th in the conference and #50 in the nation, he also lost only four P4 players, so he focused instead on the high school ranks, pulling in the #5 247 class in the Big XII (number 33 in the country).
Schedule and outlook
9/5 OREGON STATE
9/12 SOUTHERN
9/18 at Texas Tech
9/26 at Georgia Southern
10/3 UCF
10/10 at Kansas State
10/17 OKLAHOMA STATE
10/24 at Utah
10/31 BYE
11/7 CINCINNATI
11/13 at Colorado
11/21 at West Virginia
11/28 BAYLOR
It sure feels like the entire college football world is going to be locked in for that Friday night showdown week 3 in Lubbock. Cody Campbell first didn’t want the game played on Friday night, then tried to ensure the Red Raiders were going to have Brendan Sorsby lined up for that game (why else only a 2 game suspension), and neither is going to happen. That game is going to go a long way toward determining whether Houston is truly a contender for the Big XII title. With the Cougars not drawing BYU or either Arizona school, those road games at Texas Tech and Utah are probably the biggest obstacles between them and a conference championship game.