Houston Cougars football coach Willie Fritz revealed that Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes were a focus for his team all summer, even with the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and Rice Owls on the schedule before them.
Fritz’s team takes on their first Power 4 opponent on Friday night when UH hosts CU at TDECU Stadium.
"I told the guys in the room, we just got to put this game to bed. Short week — we play on Friday night, not Saturday — so we're all going to get in there early as coaches. We've already worked in the summer, somewhat on Colorado — game plan, offense, defense, kicking game,” Fritz said after his Cougars’ 35-9 win on Rice’s campus.
“We've got to accelerate, dropping this one and moving on to the next one. That's how you can win games. You never want to sit back and dwell on past successes. Some people think, ‘Oh, that's good,’ just to keep momentum. I've seen guys have a great game and the next game they suck because they don't put the same amount of work into it. You don't want to sit there if you do something bad and have that beat you twice.”
Houston hasn’t been tested yet. Colorado comes into the Space City with a 27-20 loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Week 1 and a 31-7 win over the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens that helped give clarity to the quarterback room with Ryan Staub’s emergence.
Texas A&M Aggies transfer Conner Weigman has looked the part of the answer under center for UH, but the Buffs present a unique test. Warren Sapp’s pass rush isn’t big, but it’s speedy. Weigman may face a tougher challenge moving side to side on broken plays than he can handle. Or Sapp’s group will have to look in the mirror again, since Georgia Tech QB Haynes King put 299 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns on the Buffs' defense.
Whatever the case, Fritz has been studying how Colorado attacks on both sides of the ball. For a long time, now.
As Coach Prime always says, the Buffs are comin’. Fritz expects them.