Open For Business: a Big 12 Podcast w/ John Kurtz
Open for Business with John Kurtz delivers college football and college basketball news from a Big 12 perspective.
We cover every Big 12 school—Arizona, Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Colorado, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech, UCF, Utah, and West Virginia. From Saturdays in the fall to March Madness, no program gets left out.
You’ll hear in-depth discussion on Big 12 football, basketball, and recruiting—along with how the league stacks up against the SEC and Big Ten. We cover conference realignment, NIL, TV deals, playoff battles, and national storylines like Deion Sanders and Colorado that impact the Big 12.
If you want college football and college basketball news from a Big 12 perspective, this is your podcast.
Open For Business: a Big 12 Podcast w/ John Kurtz
Will Houston Blow Up Texas Tech’s Big Season?; Willie Fritz is Building a Monster
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Houston might be the team standing between Texas Tech and a dream Big 12 season.
In this episode, Parker Ainsworth from Locked On Coogs joins the show to break down why Willie Fritz has Houston football positioned as one of the most dangerous teams in the Big 12. The Cougars won 10 games last season, return Conner Weigman at quarterback, added more talent through the portal, and may have one of the most interesting QB succession plans in the league with five-star freshman Keisean Henderson waiting behind him.
We also dig into the huge early-season matchup between Houston and Texas Tech. With Tech’s quarterback situation uncertain after the Brendan Sorsby situation and Will Hammond potentially coming back quickly from knee surgery, Parker explains why Houston’s improved pass rush could make that Friday night game in Lubbock a major problem for the Red Raiders.
Plus, we discuss Willie Fritz’s quiet rebuild, Houston’s Big 12 financial future, the impact of Tilman Fertitta, why the Cougars passed on the Big 12 private capital loan, and whether Houston can realistically get to Arlington for the Big 12 Championship Game.
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Welcome back into Open for Business. I am John Kurtz. I am joined right now by Parker Ainsworth from Locked On Couggs. Great place to get all the info that you want on Houston. I'm excited for the upcoming season and particularly for this team. Because if you've been listening to Open for Business for a while, you've been hearing me say, like, I think the top tier Big 12 contenders heading into this football season is Texas Tech, BYU, and Houston. And obviously that's been made much more interesting by everything that's happened to quarterback with Texas Tech. But Parker, I appreciate the time. When was the last time expectations were this high? Let's start there.
SPEAKER_01Um, oh, there'll be people that'll probably tell you after the 2021 when they went to the American Athletic Conference. It's probably somewhere in the Herman area. You got to go back a little bit further than that. Ed Oliver came in right after that kind of whole thing. It's been a minute, needless to say, it's been a minute. Um, but they are definitely high right now. People feel pretty good about where Houston's sitting.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I do you think it's a fair statement, what I just made there? Like, hey, Texas Tech BYU and Houston is is the top tier of Big 12 contenders. Like, how do you see it right now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think it's also an interesting conference in that like last year Houston won 10 games, right? County bowl game won 10 games. Um, and I'd argue there's really only one position group that got worse, right? You lost Tanner Kozell and like that, obviously, like he's a pro. Um, but you retained Connor Wigman, you retain Amari Thomas and added some talent around him. Offensive line got better, defensive guy, like you you've gotten better at most spots. Uh DBs maybe say the same. Who knows, right? But I I think it's it's fair to say, okay, if you improved at those spots, you won 10 games last year. Like, what does that look like on the football field? Um, and schedule was really friendly last year, and frankly, they won 10 games. There are people in my comment section every day reminding me that they lost to two teams they shouldn't have in West Virginia and TCU, right? Like they realistically could have had another couple uh if they get those, I guess they'll probably play in Arlington, take another one. Well, you know, that's how it goes. But um I I think you look at this year's schedule as being not quite as friendly, but pretty friendly. Um, and the Big 12's got some rebuilding teams. You cover the whole conference, you see some rebuilding teams across the bottom of this thing that Houston's kind of got sprinkled in their schedule as well. Um, I again I I don't know if they win 11 or 12 games, but I think they should be looking at the double digit mark again as a a place to get to.
SPEAKER_02Well, and the I mean the other thing is Willie Fritz. Like, I just you know, I mean, the guy just wins. Like, I mean, he's uh a little more quiet, you know, certainly than some of the coaches we see out there, like today, uh, you know, making making headlines all over the place. Like Willie Fritz isn't doing that. It's been a noisy offseason in Lubbock between you know Cody Campbell and the discussions with Brett Yormark, which I do want to get into. Obviously, some of that involved the Houston game. But like there's there's noise going on everywhere. BYU had the the Parker Kingston situation. Like Houston's just kind of sitting there taking care of business, and that's like uh what I view Willie Willie Fritz's program as. I mean, that's a part of what's really interesting about it to me is like none of the chatter this offseason has really been about Houston. They're just kind of like laying in a lurch there with uh you know top 25 portal class, depending on where you look, higher than that, ready to ready to go at it next year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know, whatever you think about Houston Cougar recruiting, the number one class in school history surrounding a five-star quarterback who will, for all intents and purposes, probably redshirt over the backup, but it's a really talented group of freshmen coming in too. You mentioned the portal class. Um, Willie's never gonna make a bunch of headlines. Like, like the biggest headlines he makes is when he changes jobs. Like that's it's just not who he is. Um, you know, he he has to practice the megaphone because he's just a quieter guy, like he the people can't hear him otherwise. Um, I think that that's to their benefit, though. Uh obviously it'd be nice to kind of enter the you know, you do the whole conference. That if you enter the season as a preseason top-tier team, those spots are kind of yours to lose, right? If you enter the season at in a top 10, 10, 11, 12 spot, you you can go undefeated and make the playoffs pretty easily, or or go 10 wins, make the playoffs pretty easily. If you start at 25, 24, it may be a little bit more challenging. So um, I I think it'd always be nice to make some noise and be a headliner, but also totally cool letting everyone else uh, as we said before, burn it all down themselves, right? They can do that to themselves.
SPEAKER_02Okay, you brought up Keyshawn Henderson. Like, is that the expectation that he's he's gonna redshirt? They won't try and use him in some capacity.
SPEAKER_01So he got the whole run of the spring game. They did not play Connor Wigman in any contact of that, not because he was hurt, just because Wyfrisket. Um, he he looked very like a good freshman, I would say. Like he made a couple freshman plays, also made a couple plays like, oh, this guy can move a little bit, right? Um, folks that maybe hadn't followed Houston, he was a five-star athlete as a young guy, got moved into a five-star quarterback as an older guy. Houston offered him as a quarterback early on, and that that uh loyalty stuck through the entire recruiting process. Um, he headlines the group. Uh, I don't know if he'll be a package guy. I talked on one of my shows about like, could you do the the leak and Tebow thing that Floor did however you know 15, 20 years ago at this point? Or does he get to you know play those couple of games, get his redshirt, and and kind of you know get his own turn, so to speak. The big reason that Houston's got that option, though, John, and and I I don't mean to like dismiss uh Keyshawn. This is the first time in Connor Wegman's career that he is both healthy and has the same coordinator and same head coach all working together. I think they feel like after revitalizing his career last year, he can make another big jump. And uh Keyshan will, if he plays a role, be a package guy and will be an impressive package. The guy that he can really move, he can throw on the run. Um, but I imagine they kind of weigh that out over the course of fall and kind of see as they need to do it. Again, the schedule to start the season's pretty friendly, Oregon State, Southern, those are games you can maybe dabble with things in. But I I wouldn't I wouldn't expect him to take the starting role, it'd be a package at most right now.
SPEAKER_02Well, the other thing that I love about him is high school coach was Michael Bishop, who's my favorite athlete of all time.
SPEAKER_01Fun fun fact there, I don't know if everyone knows, Bishop played for Fritz at Blyn. Yeah, and so there was already a connection built when that whole thing was unfolding.
SPEAKER_02That's every time I see Willie at uh Big 12 Media Days, I always wind up talking to him about Michael Bishop, man. That was the perfect hit hitting me when I was like eight, nine years old as a kid. He was he was my hero back then, and now on staff at Houston, right? Too. So I mean that's that is another thing. You're looking at the future with Keyshawn Henderson, you got his high school coach with him on staff. Uh well, Wigman's an interesting case study, too, because I was having this debate with the the guys that I host the Three Mob podcast with the other day. They weren't as high on Wigman, and I was like, I don't know, man. I mean, he looked pretty revitalized last year, and like you said, there's there's an awful lot of continuity within that offense and just a lot of stability within the program. Like, this is not what Texas AM was when he was there. Um, no offense to the Aggies, but this this feels like a much more conducive situation for growth for him to me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're way more political. We can offend the Aggies all you want. I live in Texas. That's that's the one we can poke. No, but uh so the other thing about Wigman too is like if you look at him as a college quarterback, I think you're like, oh, this guy's pretty good. It's when you think about him as the five-star top of the class guy he was out of high school. It's like, well, he's not he's not that. And and I'm not gonna lie to you in the audience, like he's he's not that, but he is a pretty strong quarterback last year. 25 touchdowns, 2700 yards. And I think the improvement that no one saw coming was he also ran pretty well a year ago. Um, he put 700 yards on the ground, had a few touchdowns there as well. You know, I think that that dual throw was not something people were ready for. I I myself, having had his injury history, kind of held my breath every time they ran quarterback sneak on the goal line. But um, but yeah, I I think that he he's poised to have a good year because of that continuity you talk about. He he finally had a full season healthy, I mean, mostly healthy. I think everyone plays football, you get a little dinged here and there, but mostly healthy last year, and now we're hoping for a big year too. And he's talking about going to the NFL after this, like he is like thinking this is kind of his launch pad season for that. So obviously, I would enjoy that as much as anyone, I think.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's the perfect scenario for Houston, right? He plays well enough to go to the NFL, and then you roll out Keyshawn Henderson next year. I mean, that's yeah, that's what you want. You you brought up the schedule. How much did your eyes light up when now not because of it's not like you're rooting for a gambling scandal, right? But when the Brendan Soresby thing happened, now you're looking at all right, well, that that game's in like mid to late September, and that's the game that's kind of been circled for like a Will Hammond return. I maybe he could pull it off and come back before that, but it it sure looks like best case scenario for Texas Tech is that Will Hammond plays with no sea legs under him, right? He hasn't had a chance to play it all before that. That certainly makes that feel much more attainable for Houston.
SPEAKER_01Well, and it's been moved to a Friday night to try and get it on TV, which I'm sure it will be a part of discussion all offseason because it certainly won in Lubbock. The the Tex Tech Radar's play at Oregon State and Corvallis the Saturday before. So that's a long travel flight home or whatever time of day that is to then have a short week with a quarterback that has not played to that point, likely. And even then, John, the guy I believe had knee surgery in November. This is a 10-month turnaround. So you mentioned like his C legs. I I he could be progressing ahead of schedule as much as they want to say. That feels really fast to me. I know I'm an old school kind of guy, but the ACL used to be a full 12-month deal at the best, and and this is really fast. And so I think Houston and an improved pass rush, Ashton Porter transferring from Oregon. I think they're looking to kind of you know take advantage of the situation, so to speak.
SPEAKER_02What was your thought as all the drama about that game being moved to Friday was was going on? Like, is are as a Houston fan, are you like, hey man, bring it on? Like, we'll take Friday night, let's go.
SPEAKER_01So Houston's played in a handful of these. Uh, you know, their first year in the Big 12, uh, Xion Chris wins a big game against TCU on a Friday night. And and the West Virginia Hail Mary game was a Thursday night. Like they put Houston on a bunch of these when they weren't very good. I gotta be honest with you, John. I was a little disappointed on twofold though. One, Houston and Texas Tech will both be ranked open the season. This is a a big matchup for the conference. I would think you'd want to put this in a more competitive spot with the other big, I mean, LSU is an old miss the same weekend. I'm not saying we go head-to-head with them necessarily, given especially the chaos that's unfolded in the last few hours. Um, but I think that you could put up against most other games, Alabama, Florida State where we kind of see what you can do given these are two of your top ranked teams going to the season next year. And then I don't mean to like be the Texas state of Texas homer. Um, it is a Friday night in Texas, and like there will be people that are choosing to be at home with their high school football program that weekend or whatever. I think that makes it a better road game for Houston than it would have been on a Saturday night. But you know, at the same time, I think that there will be people that will be choosing to watch on, you know, instead of watching on TV, we'll watch their high school team play or whatever, because that's the kind of the culture in Texas. It's hard to explain to people not in it, but it's just a different kind of thing here.
SPEAKER_02I I do get it, and yeah, I honestly would make that argument from the other side too and be like, but then maybe it's takes the edge off a little bit in Ludbock. I mean, that is the thing. We're it's it's like, well, this argument started in what, like March? I mean, we're like March, April, May. Like, it's easy to debate it now when that when it comes down to it, like tech's gonna have that place filled up. It'll be loud, it'll be cool. But to your point, I guess on the other side, I'll just play myself on both sides here. We found out today that uh that game is gonna be at seven o'clock uh with Lane's return to Ole Miss. So people were saying, What about the big noon window? And you could have still theoretically had that window to yourself, uh, for the most part. Certainly been likely the the big the big game there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think there's like uh another uh Miami plays like Wake Force or somebody on Friday. I was looking at it for my own show, and I think the the other big game of note to me was Alabama, Florida State, because Florida State won that one last year, and I was kind of like, you know, I I say try that one. It's an ACC team. Like, why not try to compete with that one in a window? Um, that's obviously not what Rhett and the crew are gonna do. Um, and so we're gonna tee it off on a on a Friday night, I guess. Um, you know, uh while the other high school teams in the area are all Lubbock, Monterey, and everybody will all be playing all around as it goes.
SPEAKER_02Well, hey, bigger picture here. So one of the other storylines in the Big 12 has been the private capital deal, and I mean basically nobody is is taking the the $30 million that would appear, at least right now. I mean, they have a year to fully decide on that. But you know, Houston is one of those schools that is not taking it, at least as of right now. What's what's the reality of like Houston's financial situation, like the NIL situation? Because within the last year we we see this, right? Passing on the 30 million, and then the other thing that comes to mind is like Kelvin Sampson obviously raised a lot of eyebrows back in in February when he said that uh that that Houston he was poor, I believe, was the term.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I believe poor was the term. Yeah, I was about to say, are you asking me or asking Kelvin?
SPEAKER_02Um, yeah, so I mean, what how do you see it? Like, where where is Houston financially right now?
SPEAKER_01Houston, I think, is making competitive offers from the guys they're getting. They're obviously maximizing. If you look at the transport class, you mentioned it ranks very well, uh, but they are pulling up a lot of mid-major guys. I mean, a big corner they're excited about is Jalen Mayo, who projects to be a pro potentially. He's 6'2. His pro football focus sources don't look real. He plays Stephen of Austin, which is an FCS school, but like he they don't look like they're physically possible. Uh great video at Stephen Foster, whatever that's worth. But he played at Stephen of Austin, right? And so like that kind of is the way Houston's done this thing as they rebuild it. Um, I will say though, that uh I think one of the reasons Eddie Nunez, and I should fully say on my own show, I said Houston should take this. It's $30 million when at a time when like you're trying to build the thing up because you don't know what the ceiling on Houston could be, right? Um, but Eddie Nunez pointed out, I think, accurately, Houston has not had a full share of the Big 12 yet as far as revenues go from the conference. Those kick in July 1st. And if you have a full calendar year, let's give this some time to kind of see what your books look like given some, you know, uh not free investment from but some no interest investment, right, from the conference. Um, and so that's the route they're taking. Um, I was frankly kind of like like, oh man, I what's in the agreement that I don't know? And then most of the conference has said no. Oh, so there must be something in this agreement that maybe wasn't as as lit up publicly. Um, because frankly, on the surface, uh, sure you got to pay interest back on it, but 30 million to you know just capital and bet interest back didn't feel horrible to me. I mean, you mentioned open for business. That feels like a fairly normal business deal if you can negotiate anything about the uh interest, I guess, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, it's sure it most of the reporting now it seems like the schools were not super enchanted with the interest rate, and that that's that's a lot of it. So I don't know, maybe that winds up coming down at some point. We'll see. Um, what is so I always I always botched his last name too, but uh Tillman for Tita for Tita Tita, for Tita, uh Tillman for Tita. Like what where I mean he obviously he's a guy who can donate plenty of money, right? I mean, a billionaire, like how how does he factor into all this and how much does he give? And like, because that's always been one of the interesting things to me from like a dichotomy standpoint is people you you have stuff like the Kelvin Sampson incident, and people speculate that there's not that much money to go around, but there is this high-profile billionaire who's obviously very close to everything going on.
SPEAKER_01Well, and his name's on the basketball stadium. Um his name's all over campus. He he owns the Rockets, he's an entertainment person. He did take a pretty big hit in the pandemic as far as his money is tied up into a bunch of different avenues that are entertainment, right? And things like casino boats and cruise lines maybe took a little bit of a hit, right, when that whole thing went down. Um, but I I think he was frankly with the football program at a very wait-and-see place because look, between the guys that they're bringing in and and the results on the field, I think he's much more in line with what Willie Fritz has done than the last guy. So that's what we'll say, right? Um, I think he feels much more connected to the and thinks that like this is working in a way feels more worth the investment than maybe things had been. Um, I believe the quote from Dana Hogerson in like early October as they were recruiting the 2024 class, or whatever that was, was that the ship had sailed and they were done with that class. And I don't think that that Fertito thought that kind of a thing was worth his money. Uh, and I think seeing this workout as meaning there's been more cash flow. Now he's not the only thing. You are in the city of Houston, you have you know all the oil money and that kind of stuff you're trying to tap into. Um, but Fertito himself is an alumni, and I think that's uh obviously a big, big help too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Dana was not shy about voicing his opinion on a couple of occasions, right? About what was going on there.
SPEAKER_00Great for our gigs, great for our gigs, not great for winning games.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. He was he was a content machine. All right, so are you feeling like uh 10 wins-ish to close this thing out? Your expectation level for Houston right now?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we mentioned the schedule. You have to go to Lubbock, you have to go to Salt Lake City, and those two teams I think will both be pretty good, even with the quarterback situation, Lubbock. I mean, that's a roster that's very talented. I have circled that at West Virginia is a tricky one because I think it's just a tricky place to play. Morgantown is kind of weird. Um, and then I don't know what to make of Kansas State. And so those are the four games that kind of see maybe you can tell me uh what to make of Kansas State. Um, they have to go on the road in that one too. So those are four roadies, though, that kind of stick in me at stick out to me as like, okay, those will be tough. Uh, you know, Kansas State walloped Houston a few years back in uh in Manhattan. Um, but then obviously Houston beat Kansas State pretty notable game a couple years ago as well.
SPEAKER_02And you killed Chris Klein, you ended the Chris Klein there with that game, I think.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it started the started the dominoes. So I think that honestly, it will kind of come down to you got a handful of wins, whether it's playing Georgia Southern, Southern, Oregon State in the non-conference. I Baylor is needing to rebuild. Cincinnati is is kind of at the front end of that too, it looks like to me. Oklahoma State, I think, is certainly going to be good, but I don't know if it's a year one kind of good. Um, so those are some games I think that Houston should feel confident about. It's that those four, if you go two and two in those four, you're looking at you know nine, ten wins-ish before you get into bowl season. The big thing to me is, and you're a full Big 12 guy, I wonder if nine or ten wins can get you into Arlington. I I wonder if this conference has the even keel of everyone kills each other kind of thing. Um, where you know, one of the two teams might have nine or ten wins. If Houston, you know, beats Utah, but Utah beats BYU, like how does the triangle of the next team set of teams work? Um I I think there's a chance that that second team in Arlington does have just nine or ten wins, and you're looking at okay, that could be us based on how things shake out. So um that's how I'm looking at the season. And then you win Arlington, it's a one-game sample, who knows what happens, right? All that kind of stuff. Um, but I I think people have a lot of reason to be optimistic. And I I'm fairly monotone, I mean to not be excited. I think people have reason to be optimistic about the Houston Cougars.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I'm with you. Uh, on the that's an interesting thought on the Big 12. It's kind of like I say old school, we're really just going back a a year, but before the tech and BYU emergence when everybody felt like, all right, well, they're separating. That was a thought every year, right? Like everyone's gonna beat each other up, it'll be totally random. We don't know. So yeah, no, no reason uh to me that Houston can't be one of the teams in in Arlington for sure. Make sure you go check out Locked On Coughts. Uh check out everything Parker is is doing there. I appreciate you, my friend. Uh hey, assuming Houston keeps keeps doing this, taking care of business. Uh I'm sure we'll be talking soon.