What Houston’s head coach said after facing BYU

While his team may have fallen to BYU in the regular season finale, Houston head coach Willie Fritz was plenty impressed with the scene in Provo Saturday night.
“It was really good crowd,” Fritz said after the game. “They were loud and they got us early in the game, I think, with jumping (offsides) one time. It’s a really, really nice atmosphere and a beautiful stadium.”
Houston defensive end Brandon Mack agreed with Fritz’s assessment of LaVell Edwards Stadium.
“It was crazy, it felt like an SEC atmosphere … Even though we’re (visitors), I feel like it just gives us energy, even though our backs (are) against the wall and they’re not cheering for us, the energy just makes us want to play harder.”
In his first year at the helm in Houston, Fritz’s Cougars went 4-8 and finished 12th out of 16 Big 12 teams. He had previously compiled a 111-69 record across 14 Division I seasons at Sam Houston State, Georgia Southern and Tulane.
“I think this is a very balanced conference. It’s a very well-coached conference,” Fritz said of the Big 12. “For me, there’s a lot different than where I came from.
“Everything is pretty darn good. This season we needed to bring our A-game, and we just didn’t do that enough. We’re just going to have to do a good job with recruiting, I’m going to have to do a great job in hiring a (new) offensive coordinator and make sure that we take steps forward.”
Against BYU, Houston refused to go down quietly and trailed by just six points late into the fourth quarter, only to come up short in a 30-18 affair.
The Cougars in red forced three turnovers but committed four of their own, along with only posting 250 yards of offense and averaging just 2.5 yards per carry on the ground.
“One of the things you saw is that we we played hard the whole time,” Fritz said of his team’s effort against BYU. “You know, we’re finishing a year 4-8 and a lot of teams would have given up a long time ago, but our guys never did, and I’m proud of that, and I think that’s a reflection on the program.”