Houston’s first two seasons in the Big XII Conference have not gone well.The Cougars hope that their second season under head coach Willie Fritz will feature improvement.They’ll get their first indication when they host in-state FCS Stephen F. Austin in their season opener Thursday night.”We have very high expectations,” Fritz said. “Season goals are great, but our first goal is to be successful on Thursday night. I think guys sometimes look ahead too much. I’ll know a lot more about our ball club after Thursday night.”The Cougars have finished 4-8 overall each of the last two seasons and were 3-6 in the league last season.Houston ranked 128th out of 133 FBS teams in total offense, averaging 288.1 yards. Fritz is counting on quarterback Conner Weigman, who spent the last three seasons at Texas A&M, to help improve that number significantly.Fritz leaned heavily on the transfer portal to try to get a significant boost this season.”Our slogan this year is Houston 2025,” Fritz said. “In this day and age every year is going to be a little different. I hope we have a lot of continuity but we’re just worried about this team this year.”The Lumberjacks finished 7-5 last season after quarterback Sam Vidlak came over from Montana and led an offense that averaged 35.6 points per game, eighth best in the FCS.
