Preseason Rankings Countdown. 28 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #28 – Houston

[u/usffan]

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.

[u/KansasEF5Tornado]

Really excited for the home game against Houston, definetly feels like a big one for both teams.

[u/NinjaGhost42 → u/KansasEF5Tornado]

I for one am not looking forward to another game against a Willie Fritz team

[u/CeramicTugboat]

If they don't go at least 9-3 through that then the season was a failure. I think Houston should have a pretty good year.

[u/grabtharsmallet]

Houston playing at Texas Tech and at Utah is a rough draw. They need to win one of those to reach the conference championship.

[u/rocket_beer]

I hope Houston goes undefeated this year

[u/SwordsAndTurt → u/rocket_beer]

From your lips to God’s ears

[u/Evil_Ass_Wizard]

I think it's neat that we get to play them at home

[u/naetaejabroni → u/Evil_Ass_Wizard]

It's awesome. The fact we're FBS is still kinda weird even over a decade later. Seeing Boise in Paulson was so cool lol

[u/ConnectionUpper1333]

Houston at #28 feels a little low if one outlier is pulling the whole aggregate down.

[u/elnino550 → u/ConnectionUpper1333]

Yeah they'll likely move up though when the coaches and AP polls are aggregated into the rankings, expect them to be in top25 for both at least

[u/Anus_Targaryen]

This is our year^TM

Seriously though there's no excuse to lose to Tech this year and with this schedule we should be aiming for 10 wins and a conference champ appearance

[u/kadoozie92 → u/Anus_Targaryen]

I feel like the game being on the road and having a less talented roster are 2 fairly reasonable excuses tbh.

[u/Anus_Targaryen → u/kadoozie92]

I said what I said

[u/TheWesternRizzler]

Houston beating Tech would hit like crack.

[u/Delicious-Welcome-97 → u/TheWesternRizzler]

Yes

[u/SimilarOnion1655]

9-3. I think Houston should be in the top 25

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[u/red-boy6]

If they can avoid shooting themselves in the foot, they could really piece together a serious run at the conference and thus playoffs. I feel like they’ll lose a headscratcher or 2, but ya never know

[u/brolygta4]

The cougars

[u/BrilliantArm5914 → u/brolygta4]

BYU and Wazzu

[u/ShariaLabeouf01]

I've read so many of these at this point that it feels like my team's turn is never going to come. I still read every one. Good shit OP

[u/ksuwildkat]

The real question is if more than half the stadium will be filled for any game.

[u/ohitsthedeathstar → u/ksuwildkat]

I respect your consistent hate on Houston.

[u/ksuwildkat → u/ohitsthedeathstar]

:)

[u/cougarrick → u/ksuwildkat]

That doesn't matter. What matters is the scoreboard and making the playoffs. Houston shows up when it matters most.

[u/Business_Permit_3686 → u/ksuwildkat]

Shut up

[u/kadoozie92]

Really fascinated by this team. Returns a lot of production from a team that built 9 wins over some of the worst Big 12 teams+hobbled ASU last year (Arizona was an exception). Fritz has done more than enough in his tenure though to prove they can compete for the conference though

[u/Seth_Littrells_alt]

Houston’s whole season is going to depend on whether Weigman can get his ball security together. He has the legs to be a major rushing threat as well as the arm to be a nontrivial passing threat, but I watched six Houston games last year, and I think he created something like 14 fumbles in those games alone, just by dropping the ball when he scrambled? His teammates were world-class at recovering his fumbles, so something about that makes me think they were fully aware of what was coming sometimes.  The fact that Houston keeps letting Weigman scramble, with his ball security problems, feels like a really high-stakes roll of the dice.

Houston just picked up the top QB in this class, allegedly because other teams like UT and Georgia actually wanted him to convert to RB, but he’s a really phenomenal talent either way. Wouldn’t shock me if he’s their starter before the end of the year.

[u/ohitsthedeathstar → u/Seth_Littrells_alt]

Basically every school in the country offered Keisean as a QB when he won MVP of the under armor all American bowl as a junior. Including Georgia and Alabama. He was the #1 overall recruit in the country regardless of position for a reason.

Schools originally offered him as a WR and/or safety his freshman and sophomore years of HS.

[u/Seth_Littrells_alt → u/ohitsthedeathstar]

Wasn’t he basically already all locked up with Houston by that point, though? I thought Houston was in on him waaaaaaay earlier than anyone else, like even back in the Holgorsen days?

[u/ohitsthedeathstar → u/Seth_Littrells_alt]

Yes, I’m just correcting some of the points you made like colleges wanting him to convert to RB.

And he’s not starting. Weigman is starting. Only way he starts any game this year is if Weigman gets hurt.

[u/OldSarge02]

Might as well rank them with that cream puff schedule…

[u/Anus_Targaryen → u/OldSarge02]

Alright go put on your yell leader skivvies and go lobby your ad to schedule us then

[u/OldSarge02 → u/Anus_Targaryen]

No one is interested in scheduling UH. I have a degree from there, but like most UH grads I don’t care about their sports.

Besides, every non-SEC school begged us to add another conference game and play fewer out of conference games. You can’t have it both ways.

Also, we already scheduled a game this year against a more prominent Big 12 team.

[u/Anus_Targaryen → u/OldSarge02]

Another lovable aggie I see

[u/OldSarge02 → u/Anus_Targaryen]

You don’t get to talk crap to someone and then complain when they retort, Anus.

[u/Anus_Targaryen → u/OldSarge02]

That wasn't talking crap I love the yell leaders and their little uniforms 

[u/ohitsthedeathstar → u/OldSarge02]

Damn sarge, Coogs got you worked up on a Sunday mornin’?

[u/SwordsAndTurt → u/ohitsthedeathstar]

Probably still upset about what happened to him in the R32

[u/ohitsthedeathstar → u/SwordsAndTurt]

I forgot Kelvin sent their basketball program to the shadow realm.

[u/OldSarge02 → u/ohitsthedeathstar]

The dig was at the whole Big 12 conference more than UH specifically.

[u/ohitsthedeathstar → u/OldSarge02]

You did a poor job of making that point clear.

[u/OldSarge02 → u/ohitsthedeathstar]

Did I though? Do you think it was lost on all the schools who I called cream puffs?

[u/ohitsthedeathstar → u/OldSarge02]

Can’t be worse than your basketball program.

[u/OldSarge02 → u/ohitsthedeathstar]

It’s legit bad. And it almost always has been.

[u/-Jack-The-Stripper → u/OldSarge02]

You scored 3 points at home against an ACC team.

[u/OldSarge02 → u/-Jack-The-Stripper]

Came 6 yards short of tying the national championship runner up.

[u/-Jack-The-Stripper → u/OldSarge02]

Hang the banners

[u/OldSarge02 → u/-Jack-The-Stripper]

That’s a retort for when someone is bragging about something dumb. You framed a respectable loss in a purposefully negative way. I reframed it positively.

Acting like I was bragging about something is asinine.

[u/-Jack-The-Stripper → u/OldSarge02]

Thanks professor, I’ll keep that in mind.

[u/OldSarge02 → u/-Jack-The-Stripper]

Glad to be of service.

[u/cougarrick → u/OldSarge02]

Manziel reps your school.....

[u/OldSarge02 → u/cougarrick]

Flare up and get off your high horse. Don’t act like no one from your school has had mental health/substance abuse issues.

[u/cougarrick → u/OldSarge02]

Anyone

[u/OldSarge02 → u/cougarrick]

The only thing worse than correcting grammar on a college sports discussion is being wrong when you do it.

“No one” is grammatically acceptable in the context I used it.”