Cougars open No. 23 vs. Oregon State, Walker faces old team
Houston opens its highest-ranked preseason slate since 2016 at home against the Oregon State team it beat in overtime last year — and now has that team's best receiver.
Weigman's zip is real, and Houston is No. 23 because of it
Houston's No. 23 preseason ranking is its best since 2016, the year the Cougars beat two Top 5 teams and finished 9-3, and Willie Fritz has spent camp saying the reason is on his quarterback's arm. "I see more zip on the ball, a little more distance when he throws it," Fritz said of Conner Weigman, who is in Fritz's scheme for a second straight year — the first time since high school he's had the same system in back-to-back seasons. Weigman piled up 3,405 yards of total offense last season and was named to the Manning Award watch list on August 25, one of 8 Big 12 quarterbacks on it alongside BYU's Bear Bachmeier and Arizona's Noah Fifita.
Weigman isn't getting ahead of himself. "We've got to build off it and not live off it," he said in camp, adding that "we're going into Week 1 0-0." Behind him sits five-star freshman Keisean Henderson, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2026 class, as the primary backup, with Syracuse transfer Luke Carney as the emergency arm. On tape, Yahoo Sports' Day 5 fall camp recap had Weigman hitting senior receiver Amare Thomas for a touchdown and uncorking a nearly 50-yard strike to sophomore Koby Young. Fritz kept all three coordinators — Slade Nagle on offense, Austin Armstrong on defense, Chris Couch on special teams — for a second straight year, and that continuity, plus transfer running back Makhi Hughes, is why Houston returns 12 starters into a team this settled.
Walker faces the team he tortured for 103 yards, in a Cougars uniform
This is not a cold rematch. Houston trailed Oregon State by 14 points inside the final six minutes last September 26 before rallying to win 27-24 in overtime, Ethan Sanchez's 24-yard field goal sealing it after Oregon State's own late kick attempt was blocked. Trent Walker caught for 103 yards that night for the Beavers. Four months later, in January, he entered the transfer portal and landed at Houston, where he now projects as the Cougars' No. 2 receiver behind Amare Thomas — lining up this week against the only program he's ever beaten and lost to on the same field.
This season, Arizona, Houston, Indiana, Kansas State, Nebraska, Penn State, Texas Tech, USC and Washington are the only Power 4 teams not playing at least 10 Power 4 opponents or Notre Dame.
Walker has been careful about how he talks about it. "I have nothing but love for Oregon State University and some of my best friends are over there, so I'm excited to see them," he said this week, before drawing the line: "I'm a Cougar for 2026 and I'm excited for the season to get going." The team he left has been rebuilt around replacing him — Oregon State fired its staff after a 2-10 season and hired JaMarcus Shephard, who makes his head-coaching debut Saturday with Mercer transfer Braden Atkinson, the reigning FCS Jerry Rice Award winner, at quarterback over incumbent Maalik Murphy. Shephard has called Atkinson's ball placement pro-level; Saturday he finds out what it looks like against the receiver who used to burn his own program for a living.
Last season ended on a three-game swing that closed with a statement
Houston closed last season with no rhythm at all: a loss to West Virginia 35-45, a win at UCF 30-27, a loss to TCU 14-17, a win at Baylor 31-24, and then a 38-35 win over LSU on December 28 to finish the year. It was a team capable of both directions inside the same month, and ending on a road win over an SEC name is part of why the preseason buzz around this team feels earned rather than borrowed.
That's the case Fritz has made all camp — the pieces were already good enough to beat LSU in December, and now they're running it back with more continuity than this program has had in years. A team that finished last season on a win over LSU and returns its quarterback into the same scheme is a defensible reason for a No. 23 ranking, even before Saturday tells anybody anything real.
Houston opens as a 20.5-point favorite over a first-year coach's debut
Houston opened this morning vs. Oregon State favored by 20.5 points, with the total set at 50.5 — a number that reads more like a market unsure how a rebuilt Beavers team under a brand-new coach will hold up than a statement about Houston's offense. Oregon State went 2-10 a season ago and lost 8-32 at Washington to finish it, and Saturday is the first game action for Shephard's staff and for Atkinson at the FBS level.
For Houston, it's the first real look at whether the camp buzz translates — Weigman against a defense he's never seen, Walker against the program that raised him, and a roster that returns 12 starters trying to open at No. 23 the way it hasn't in a decade. Kickoff is at 11 a.m. at TDECU Stadium.