No. 23 preseason ranking greets a healthier Weigman
Houston opened fall camp with its highest preseason ranking since 2016 and a quarterback who says the zip is finally back — a nice problem to have before the Beavers even show up.
Weigman looks sharper, and the polls noticed
CFBKings flagged it on August 17: Houston's No. 23 preseason ranking is its best in a preseason poll since 2016, the year the Cougars beat two Top 5 teams and finished 9-3. That context matters because this is not a program used to being ranked before it has played a snap, and fall camp gave the number some backing. Head coach Willie Fritz has spent camp raving about Conner Weigman, telling reporters, "I see more zip on the ball, a little more distance when he throws it. It's the first time since high school he's been in the same system." A senior quarterback finally running it back in the same offense is the kind of thing that shows up on the stat sheet before it shows up in a poll.
Weigman himself is not getting carried away by any of it. "We've got to build off it and not live off it," he said during camp, adding, per SI.com's Houston coverage, that "we're going into Week 1 0-0" and that the group is "in a good spot right now." It is the right instinct for a team with a record that says nothing yet — the ranking buys attention, not results, and the Cougars still have to go win a season opener to make any of it mean something.
Last season ended on a three-game run that swung both ways
Houston closed last season by beating LSU 38-35 on December 28, capping a stretch that had no rhythm to it at all. The Cougars lost to West Virginia 35-45, then won at UCF 30-27, dropped one to TCU 14-17, won at Baylor 31-24, and finished with that shootout over LSU. It was a team capable of both directions inside the same month, and how last season actually ended — on a high, on the road against an SEC name — is part of why the preseason buzz feels earned rather than borrowed.
That kind of finish is exactly the case Fritz has been making all camp: the pieces were already good enough to win a game like that in December, and now they are running it back with more continuity than Houston has had in years. A team that beat LSU to close last season and returns its quarterback into the same scheme is a defensible reason for a No. 23 ranking, even before Week 1 tells anybody anything real.
Recent News
Covers' injury table lists two Cougars as Out heading into fall camp's final stretch: wide receiver M. Tounkara with a foot injury reported Tuesday, August 11, and tight end L. McGary with a shoulder injury reported the same day. Covers notes team officials have not given a return timetable for Tounkara, and McGary is out for an undetermined length of time — both are stated as fact by the aggregator, not sourced to Fritz or the school directly.
Neither is disclosed as season-ending, but both being out this deep into camp means neither is likely to be full-go by the opener. It is worth watching whether either resurfaces on a depth chart in the next two weeks, since an Out this close to Week 1 with no timetable usually means a slow ramp back rather than a quick one.
A first-year coach's rebuild opens against a ranked team
Houston hosts Oregon State on September 5 vs. Oregon State at TDECU Stadium, and the Beavers arrive mid-rebuild under first-year head coach JaMarcus Shephard, hired away from Alabama's staff last November. Shephard just settled his own quarterback race, naming Braden Atkinson — a transfer who threw 34 touchdowns at Mercer a year ago — the starter over incumbent Maalik Murphy and Western Michigan transfer Brady Jones. Oregon State's opponent form shows exactly what kind of season they are trying to climb out of: a 32-8 loss at Washington to close out last season.
The number reflects that gap. Houston opened as a 20.5-point favorite, and the total was set at 50.5 — a middling figure for a game this lopsided on paper, suggesting the market expects points from the home side more than a shootout. A ranked team breaking in a proven quarterback against a rebuilding staff breaking in a new one is about as clean a season-opening measuring stick as either program could ask for.