Inside Houston’s Viral Slab Football Entrance, Amare Thomas’ Baddest Receiver In College Football Push and Surprising Pressure Points

It starts with college football’s best team walkout intro in a long time, and certainly the most truly Houston one ever, with the University of Houston football players following a vintage candy red slab sedan down the tunnel into the stadium. With its swangas rims spinning all the way, the beat going strong and the smoke swirling. It effectively ends when Amare Thomas goes up and makes a catch over and almost off the shoulder of Oregon State cornerback Sailasa Vadrawale III while falling backwards to the turf. Vadrawale is all over Thomas and it absolutely does not matter.

A Sweet Slab and Stunning Skill. Not bad for openers. This is a feel-good day at the University of Houston with Houston Mayor John Whitmire just one of the proud Cougars thoroughly enjoying themselves at a sauna-like TDECU Stadium. Houston 33, Oregon State 20 is not close to perfect, but openers can be as fraught with as many unexpected booby traps as a Bill Simmons podcast these days.

And on a college football Saturday when Texas Tech and its check-down happy quarterback Will Hammond hardly looked impressive in a 33-10 win over FCS Abilene Christian and Michigan needed a highly controversial final (extra) second Hail Mary to beat Western Michigan by a point, UH’s own W looks more than fine. Maybe even a little divine when you consider how workmanlike it is.

When’s the last time UH football went into a season of super promise and took care of business against a team it’s better than with little drama? When’s the last time Houston pulled off one of the best game production afternoons in the sport with people around the country charged up by its innovation?

Both actually happened on this same Saturday afternoon. If you cannot enjoy that at least a little, you just may not actually like sports. Or Houston things.

New University of Houston on-field intro with players coming out behind a vintage red slab before running onto the field. A little dash of Houston worthy theatrics for the new season. pic.twitter.com/N7jf8IBuOl

— Chris Baldwin (@ChrisYBaldwin) September 5, 2026

There is no car and hip-hop culture like Houston’s car and hip-hop culture. And there are few receivers in the college game like Amare Thomas. UH’s 6-foot, 208-pound touchdown maker is so tough that even his defensive teammates are almost ready to claim him.

“There’s always going to be a little beef between offense and defense,” UH senior linebacker Latreveon McCutchin says when I ask about Thomas’ toughness. “But he’s one of the few guys who I can maybe say’s got some defensive toughness.”

Thomas meets the most stringent definition of toughness. He spins out of one tackle and breaks another on the way to Houston’s first touchdown of the new season. Then with Houston’s lead down 26-20 and the Cougars facing a crucial third-and-6 with 6:21 left in the fourth quarter — a do or don’t moment — quarterback Conner Weigman throws up a deep ball near the sideline and trusts Amare Thomas to go make the damn play.

Thomas does, right over that cornerback. And the Beavers are essentially done. Out fought and out skilled on a telling play. By Amare. Agent Zero in your program.

“It’s just really good to have Amare,” running back Re’Shaun Sanford II says. “It’s just really good to have him.”

Amare Thomas when Houston needed him most 🔥 pic.twitter.com/wdzlbm9EUN

— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) September 5, 2026

Thomas finishes with six catches for 133 yards and while showing he’s gotten even stronger this offseason. And on a day when UH’s new running back tandem of Oregon (and Tulane) transfer Makhi Hughes (98 yards on 17 carries) and Re’Shaun Sanford (a 56-yard touchdown where he nearly reaches a 21 MPH sprint speed, this after coming back from two ACL reconstructions) power the Cougars to 228 rushing yards overall (including 133 in a dominant second quarter), Conner Weigman still throws for 305 yards.

An Opener That’s Houston

It’s good to be explosive. And it’s even better to be of Houston. Part of a city that you don’t need to be born in to completely appreciate.

Just ask Kelvin Sampson, who holds court on the Houston football sideline, pumping his university up in an in-game ESPN interview. Or Tank Dell, who knows UH is the place where he can always be himself and forget about any stress about starting his comeback NFL season on injured reserve for a few hours. Or Whitmire, the mayor who credits UH with giving him a chance to make something of himself.

“UH gave an opportunity,” Whitmire tells PaperCity. “I came out of high school, went to community college two years, working, transferred to UH. I owe everything to UH for giving me a degree and encouraging me to have a public service career.”

Few colleges anywhere are as linked to their city as the University of Houston. This isn’t a college town with college students and townies who seldom truly cross paths. It is a university that’s part of the fourth largest city in the country, smack dab in the middle of the Third Ward. Willie Fritz’s players, many of them with deep Houston ties, feel that. Love that.

This why the slab intro hits so hard in the best ways. It’s Houston down to the core and these Cougars don’t care who outside the city does not get that.

“Slab. Houston’s like the same vibe,” Re’Shaun Sanford says. “I thought that was really cool. I definitely think it got fired up. I think our attendance is doing a lot better. We’ve still need to get better in that aspect. But I looked around and did see a lot of fans. . .

“I thought that was really cool and something to build on.”

A Sweet Slab and Stunning Skill. Not bad for openers.

The official announced attendance is 28,742 with more than 6,600 student tickets among that, UH athletic department officials tell PaperCity. It is something to grow on with a more reasonable 6 pm kickoff against Southern coming this Saturday. But the next real true indicator will be that October 3 home game against UCF when the temperatures are hopefully a little more temperate, the stakes are higher and the No. 23 ranked team in the land’s had more time to show what it’s all about. Maybe, if things go right and the Big 12 office listens to athletic director Eddie Nuñez’s arguments, in a prime time window.

What’s next for the slab (which stands for slow, loud and bangin’ for the uninitiated) tunnel entrances? Why not have Bun B, or Kelvin Sampson or Case Keenum (on a Chicago Bears bye week) drive the car into the stadium in front of the team? The possibilities for upping this are endless.

“I said I’ve seen them, I get it,” Nuñez tells PaperCity of the slab, which he completely credits the UH athletic marketing department for (without mentioning that he rebuilt that department). “And they said, ‘Oh no, that’s Houston.’ Well then we did a good thing. It goes back to Built by Houston and the whole city and how it plays a big part in everything.”

Earned UH Football Buzz

It’s been a long time since UH football’s had this kind of excitement on and off the field. Tom Herman had the H-Town Takeover in 2015, but that sometimes seemed as much about selling a vision of Tom Herman as selling Houston. This feels different with Fritz, future Hall of Famer Kelvin Sampson in basketball, UH chancellor Renu Khator and Nuñez all pushing together.

When it feels like more than a one-off, you can actually plan for the future. As the university prepares to celebrate its centennial.

If this UH defense can put this kind of pressure on opposing quarterbacks every week and the secondary gets more on the same page, the in-season growth plan is clearly there. Unleashed to rush the passer more, Tulane transfer Javion White gets two sacks and Oregon transfer Ashton Porter and four-year Cougar Latreveon McCutchin add one each to disrupt underrated Oregon State QB Braden Atkinson just enough.

“There’s always going to be a little beef between offense and defense. But (Amare Thomas) is one of the few guys who I can maybe say’s got some defensive toughness.” — UH senior linebacker Latreveon McCutchin 

And then there’s Amare Thomas when you need to close. When it’s all about outfighting a cornerback for the football.

“He’s bigger than you think,” Fritz says of his lifeline receiver. “He’s almost 210 pounds. He’s got great strength. He does a good job of using his off arm as a weapon, not allowing people to get to him and stiff arming him.”

It turns out that Thomas’ fight and toughness spreads too. For fellow receiver Koby Young manages to make a 47-yard catch while an Oregon State defensive back interferes with him. The yellow penalty flag flies and Young still makes the grab.

A Sweet Slab and Stunning Skill. Not bad for openers.