Houston Roommates Shadre Hurst & Makhi Hughes, Candied Yams and the Offensive Line Makeover — Inside the Biggest Willie Fritz Year 3 Transformation

Two of the bigger investments that Willie Fritz’s University of Houston football program made in its Big 12 championship push are roommates. Shadre Hurst, the 6-foot-2, 300-plus pound offensive lineman who moves mountains, and Makhi Hughes, the punishing running back who runs through contact, live together just like they once did at Tulane.

And Hurst and Hughes’ place has become something of a gathering spot for the revamped unit Houston’s followup season hinges on, the emphasis of the offseason in many ways, the offensive line.

“We went to Shadre’s house and him and his girlfriend cooked up for all of us,” starting left tackle Alvin Ebosele tells PaperCity. “I’m going to remember that meal for the rest of my life, Bro. It was so good.”

Shadre Hurst’s menu consisted of wings, burgers, hot dogs, candied yams, mac n’ cheese and more, a bounty worthy of the hulking men who so much hinges on this season. “It felt like Thanksgiving, for real,” Ebosele laughs. “It was so good.” With Makhi Hughes chipping in and being the sous chef Hurst needed.

“I’ve always been a big fan of him,” Hurst says of Hughes. “I know what he can do.”

Everyone else is about to find out as Houston’s biggest offseason emphasis is set to take the field together for the first time in UH’s season opener against Oregon State at 11 am Saturday at the school’s TDECU Stadium (ESPN). From even before that Texas Bowl triumph sealed a breakthrough, hope-building 10 win season, Wille Fritz, his son and UH general manager Wes Fritz and the rest of the Cougar football braintrust knew improving the offensive line stood out as the No. 1 imperative.

Returning quarterback starter Conner Weigman cannot take the same pounding he took last season. Weigman cannot be forced to carry the offense with his legs as often as did in that 2025 magic man season. Not if this Houston team is going to get where it really wants to go — to Arlington for the Big 12 Championship Game on December 4, to the College Football Playoff.

“It was a big emphasis for us,” UH offensive coordinator Slade Nagle says. “We lost a couple of good players for us (on the offensive line) and we replaced them with some guys. I think we’ve improved athletically in some spots. And I think we have some guys who have played quality football and like playing. And they’re tough. And hungry. And all that stuff.”

That is the stuff Shadre Hurst is all about. Hurst’s station in the the sprawling weight room in Houston’s still barely a year-old $130 million Memorial Hermann Football Operations Center is right in the front. Fitting for one of the only men in college football who can turn weight training into a spectator sport.

Hurst’s near 700-pound squats cause his teammates, high-level athletes themselves who long ago grew immune to most feats of strength, to turn into wide-eyed kids again. Oohing and ahhing, hollering in glee and gathering around to see.

“He’s a freak in the weight room,” Conner Weigman says. “I feel like every single day we’ve got the whole team watching his rack, seeing him lift some absurd amount of weight.”

“I think Anthony Boswell has great leadership skill. I think the guys have gravitated to him and follow him a lot. You know that helps because he’s the guy making all the calls to start everything every play.” — UH offensive coordinator Slade Nagle

A Targeted Offensive Line Makeover

This is an offensive line that is determined to lift this UH offense higher. To demand more of each other — and everyone around them.

“You’ve got to score every drive or Alvin’s going to have something to say,” Weigman laughs of his left tackle. “So score points every drive and you’ll keep Alvin happy.”

Weigman marvels over his new center Anthony Boswell’s athletic ability. This is a 300-pounder who can move. “Just being able to get to the second level,” the quarterback details. “Being able to go get linebackers on run plays. He’s going to be elite at that.” Nagle sees Boswell already emerging as one of the vocal leaders of this retooled offensive line.

“I think Anthony Boswell has great leadership skills,” Nagle tells PaperCity. “I think the guys have gravitated to him and follow him a lot. You know that helps because he’s the guy making all the calls to start everything every play.”

The Fritzes purposefully targeted Hurst, who they knew from their Tulane days, and other experienced, proven offensive linemen in the portal. This season of super promise is not a time for reclamation projects. Hurst and his 2,500-plus college snaps, Boswell and his 403 pass blocking snaps in his one season at Toledo (with no sacks allowed) and right tackle Drew Terrill and his 908 snaps at Miami of Ohio all signed with the Cougars. They joined Ebosele and returning right guard McKenzie Agnello.

Now they’re Weigman’s warriors. The guys who will determine how well the new offensive weapons — Makhi Hughes, receiver Trent Walker and tight end Patrick Overmyer — do in many ways.

“We put a lot of effort into how we’re doing our run blocking,” Ebosele says. “We’ve got some good schemes going, We’re hammering in all the fundamentals and all the complex things as well. We’re going to be multiple dimensional. We’re not just going to be like a one run kind of team. We’re going to be adaptable.

“We’ve got something for every situation.”

This is the type of confidence that runs through this entire Fritz team. It’s not an outwardly braggy confidence. But it’s not actually a quiet one either. It is there, apparent in everything these Cougars do, if you just watch and listen.

Ebosele comes across as a curious guy, a thinker, and you sense he’s as eager to see what this priority one offensive line shows, what they start putting on tape against Oregon State, as much as anybody. Nagle has added to the playbook, eager to build on not only having Weigman back for year two in this system but an offensive line that is more built for this.

“I think we’ve improved athletically,” Nagle says. “They’re very experienced and played a lot of football. We’re pretty strong at the point of attack even though maybe we’re not quite as big in stature. But I think we’ve got good play strength. I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be exciting. We’ve got more depth than we had last year.”

That depth includes Hayden Wright, a 6-foot-5 Northwestern transfer and Kingwood High School product who’s come back home.

To Alvin Ebosele, the guy thinks this offense should score every drive, it is a rather simple equation.

“Coach Nagle and Coach (Eman) Naghavi say it all the time. ‘If we can protect Conner, he’ll win us games,” Ebosele says. “I mean he’s a guy we’re relying on. We’ve got absolute faith in him. We know he can take us over the top. As long as we do what we’ve got to do for him.”

This offensive line rebuild drove the offseason in many ways. Now it’s time to see the results. One snap, one protection, at a time.