Tim Brando Tells a Great Willie Fritz Story and Houston’s Secret Sauce Comes Into Focus — Two Head Coach Coordinators, YAC Monster Amare Thomas and Caring About Everything

Tim Brando tried to get a little rise out of Willie Fritz during their pregame production meeting, one old school football guy to another. “In our meetings, I even said to him, ‘It’s OK to tell them, ‘By God you need to show up at these games,’ ” Brando says. “He said, ‘I know. I’m working on it, I’m trying to get better on social media. My wife and kids are helping.’

“He’s so down home and so humble that you almost think this guy can’t be real in today’s environment.”

Fritz is for real and so is his University of Houston football team. These Cougars are one of the best two-loss teams in the country, arguably the second best two-loss team behind Alabama. Saturday’s 31-24 win over Cincinnati is further confirmation of just how explosive this now 7-2 and 14th ranked Houston team is when quarterback Conner Weigman is anywhere close to healthy. If Amare Thomas isn’t turning short passes into touchdowns, Re’Shaun Sanford II is ripping off a 51-yard touchdown run to take the lead for good. With Thomas throwing a key block to help spring him.

Even Brando’s good-natured point about Houston football attendance is not something that comes into play on this perfect weather first November Saturday in Houston, with the crowd good enough. Besides revealing just how much concern Fritz puts into everything. Can you imagine Nick Saban admitting that he’s working to get better on social media?

“He’s probably as even handed and as broad minded about the game,” Brando tells PaperCity. “He doesn’t just coach offense or defense. He coaches special teams really hard. And allows his coaches, his coordinators, to have the autonomy to feel like that they can make the decisions they need to make.”

Against Cincinnati that saw UH defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong turn up the pressure early with the Cougars getting seven quarterback hits and Quindario Lee picking up his first sack ever for Houston. While offensive coordinator Slade Nagle used the pass to set up the run — and a last 18 minutes of the game rushing takeover.

Brando argues that Houston’s two coordinators, and Fritz’s faith in them, are part of Houston’s secret sauce.

“He’s got two head coaches, in my opinion, as coordinators,” Brando tells PaperCity. ” And they’ve stayed with him because they know that this job as an assistant is probably better than a lot of other head coach opportunities you might get at a smaller school.

“I believe both — Nagle, he and Armstrong both — I believe both of them could be head coaches really, really soon. But they’d be very wise to stay where they are until that bigger opportunity comes.”

Watching Amare Thomas play football is an opportunity in itself. Houston’s 6-foot, 205-pound receiver sniffs out touchdowns with the accuracy of a bloodhound. He gets two more against Cincinnati, creating much of the magic himself. On his 31-yard touchdown catch, Thomas takes the shortest of swing passes and makes two Bearcats miss, accounting for the last 30 yards himself.

This is a YAC (yards after catch) monster. Thomas has more moves than John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, making defenders miss or grasp at air on the regular. This receiver is harder to pin down than a tech titan testifying in front of Congress.

“He runs with power,” Fritz says of Thomas. “He does a really good job of triangulating the ball. We had that happen one time where there’s four guys trying to strip him of the ball. So he’s really good at yards after the catch. Which is huge. Some guys catch it and they catch it at 12 (yards), they get 12 (yards).

“He can catch it at 12 and get 60.”

“He’s got two head coaches, in my opinion, as coordinators. And they’ve stayed with him because they know that this job as an assistant is probably better than a lot of other head coach opportunities you might get at a smaller school. I believe both — Nagle, he and Armstrong both — I believe both of them could be head coaches really, really soon.” — Fox Sports’ Tim Brando

The Touchdown Makers Club

Thomas may be the greatest single example of UH general manager Wes Fritz and Willie Fritz’s roster building success in identifying and targeting Group of 5 players who the think can excel on a higher level. Houston found Thomas at UAB in the American Athletic Conference and now he’s scored 20 touchdowns (and counting) in his two seasons at UH, emerging as a hot NFL Draft prospect.

Re’Shaun Sanford II is another touchdown maker. Somehow, even after two ACL surgeries, the 5-foot-8 back remains one of the fastest men on almost every college football field he steps onto. Add tight end Patrick Overymyer hauling in a 43-yard strike from Weigman in his return from the apparent concussion that knocked him out of the Utah loss and you have playmakers galore.

Better yet, Willie Fritz’s club of touchdown creators all seem to genuinely like and root for each other.

“I think a lot of people sleep on that part of his game,” Sanford says of Amare Thomas’ YAC monster ways. “But I really do like the fact that he can take the ball behind the line of scrimmage and then go score from wherever he wants on the field. He’s just really good at that.

“And it just looks so easy for him. And I feel like that’s a gift. He’s really gifted. He’s really special. And he does it all the time.”

Thomas may be the most soft spoken killer in college football. Off the field, you have to sometimes strain to hear what he’s saying during his media sessions. But on it, he rips teams hearts out in a matter of seconds.

The YAC monster thanks offensive coordinator Slade Nagle for calling that little pass for him that he turns into a touchdown. But Thomas does note he scored on the play consistently in practice during the Cincinnati prep, making the guys miss he needed to make miss.

“As a receiver you’ve got to make the best of your opportunities,” Thomas says with a smile. “Whenever it comes. So in my head, every time I touch it, I’m trying to score.”

And some people think this Houston team isn’t exciting?

Weigman does not have to rescue the Coogs on a day when Fritz’s team rushes for 153 yards in the second half and 241 for the game. But his precision passing early helps stake UH to a 14-0 lead. The 23-yard pass to Trent Walker on third-and-10 deep in Houston’s own territory is a thing of beauty with Weigman fitting it in between two levels of coverage.

That’s seven wins for this latest version of Willie Ball, putting UH three wins away from posting consecutive 10 wins season for the first time ever in its 80 year football history, And maybe three wins from happy Big 12 chaos if Texas Tech and Arizona can both stumble at least once in their last three games.

Tim Brando sees Willie Fritz’s fingerprints all over it all.

“He’s doing the same thing here he did at Tulane,” Brando says. “The same thing he did when he was at smaller schools prior to that. He just has a system in place where he knows how to win in every aspect.”

The 70-year-old Brando is the dean of college football TV voices these days in many ways. And one of the few who has no use for any manufactured BS. He sees something similar in the 66-year-old Fritz. Brando might try to get a little rise out of Fritz when he can, knowing he’ll probably fail at that. But learn something all the same.

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