Reports: Tulane’s Willie Fritz ‘closing in’ on deal with Houston

Just before kickoff of Saturday’s American Athletic Conference championship game, multiple outlets were reporting that Tulane head coach Willie Fritz is “closing in” on a deal to become the new coach at the University of Houston.

The Houston Chronicle and The Athletic are reporting the imminent deal.

Source: UH closing in on hiring Tulane's Willie Fritz as next football coach https://t.co/qPicRdwEkV via @houstonchron

— Joseph Duarte (@Joseph_Duarte) December 2, 2023

According to The Athletic’s report, a verbal agreement is in place between the two sides and an official announcement could come as soon as Sunday morning.

Houston is closing in on hiring Tulane coach Willie Fritz, a source told @TheAthletic.

A verbal agreement is in place and UH hopes to finalize the hire as early as Sunday morning. @Joseph_Duarte was first to report.

More on the move here: https://t.co/tBA7EjmDcd

— Sam Khan Jr. (@skhanjr) December 2, 2023

Tulane lost 26-14 to SMU in Saturday’s championship game, costing the Green Wave an opportunity to appear in a second consecutive New Year’s Six bowl game.

Fritz would not confirm the reports in the postgame news conference, but said that he was “going to take a step back and process some things.”

Asked whether he thought the reports were a distraction to his team this week, Fritz said, “When you have success, that happens. That’s just the way it is.”

Tulane (11-2) was the highest-ranked Group of 5 team in the College Football Playoff rankings at No. 22. Over the last two seasons under Fritz, the Green Wave is 23-4, including a conference title and Cotton Bowl victory in 2022.

Since Houston fired Dana Holgorsen early this week, speculation has centered on Fritz, who is 54-47 in his Tulane career and has won 247 games as a college coach.