Willie Fritz
Defensive Coordinator (1987-90)

Willie Fritz has spent each of the last 31 seasons as a head coach, at Blinn College (1993-96), Central Missouri (2007-09), Sam Houston (2010-13), Georgia Southern (2014-15) and Tulane (2016-23). During that stretch, he has coached 54 players who were either NFL Draft selections or NFL free-agent signees.

 

One of seven children, Willie Fritz is the son of the late Harry Fritz, who coached the Central Missouri football team in 1952 before continuing his career as the Executive Director at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in Kansas City. The elder Fritz also served at several colleges and universities in administration as an athletics director.

 

Fritz played on two conference title teams and was a four-year starter at defensive back at Pittsburg State where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in 1983. While working as a graduate assistant during his first stint with Sam Houston from 1984-85, he earned his Master of Kinesiology in 1986. Early coaching stops included a year at Shawnee Mission Northwest (Kansas) High School in 1983 and Willis (Texas) High School in 1986, with his return to Sam Houston for graduate school in between those years. 

 

In 1987, Fritz spent four years at Coffeyville Community College under legendary coach Dick Foster, earning a promotion to defensive coordinator after one year. He stayed another two years to work for Coach Skip Foster and the Red Ravens. During the 1990 season, Fritz served as the defensive coordinator where he helped guide the Red Ravens to the 1990 national title.

 

After two years as an assistant coach at Sam Houston State, Fritz took over the Head Coaching role at Blinn College.  From 1993-96, Fritz and the Buccaneers would rack up 39 victories against only five losses with a tie and claim two national junior college championships. He was inducted into the NJCAA Football Hall of Fame for the environment of success he created at Blinn.

 

Moving from Blinn College, Fritz was named the Head Coach at Central Missouri State University. From 1997-2009, Fritz revitalized Central Missouri and guided the Mules to 11 winning seasons in 13 years. The NCAA Division II program’s ledger included two 10-win seasons with the 2001 Mule squad earning its first postseason trip in more than 30 years. A 97-47 mark in 13 seasons ranked Fritz as the winningest coach in the program’s history. He was the only coach to ever win seven or more games in eight consecutive seasons, and his victory total ranked him 15th among active Division II coaches at the time.

 

After Central Missouri State, Fritz served as head coach at Sam Houston from 2010-13, leading the Bearkats to back-to-back Southland Conference titles, NCAA Division I Championship game appearances in 2011 and 2012, and a third straight NCAA playoff berth in 2013. Fritz also served as the Head Coach at Georgia Southern from 2014 to 2015.

 

Fritz took over as the Head Coach at Tulane University in 2016.  His first two seasons saw Tulane win nine combined games, which was actually a step up from the three wins in both of the two seasons prior to his arrival. The 2018 team went 6–6 in the regular season, winning five of the eight conference games to finish in a three-way tie for the AAC Western division title, although they did not play in the AAC title game. They were invited to play in the 2018 Cure Bowl, the first bowl game for Tulane since 2013. They faced Louisiana and beat them 41–24 for the program’s first bowl win since 2002. The next two seasons saw them finish with .500 records that saw them invited to bowl games, which meant Tulane went to a bowl game in three straight seasons for the first time ever, which resulted in a bowl win and loss.

 

In the 2021 regular season, Fritz guided the Green Wave to a 2-10 record after Hurricane Ida forced the team to evacuate for a month. Overall, five of the team’s 10 losses came by one score or less.

 

As a result of his leadership during the storied 2022 season, Fritz was awarded with both the Dodd Trophy and the George Munger College Coach of the Year Award. The Green Wave’s appearance in the 2023 Goodyear Cotton Bowl marked the 16th bowl appearance in the 128-year history of the program.

 

Fritz ranks fifth nationally among active FBS head coaches with 208 victories, and led Tulane to consecutive American Athletic Conference Championship games. The Green Wave’s 23 wins since the start of the 2022 season rank fourth nationally while the program’s 15 conference wins are fifth in the country in that time frame.

 

Willie Fritz, the back-to-back American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year who boasts 31 years of collegiate head coaching experience, was named the 16th head coach in University of Houston football history on Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023.

 

Fritz and his wife Susan have a son, Wesley, and two daughters, Lainie and Brooke.