Everything Houston HC Willie Fritz Said About Oregon State
With the Oregon State football team (0-3) preparing to host Houston (4-0) at Reser Stadium on Friday, BeaversEdge recaps everything that Houston head coach Willie Fritz said about the Beavers!
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Head Coach Willie Fritz On Oregon State & MORE
Your first true road game comes after a week off. How do you talk to your team about going on the road in this difficult a trip?
“Yeah, we’re going to go a ways. You’re exactly right. You know, we’re going to handle it, everything the same as we normally do. The only difference will be we’ll be on a plane for a while. And so it’s going to be a long plane trip. But, you know, every time I’ve ever taken a plane trip with a bunch of 18- to 22-year-olds, everybody’s out within the first 10 minutes. So they think it was a short flight, and it might have been two hours or whatever it was. But that’s the only thing that’s different, you know. We don’t want to work them too much, you know, before we leave. And, you know, when we get there, it’s a business trip. You know, we want to enjoy each other’s company, but it’s a business trip without question.”
Willie, along those lines, with the 9-30 Houston start, does it change the pregame routine for you at the hotel or how you handle that with, like, wake-up calls and such?
“Yeah, you know, we played some night games already, and we’ve been staying at a hotel, regardless of whether we’re playing at home or on the road. So we go ahead and meet in the morning, and then we give the guys a couple hours, get off their feet, take a nap, sleep, whatever the case may be, then we come back and do a, you know, have a pregame meal. And then we have a little hype video, and then we get on the bus, and we head on over. The other part that’s a little different, too, is we’re staying in Eugene, and we’re driving to Corvallis. So we had a flow where we’re flying into Eugene, and then we’ll drive on over.”
Willie, despite the 0-4 record for the Beavers, what are some things that they do on both sides of the ball that you have to keep an eye out on?
“Well, you know, they’ve got a veteran quarterback. You know, he started last year at Duke, started his career originally at Texas. You know, he really throws a good ball. You know, got a good back. He’s rushed for a lot of yards at the Division I level. You know, they’ve had some tough luck, you know, and they really have. And they were in the ballgame for quite a period of time last week against, you know, a very good Oregon team. So, you know, we’re going to have to play extremely well. We know that. And that’s something that we’re chasing is that elusive, perfect game we’re working on, trying to get better and better every single day and every single week.”
Coach, with the winless Oregon State team coming up, has there been a discussion to like you with the staff and the players to try not to look ahead and, you know, try not to let this team get you?
“You know, I know I’ve talked to you all about that before. I know I’ve got the ability to have laser focus on every single day. And that’s, you know, I think that’s been part of the reason for the success that we’ve had in all these different places. And, you know, and I know the staff understands that as well. One of the great things about our staff is, you know, besides being great coaches and people, all that stuff, a lot of these guys have been with me in numerous places where they’ve played for me. So they understand how we do things.”
Willie, as you mentioned, Murphy’s had a lot of success at Duke. Have you seen flashes of that when you look at him?
He’s got really good movement. He’s got a quick release, very strong arm. You know, it’s like we talked about before. You know, he’s getting a new system, you know, and it takes a little while to get the pieces together, you know, and it’s, as I’ve always said before, you know, the quarterback gets too much credit when things go great, gets too much blame when things don’t go well. But he’s a very, very talented quarterback without question. They got, you know, we’re going to have to play at a high level defensively against these guys.”
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