Willie Fritz is Kickin' It With Kunkel

Money Money Money [Music] all right welcome back kicking in with conle another episode another week thank you for tuning in either on Fox local or on YouTube the new man in town Willie Fritz head coach of Houston football thanks for coming in you bet thank you how's it going it's going great uh you know we just got done with a morning practice here a couple hours ago and you know we're a morning team so we come to the facility at 5:30 and eat breakfast get taped change start our meetings at 7 uh then we practice from 8:30 to about 10:30 so we we a good good active practice this morning the one thing I take away from your practices are money money money money well you know we do that on third down it's it's not any political uh deal I just want to make make sure I tell that but it's uh you know we just we do that right before third down y you know just make sure our kids understand the importance a third down we do before fourth down you know uh 10 years ago nobody went for it on fourth down now you know everybody's in analytics and you know we go for it quite frequently on fourth down as well so we kind of play that just to you know emphasize third and fourth down a little bit so what you guys don't know what I'm talking about here is every down when they're doing down the distance or whatever it might be third down they play that song money money money money or on forth down if they're going for it because it's the money down that's kind of the idea behind it and every time I walk out of there it's in my head for for six hours I'm I'm also I'm I'm an OJ's fan you know you probably don't know is that who does the song OJ's from Philadelphia and great group and I make our guys listen to my music some you know I say you're in a bad mood because you hear all these bad messages I'm in a good mood because I'm I'm listening to Temptations and Spinners and the OJs and all those guys so U that's a that just emphasizes the down though really you're not wrong about that by the way I know I used to listen to the pop culture rap growing up and then eventually I don't know when it was a handful of years ago and I was like this is like Angry music and then I get angry and then I get aggressive on the road in particular and that that's not good especially in Houston and I could I can't listen to it anymore because of that it puts me in a bad place mentally I I just love the old oldtime R&B so I'm I'm I listen to it all the time I go try to try to hit a few concerts every now and then but uh that song has always been a a a great song for you know listening to but also emphasizing that down to distance let's Willie Fritz Story go through your story cuz I find it fascinating I always kind of draw some sort of line between coaching and what I do is that you start somewhere low work your way up high and climb the ranks and people don't know who you are and what it takes to get where you are people a lot of people might think I just ended up at Houston like well there's a lot that goes into to becoming a head coach of a Big 12 Football team let me know if I forget anything you've been coached for 42 years now at least that's probably right yeah I guess that's right it's a long time man is that more than half your life at this point much more much more than that I'm I'm only 43 carry the one all right so we start at Pittsburgh state and for all those that's without the H that's in Kansas as a g then Shaunie Mission high school as not even the head coach the assistant Sam Houston State back to GA Willis high school as an assistant here in Texas Coffeeville out in uh Kansas Sam Houston State blind Central Missouri Sam Houston State Georgia Sou two lane Houston I think you got them all pretty sure you did okay so how does it all kind of unfold kind of take me through your joury keep a job I I don't think that's it that's what it is because okay to that just to fight that because you won't bring it up 10 championships along the way four bowl games you can add two within the J rounds as well and six Coach of the Year Awards am I miss I might be right I'm not quite sure so you've had wild success all the way rebuilding well one of the things I've really enjoyed I had two really good mentors when I was uh climbing the ranks I guess as a coach one was Ron randman Ron was my head coach at Pittsburgh state and then he hired me as a graduate assistant at Sam Houston and he was a longtime head football coach at Sam Houston State they got a buildings and streets named after him so he did pretty good at at Sam Houston State then I guy named dick Foster that I work for Coffeeville Community College he's the top Jo coach of all time and those guys you know I just I I enjoyed you know the journey my wife and I just loved every place we've been and I've been uh blessed to have really good coaches really good players uh you know never have really looked for a job you know just been very fortunate that we've done well and somebody's you know reached out to me or my representation and had me come over and I I was really fortunate to get this job at at U ofh uh my daughters you know live here in town and so we'd come over on our vacation to to Houston and uh been in around the city a bunch and uh it just a good fit for me and my family what was the goal when you got into coaching just just trying to have an impact yeah on young people I I just think uh I wasn't one of those guys who made goals or you know I want to do this by this this this did you have a dream did you have like n i I just wanted I just wanted to coach ball yeah you know my my dad was a coach you know I've got a couple siblings who are coaches and I I just enjoyed it uh you know I played football and basketball Pittsburgh state I wasn't able good enough to continue and keep playing after that so the next best thing was coaching and uh I wasn't certain whether I I coached a little bit of basketball you know when I was first starting off along with football but I wasn't sure which sport I was going to get into and I I you know luckily coach randman brought me down to Sam Houston I started this football Journey but you know I just think you know work your tail off you know now nowadays is so much uh I'm glad I'm not doing it now because now it's so much networking and self-promotion and all that other kind of stuff and you know back in the Pony Express days I guess when I was coming up it was more hey a word of mouth you did a good job people would notice and you know and then you might have another opportunity you had to weigh the pros and cons if you wanted to do it and uh you know so that's kind of how I got got to where I'm sitting right here have you Kelvin Samson told Coach Kelvin Samson that you've coached some ball in your day if yeah you know I've gotten to know Kelvin really well and you know my oldest daughter was in media here in Houston for a long time and she did U ofh events and got to know Kelvin really well and he was always great to my daughter so I liked him before I got here I was like this guy's a he's a good man so uh and that's also part of it you know when I when I took this job you know I saw the great success that that uh you know men's basketball was having on a national level and you know being in the final four and you know um didn't have a few injuries probably been in it again this last season uh you know and I I saw hey this can be done here at the highest level at the University of Houston what's the biggest challenge in building a program today versus 20 years ago in the Big 12 starting at where you are I think we talked about this picked 15 I actually said 14 on air when we were talking it's someone sent me something yesterday where he 16 and they said the reason we were pick 16 is there's not 17 teams in the league uh but all that stuff does you know there's a lot of challenges nowadays uh you know you got the nil component you got the portal component I I tell people all the time that you know we're going to do a good job of coaching these guys we're going to do a good job of recruiting the right kind of student athletes that are going to fit in in there with my program and also in the city of Houston uh and then you got to establish a culture that's so important and you know some people forget about that I I don't want to be a programmer guys are coming and going I want them to you know I tell our guys all the time you can only go to one homecoming you don't go to two you know and and I want it to be this one and I want you to think you got to go find uh happiness someplace else fight through a little bit of adversity you know but but the nil part of it is real you know and we we've got to do a good job of going out and raising money and and uh you know that that helps you with retaining your players you regardless how great your culture is how is the Houston Community responding to the nil outstanding they've been good really good and we're kind of you know uh novices at it you know along with everybody else uh but it's something that we're working on it I probably spend 10% of my time on nil and trying to fund raise and do things and this right here is is part of it educating people yeah you know about it so uh uh yeah it's uh people of Houston have been outstanding you know we've got we got 6,400 freshmen coming in right now we got 48,000 students at the University of Houston we got 8,000 students that live on campus uh so this is a different Houston than it was 20 30 years ago and that's another reason why I wanted to come here you mentioned culture what are Culture some rules that you or guidelines or credos that you try to implement off the field and I I I I want to tell you this Qui story is I was talking to somebody I won't tell you who it was they said under the last regime nobody knew his name no assistant coach knew his name no one really knew who he was it was always kind of just around and he worked with them a lot a lot he said with you one of your assistant coaches knew exactly who he was stopped his recruiting visits introduced the player to him and vice versa knowing his name and he feels like he's welcome he's part of a family now and it's he's excited to go to work every single day well you know I I I feel like I've put together a fantastic staff that's part of culture you you got to have uh you know men and women who are going to do a great job during this uh you know Big Time trans informational period of time in these guys' life 18 to 22 years of age they do a great job 18 to 22 they're probably going to be successful the rest of their life they have a setback sometimes it's hard to overcome so I want to be a positive role model and mentor to our guys on a daily basis you know I want him to see me being a good husband a good father and a good coach and friend and and uh that's not to say we we sit around hold hands and sing Kumbaya you know all day if I got to get after somebody I get after them they're skipping class or not acting the way they should be acting and uh you know hey that some kids they enjoy that some parents say enjoy some some maybe that's not their cup of tea you know but uh uh I I'm just very very U blessed to have a a fantastic staff and uh they you know they're an extension of the head coach and they help you know get get that culture where you want it to be is there anything that you implement off the field like everyone must say yes or no sir everyone must say thank you hold the door you know anything of that realm that you know you you know the thing is uh I'm just around the guys every day and my coaches are around the guys every day and it's consistency you know uh day after day after day after day and and uh some people can't do that you know they're they're up and down and they they act differently and you know if it's a Monday as opposed to a Friday or if they got pressure involved with them and and uh you know I just I I I pride myself in the fact I never go a day where I don't hear from one of my former players and I've been coaching a long time you know and and I got some guys that will call me up and you know my wife will say boy he's really grown up I said honey he's 49 years old know we coached him a long time ago you know but those are the kind of relationships that you want to have it's why I got into coaching I had great relationships with my coaches I want our young men to have great relationship with their coaches and my myself I think the overarching theme in coaching these days is that it's changed so much the generation has changed the college athlete their attitude their mentality has changed do you find that to be the case or what's the biggest CH I don't I don't really buy into that I I think uh if you're honest and real and you're consistent every day all right and you know if I go just go off the handle for no reason I don't blame a guy for not wanting to be around me but if if uh you tell them these are our values this is what we're going to do if you don't do it this way there's a price to pay if you do it that way fantastic and and uh you know our guys understand that we don't I've had very few issues since I've been here and I think part of that is honesty I mean I've always like when you create a relationship with a player you can get in there and you can tear them apart when they mess up because they know it's coming from a place of love and a place of trust and that's how you can build a culture you can build a system and that's how you get there what do you tell these guys now because a lot of them are new a lot of a lot of people left like trust me trust me trust me because at some point right it's it's you're going to have troubles and you're going to have struggles at the same time you've done this before how do you gain their trust you know I told them all that uh you know we've got to establish a relationship it takes a long time to establish a relationship and you know I said guys I'm I'm going to treat you like you've been doing everything right right you you act like a good guy I'm going to think you're a good guy you know you act like a turd I'm going to think you're a turd you know tell tell told them that and they all they all appreciated that and they all started with a clean slate and by and large they've just been fantastic you know something else too that I think you know I was talking to somebody about it number one it's recruiting people with High character but state of Texas is different they've been in structured environments you know in their high school and so what we're asking them to do is not different than what they were asked to do in high school you know some of the transfer kids we got have come from really good programs that add structure as well so that might have been one of the reasons why we've had so few issues what's different about Building a team building a team in Houston than it is different at Coffeeville or tulan or is it all the same you know you have your base principles but you got to adapt to the school that you're at two Lane's a lot different than University of Houston uh Georgia Southern was a lot different than two lane Sam Houston State was different than than Georgia Southern so you got to you got to understand the part of the country you're in the the strengths the weaknesses of the the institution that you're at academically you know facility wise whatever the case may be and you know one of the things that i' I've tried to do and is uh I probably wouldn't have got many of these jobs other than the fact that they didn't have a whole lot you know we tried to do more with less and that's not that's not an excuse you may had to have a lot of bright shiny things and and I'm pumped the fact that we're going to have bright shiny things here the University of Houston we're we're finishing up right now the football operations center that's going to be second and none in the country and we're going to have that completed by next June July and you know we're in a you know a city you know that's over 7 million people in the Greater Houston area and you can recruit just getting in a car and driving around and these are things that I didn't have at a lot of the places that I've been at what do you consider a successful season Setting goals in your first year at a program like this well know people have asked me that and and uh I I've never you know like I talked about never setting goals about where I was going to coach at I I had the same uh thought process when it when it comes to how many games we're going to win you know I want to win them all you know I'm going to approach every one of them you know that that we're going to win the game and and you know we'll see what happens at the end of the season but you know one of our one of my slogans that I've had since the '90s everybody has it now is one and0 you know as as a person as as a as a student as an athlete and uh we just want to be the best we can be every single day I'm very consistent on that you know and you you don't see a different Willie Fritz on Tuesday or Wednesday as opposed to Thursday or Friday I want our guys to attack the day you know put everything into it they possibly can and and we'll take our chances then two L's got a lot of good food down there Houston's got a lot of foodon got a lot of good food the better Food City well what what the heck you think I'm going to sit I know you stand I sitting here right here with you no we a uh you know that's not a sponsor I I I I better be careful with that because I got a lot of sponsors but there's you know I I've ate here you know for years and years and years and years and recruiting the city coming and visiting my daughters so uh we have a few spots that are our favorites what's your favorite type of food around here cuz that's my favorite thing about I love texmax and and uh you know there's uh I remember this one place open that's still real famous now in the 80s and you know we drive all the way down and to eat when I was at G8 same Houston and starts with a P I won't say the name of it but I'm trying to see if I can get there pretty easy one oh man okay okay see May then simple maybe if this place that starts with a P sponsors come on let's go then you can say the full name all those letters yeah um what's new around Houston from the day you got here to where you are today what's changed anything's changed I I think the landscape the University of Houston's changed I really do I think president Couture has done a a fabulous job of of uh you know making this more of a traditional University uh when I used to recruit you know you I had a bunch of my players at blend that came and played it at the University of Houston and I recruited Jackie Yates which is right in our backyard uh they're on Camp campus you know since the 880s you know so I've been around in and around U ofh forever and you know we got all those students living on campus now beautiful campus it really is you know we got a unbeli we're we're a tier one academic institution and uh there's tier one real good tier two average tier three I'll let you guess what they are and we're proud to be in that area we're 71st rank School academically in the nation that's out of 4,130 some colleges in University so you can get a quality degree here at the University of Houston you can play Big Time power four football that's the one element that was missing from you ofh and then you get to do it in the great City of Houston I just think I think it's a fantastic City we love living Career services here I'm curious where academic you mentioned you've mentioned academics now twice and it's part it's going to be part of these kids' lives one way I it's a waste of time for a guy to come in and he doesn't get a degree yeah you know and and that's why we class check every day that that's why if they're not in class where they're supposed to be you know we're going to get them you know what we call a list if you're on the list we get you the next day after practice and you know I want these guys to get a degree and I want them to find a vocation that that they're going to be successful in I knew that I wanted a coach my old man was a coach my coaches could help me in college but there's a you know Career Services is so important when when someone goes away to college you knew you wanted to be a broadcaster I assume you did I didn't know anything but I figured it out in college figured it out I was going to be an engineer and then I was going to go to Wall Street and then I didn't know what to do and I played baseball and I wasn't good enough and I was like well I might as well talk about it and tell people else about it so so we're trying to do a great job of helping these guys find that first job because if you get a good first job you're going to get a great second job and a fantastic third job and you're off and running you career a real career and uh that's important to me I I I just I've seen it happen to so many athletes before they get this degree they get done playing and they have no place to go you know and that's part of my job is to help them find that place to go how do you deal with that with parents that don't think that their kid needs to go that route because they're about to be an NFL player how do you handle that you know I I tell everybody hey I've I've had way over a hundred guys playing the NFL you know and it was great last night I was watching the Bills play the Steelers on TV and I I had four guys playing in the game you know and it was neat to watch those guys you know so I've had way over 100 I don't know 150 maybe guys playing in the NFL I've coached thousands and thousands of guys all right so it's hard it's difficult you know make a living and if you do make a living I I've only had maybe a handful of guys that have played in the NFL for the amount of time you got to play in the NFL who didn't have to work the rest of their life all of them got a job someplace after they got done so you know let's have a parallel plan let's let's strive to I want them to Aspire to playing the NFL if they didn't want to do that and we're going to be an average football team at best but also let's find you know what is it you're going to do the next 40 Years of your life let's figure that out have that parallel plan and if you do both you have a chance to be very successful do you think we're teetering on the line of kids wanting to go to school or go to play football and not go to school more so than ever and like or on the line of that actually becoming a reality at times I think some some uh you know I I shouldn't say it's a very small uh number of coaches who don't emphasize academics you know the people I hang around with do the same way I do you know if they didn't I wouldn't hang around but uh you know we need to make sure that we you know the value in the age of nil and being on TV and all this other kind of stuff the value of getting a colle education is huge you know and and we we promote that every day in our program how do you deal with parents overall that say their kids should be playing more is that a problem at this level still you know not so much you know I I tell the parents I just had a zoom with all them the other day hey your son's going to have an issue or problem you know personal please contact me I want to help him as best I can my coaches want to help them uh now if it's you know you want to call plays or you you know this I'm at every practice I watch every Stitch of film I possibly do it have I made a mistake in my career maybe this guy should have played a little bit more than this guy I might have made a couple of them but not very many you know because I'm there day after day after day after day and so are my coaches and hey we want to win too you know so we're g we're going to play those dudes that that we think can do it and and that's one of the things that's going to happen this year for me here at University of Houston we're going to play a lot of guys early cuz we got a lot of competition going right now uh and and you can go out there you know you have some guys that are practice Heroes and uh you you want the guys that are practice Heroes and Game Heroes so we're going to play a lot of guys early and that'll really establish who's going to be playing the majority of the Reps how eager are they to hit somebody else at this point good I think they're really they're eager too you know they they've uh there's been a a Long Camp yeah and we needed to play catchup because we're a new staff and new team and a lot of guys didn't join us until this summer uh so we we used every second available over the last uh 16 practices to get us you know caught up to where we need to be [Music]