Houston needed a feeling out period to adjust to Big 12 football. The Cougars commenced their tenure in the new conference with back-to-back 4-8 seasons, looking for a spark to reignite the program.
With three seconds remaining in a deadlocked 28-28 ballgame, all of the trials and tribulations of acclimating to the Big 12 stood in balance, relying on the toe of kicker Ethan Sanchez. Earlier in the quarter, the usually-reliable kicker was subject to a rare miss on the same upright from 48 yards out,
as his kick fell short due to an uptick in the wind. But Sanchez already sunk walk-off winner three weeks prior and knew he was built for the moment. He drilled the 41-yarder to lift Houston to a 31-28 buzzer-beating victory, clinching bowl eligibility for the program for the first time since 2022 — Houston’s final year in the American Conference.
“We haven’t been bowl eligible in a couple years and to be able to go back to a bowl, that’s an awesome opportunity for this program and for this university,” Houston quarterback Conner Weigman said. “I’m super proud of my guys. That was a four-quarter dogfight and we stayed in the game and fought. I couldn’t say more about my whole team.”
Houston entered the fourth quarter enjoying the cushion of a 28-14 lead. However, Arizona knotted the game at 28-28 with 4:48 remaining thanks to a stellar outing from quarterback Noah Fifita, who finished 24-of-26 with 269 passing yards and two touchdowns. Houston didn’t flinch in the midst of adversity. The Cougars chewed up the remainder of clock, running steadily down Arizona’s threat to traverse from their own 25 to the Wildcats’ 23-yard line.
“It’s a mindset thing,” Weigman said on leading the game-winning drive. “A wiseman once told me, you gotta be a dog. No cats in the house. You gotta be a dog, and you gotta go make a play when it’s time to make a play, and you gotta be your best when your best is needed. I felt like we did that today.”
Although the fate of the matchup was decided by a kicker, the contest between two top 30 FBS passing defenses was surprisingly a quarterback-oriented affair. Fifita shined in a road environment, consistently escaping pressure to deliver downfield throws on the Houston defense. The quarterback led two immediate scoring drives out of the gate, threading the needle to Tre Spivey for a 70-yard touchdown and then connecting with Luke Wysong for a 13-yarder to make it 14-7.
“You know how I feel about Noah Fifita,” Arizona head coach Brent Brennan said. “He’s special in every way. I mean that. To be 24-of-26, I mean, how many times has that ever happened in college football? That’s a ridiculous day. What’s happening is the synergy between Noah and Coach (Seth) Doege and the offense just continues to accelerate the more we play, the more we know each other, and the more we get into the flow of things. Noah’s trusting the offense and believing in Coach Doege and you’re seeing good results, but dammit, we want to win.”
Houston responded with tremendous poise thanks to a spectacular day from Weigman. The quarterback fired for 164 yards and three touchdowns, supplementing his stat-line with a career-high 98 rushing yards and a 10-yard touchdown off a QB draw. Weigman started the day with a 52-yard touchdown strike to Amare Thomas on the opening drive and the unit never lost team. The Cougars remained turnover-free and Houston never punted after the first quarter.
“The offense as a whole is — that’s the objective to get better each and every weekend and learn from mistakes we made in the past and correct them, and don’t make the same mistakes happen again,” Weigman said. “I feel like we just keep growing and growing and growing and we’re not done yet. We’re gonna continue to grow, and we’re not a finished product at all yet.”
Perhaps Weigman’s shining moment was a 3rd and goal from the 2. The quarterback faked a handoff to Dean Connors and immediately looked backward, locating directly into the eyes of two oncoming Arizona pass rushers. While on the run, Weigman fired a strike to Thomas in the end zone, and the team’s receiving yards leader secured his second touchdown of the day. That touchdown capped a 21-0 run for the Cougars, spanning the entire second and third quarters.
“I didn’t know where he was going with it,” Houston head coach Willie Fritz said about the play. “It found its way to Amare. It was a heck of a play. He keeps his eyes downfield, and he probably doesn’t get enough credit for his feet. He’s got great feet, quick movement. Excellent job by Conner.”
The Cougar defense was exceptional during those second and third quarters where the Wildcats were held scoreless. Houston was anchored by strong safety Wrook Brown who totaled nine tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks (recording sacks on back-to-back plays). The Wyoming transfer safety also blew up a critical 4th and 1 right before halftime — the game’s most important momentum shift. Instead of Arizona breaking a 14-14 tie, Houston’s offense fed off Brown’s stop and notched a go-ahead touchdown with 16 seconds remaining before the break.
“(Fifita) is a really good player and he’s slippery and he’s hard to bring down,” Brown said on what sparked the defense in the second quarter. “Coach (Austin) Armstrong and safeties Coach CY (Josh Christian-Young) did a great job of bringing the blitz. When you get them in a surprise they don’t see coming, you gotta capitalize on that.”
Another positive development for Houston was the assertiveness of the run game. The Cougars’ 232 rushing yards ranked the most ever in a Big 12 game. Connors hit the century mark for his second 100-yard game of the season while Weigman nearly matched him with 98 yards. Arizona only logged two tackles for loss all game, and Houston leaned on its run game to spearhead its game-winning drive.
“We’re running the ball better, and we’ve struggled with it,” Fritz said. “Coach (Slade) Nagle called an outstanding game and really kept them off-balance with run-pass… We ran the ball really well with Conner Weigman and I thought Dean Connors had a lot of power in getting vertical. So often backs want to pop it outside, but he saw the crease and ran behind his pads. But you can’t do anything without the offensive line, tight ends, and receivers blocking downfield, and I thought all them did an outstanding job.”
Arizona (4-3, 1-3 Big 12) suffers its second-consecutive heartbreaker. One week after squandering a 10-point lead in the final five minutes to BYU and falling in double-overtime, the Wildcats’ comeback effort in Houston is stymied at the buzzer by a walk-off field goal.
“Obviously I’m pissed off and upset and so is every person in this program,” Brennan said. “I think we have grown a lot. I think we’ve made a ton of progress, but to not close that thing out when we had an opportunity to do that today just makes every person in here sick. That starts with me. That’s my job. We’re gonna get back to work on it. I feel for our fans. I feel for our players. I feel for our students and everybody at the U of A because we’ve got a good football team and we’re going to get to work fixing it.”
Houston (6-1, 3-1 Big 12) is bowl eligible for the first time since its sunset season in the American Conference. The Cougars are back to the postseason after a two-year drought, and there was a fervent on-field celebration to recognize the team’s accomplishment. Longtime veterans like Stephon “Boogie” Johnson mimicked bowling motions, Sanchez made a Lambeau Leap into the student section, and the grins were ear-to-ear across all players in red jerseys. Houston’s best start in four years is an accomplishment, but Fritz — who wore a “Bowl Bound” shirt to the postgame press conference — knows the team has more to them than six wins.
“It will be interesting at the end of the day to see how many teams have qualified,” Fritz said. “I’m guessing under 30. I mean 136 teams play FBS football, so we’re proud of that. That’s one of our goals. We want to play in a bowl game. I’ve never been to a bad one. I’ve been to a bunch of them and they’re all good, so we’re excited about that.”
