All roads lead back home, and that statement holds weight in the Houston Cougars program.
The fourth-largest city in the United States is one of college football’s greatest talent hotbeds. When the talent leaves the city after high school, the Cougars utilize their prime location to lure those players back. Because of this recurring phenomenon, some of the team’s brightest stars are transfers who spent their childhood in the greater Houston area.
Conner Weigman and Boogie Johnson are included in that
faction of native Houstonians. The former arrived as a quarterback from Texas A&M this offseason. The latter transferred in as a wide receiver from Oklahoma State prior to the 2023 season.
When Weigman delivered his first strike to Boogie on Houston’s practice field this offseason, it was far from the pairing’s first completion. Instead, that transpired seven years ago when Weigman and Boogie starred as middle schoolers on the Texas Terror, a 14U 7-on-7 team structured by former Missouri quarterback J.P. Tillman. Not only did the quarterback-wide receiver combo play together; they dominated together, claiming the 14U national championship in Round Rock, TX — a tournament run by Boogie’s father Stephon Johnson.
“It was really unfair because those kids were so good,” Stephon Johnson said. “With the guys they were playing against — it was almost unfair. Everybody could get open really easily, so it was just pitch and catch for Conner with all of the receivers. He had really good chemistry with all of them.”
In fact, that tournament in Round Rock wasn’t even the duo’s first time sharing a football field. Four years prior, Boogie’s North Houston Renegades — featuring 2025 top 10 NFL Draft selection Kelvin Banks — battled Weigman’s Tomball Titans in a 10U youth league. The Renegades triumphed in the matchup, but the young Weigman left an indelible impression on Boogie’s father for his sheer talent at that age.
“Conner was what he turned out to be in high school very early,” Stephon Johnson said. “He was amazing throwing the ball. He was a team leader. He was very sharp and very mature at a young age. I got to see some of the best kids around the country starting from Boogie’s fifth grade. But Conner was amazing.”
Boogie and Weigman didn’t interact on the field as much in high school, but the connection from their 7-on-7 national championship still prolonged thanks to a mutual friend in Texas A&M safety Bryce Anderson and a group chat consisting of dozens of Houston area recruits from the class of 2022.
“If you grow up in the Houston area and you’ve played football your whole life, it’s everybody knows everybody. It’s a close-knit community,” Weigman said. “You may not have played with them, but you’ve played against them and might have that mutual respect when we get in college.”
When Weigman entered the transfer portal in the first week of December, Houston quickly rose to one of the former 5-star quarterback’s top suitors. Connections were already established as Houston head coach Willie Fritz coached Weigman’s father at Sam Houston in the early 90s, while quarterbacks coach Shawn Bell (during his tenure at Baylor) was one of the first to recruit Weigman in high school. Add the homecoming factor for the Cypress, TX native, and Weigman had a litany of reasons to choose the Cougars.
Still, the quarterback needed to visit campus, and waiting with a sales pitch was his former 7-on-7 star wideout.
“When they told me they were gonna start recruiting him, I instantly texted him,” Boogie Johnson said. “I was like, ‘Let’s make this happen. I can’t see why we can’t do this back at home and take over the city.’ At first I didn’t know if he was really feeling it, it was hot-and-cold, but then he said he was gonna come on a visit. The day he came on his visit, I ended up coming to the school as well. We just chopped it up. I knew before he was going to commit that he was, and then he ended up posting it a couple days later.”
Boogie Johnson ranked atop the Cougars in receiving production in 2024 with 32 receptions and 402 yards. Hoping to resurrect an offense that ranked second-to-last in scoring a year ago, Boogie knew Weigman, who started 13 games at Texas A&M from 2022-24, would be a seamless fit.
“Why wouldn’t I as a receiver? Why wouldn’t I go text the quarterback they were trying to recruit?” Boogie said.
Houston’s offense checked in at 126th in passing yards in 2024, burdened by the fourth-most turnovers in the FBS and the nation’s lowest red zone scoring percentage. Weigman, who delivered 2,694 passing yards and 19 touchdowns to seven interceptions as an Aggie, is highly motivated to improve these marks as Houston eyes its first winning season since 2022.
“I want to be part of the solution,” Weigman said. “Football is the ultimate team sport. You can’t do anything without 11 players on the field. So being able to come and be the leader in the locker room, that vocal guy, someone who’s been able to do it before, pick guys up, and get that ship rolling.”
Availability was Weigman’s greatest obstacle at Texas A&M. The quarterback suffered a season-ending foot injury four games into the 2023 campaign and missed considerable time in 2024 dealing with an AC joint injury in his throwing shoulder. But Houston offers a perfect reset for the quarterback, and his teammates are doing everything in their power to ensure this a welcome homecoming.
“Him coming here can be great for him and will be great for him, just for a reset,” Johnson said. “Sometimes you work too hard at some place, and it’s like, ‘Man, let me get a new car. Let me move out of this apartment.’ You just need that sometimes, and I feel like this is gonna be the best situation for him. We’re gonna do whatever we can to make sure this is comfortable for him and he knows we have his back.”
As Boogie recognized in their 7-on-7 days, one of Weigman’s greatest traits is simply his ability to be a teammate. That’s one reason the wide receiver was eager to reunite with him on the Cougars.
“He’s a real genuine nice guy and he understands everybody’s situation,” Johnson said. “If you’re going through something, he’s the type of guy that will brighten your day or do things to get you going. It’s a full circle moment. Now we’re playing college together. We were playing 7-on-7 together when we were 13 or 14 years old, so we would have never expected that.”
Now, the two aim to sustain the championship-winning ways from their youth in the very city that raised them.
