AP Top 25 Extra Points: No. 22 Houston’s rise in Big 12 comes with Weigman-led offensive bump

The Houston Cougars quietly went about their business the first half of the season, posting six wins against undistinguished opponents and losing to a Texas Tech team that was on the ascent to the top 10.

A road game against Big 12 defending champion Arizona State would provide a clue whether the program’s progress under second-year coach Willie Fritz was real or a mirage. At least that was part of the buildup.

The Cougars held on for a 24-16 win in the desert Saturday night for their first road win against a ranked opponent since 2017 and were rewarded Sunday with a No. 22 ranking in The Associated Press Top 25 poll.

“It says a lot,” Houston quarterback Conner Weigman said. “We just want to keep getting better. Just keep playing good, clean football and we’re going to have a shot in each and every game.”

Houston (7-1, 4-1) is having its best season since joining the Big 12 in 2023. The Cougars were 4-8 last year, including three conference wins, and they were picked 12th in the 16-team conference in the preseason.

Fritz hired three new coordinators in Slade Nagle (offense), Austin Armstrong (defense) and Chris Couch (special teams), and the Cougars enter this week tied with Texas Tech for third place behind co-leaders BYU and Cincinnati.

The biggest improvement has been on offense. That’s largely because of the addition of Weigman, who transferred from Texas A&M after he lost the starting job to Marcel Reed in the middle of last season.

The Cougars are averaging 28.8 points per game, more than double the 14 per game in 2024. They’ve turned over the ball just four times in eight games, tied for fewest in the Big 12. They coughed up the ball 27 times in 12 games a year ago.

The schedule is favorable. The Cougars don’t play BYU, Cincinnati, Iowa State or Utah. Their toughest remaining game is against TCU at home on Nov. 22.

Getting ranked for the first time since early in the 2022 season is a notable accomplishment, though not one the Cougars choose to celebrate.

“We’re going to move on to our next opponent,” Fritz said. “That’s how you got to do it if you’re going to be as good as you want to be. We’re proud of all those things that occur, but we have a lot of football left to play.”

Their next game is Saturday at home against West Virginia, loser of five straight.

Can’t slow Aggies’ roll

The most impressive showing of the weekend belonged to No. 3 Texas A&M, which won 49-25 at then-No. 20 LSU to get to 8-0 for the first time since 1992. The Aggies scored their most points at Tiger Stadium, 10 more than the previous record held by Emory Bellard’s 1975 team.

“We’re happy about it for sure,” said Reed, the Aggies’ quarterback, “but there’s definitely still a lot of things to be proven. And I feel like a lot of people in this country still don’t respect us as a team. No, we’re not trying to prove anybody wrong. We’re just going to go prove ourselves right and week in and week out play our game of football. Championship execution every week.”

Whew, Wahoos

No. 15 Virginia’s three overtime wins are the most in a season since Texas Tech won three in 2022, according to Sportradar. The Cavaliers’ 17-16 victory over North Carolina followed OT wins over Florida State and Louisville. Virginia is 4-1 in one-score games.

Playoff newbies?

The mock bracket based on this week’s AP Top 25 shows that seven of the 12 teams in the College Football Playoff would be first-time participants.

No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 7 Mississippi, No. 8 Georgia Tech, No. 9 Vanderbilt and co-No. 10s BYU and Miami would make their debuts.

As for the other five teams on the mock bracket, No. 1 Ohio State has six appearances, No. 2 Indiana (one), No. 4 Alabama (eight), No. 5 Georgia (four) and No. 6 Oregon (two).

Extra points

No. 2 Indiana’s 56-6 win over UCLA marked the second time this season that the Hoosiers have won a Big Ten game by 50-plus points. The other was 63-10 over Illinois. Clemson in 2018 was the last power conference team to win multiple conference games by at least 50 points. … Trinidad Chambliss is the first Mississippi QB with at least 250 yards passing through the first six starts of a career since Eli Manning in 2001. … Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby has seven games of multiple TD passes and no interceptions, tying him for second with Trevor Lawrence (Clemson) and Justin Fields (Ohio State) for the longest streak in the FBS since 2018. Tua Tagovailoa (Alabama) had eight.

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