New Houston defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong believes in aggression. He wants to hunt the ball and apply pressure to both the quarterback and the playcaller. His attacking mindset is at odds with his southern drawl and his demeanor.
Armstrong accepted the job Friday, and by that night, he was in Houston at dinner with a recruit. He says Willie Fritz reached out to him out of the blue. The 31-year-old said he respected Fritz from afar, and the respect grew after he faced him in 2022.
“I think success leaves clues,” Armstrong told the media in the Carl Lewis Auditorium Thursday. “I’m a life-long learner.”
In nine seasons in coaching, he’s worked for some of the game’s greats: Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Dan Lanning, KC Keeler, and Arizona Cardinals’ safeties coach Patrick Toney.
“There’s some similarities schematically (from) what we do to what they did here (in 2024), but it is pretty different,” Armstrong said.
“It starts with mindset and approach and pursuit, tackling, takeaways. Then schematically, we have to get where we play really good normal-down football, we’re a nightmare on third down, and we play good situational football.”