Willie Fritz organizes his practices for fluidity, efficiency, and constant motion. Each practice typically consists of 22 to 24 periods, each lasting four or five minutes, and has a team-wide focus, a special-teams focus, and a focus within position groups.
The first practice of Spring was held inside TDECU Stadium, but the rest have been on the outdoor practice fields.
Practice No. 5 – March 26, 2026
There are guests everywhere, from recruits to high school and college coaches, to former UH players, and even some from Willie’s past: his former coaches, players, and assistants from previous jobs. On this day, former UH players Latrell McCutchin, Blake Thompson, Stephon Johnson, Tanner Koziol, Dean Connors, and former All-SWC center Chuck Brown were in attendance. Radio play-by-play announcer Kevin Eschenfelder also watched practice.
Just like in games, every player must go full speed through the whistle, then hand the ball to an official (student managers during practice), and hustle back to his position or off the field. If a skill guy breaks a big one, his position coach (RB Jordy Joseph or WR Brian Bell) will sprint down the field to praise him and offer a coaching nugget.
Willie and his staff build a daily comprehensive practice plan, which is distributed to everyone, from coaches and assistants to video and creative staff, student managers, trainers, play signalers, and off-field staff. Willie conducts practices using a microphone and easily glides from unit to unit or between different focuses in a period. He’ll stop to talk to recruits or other guests, but typically does not stop moving. He praises individual effort over the sound system and criticizes, too, with “C’mon man” being a favorite after an individual critique.
He tells some dad jokes, too.
Practice starts with three drill periods – usually individual position work, or but sometimes QBs working with centers while OL/DL and WR/DBs go against each other. The fourth period is stretching, with all coaches and staffers walking among players, patting them, offering some instruction for the day, or shooting the breeze while Red Alert plays over the speakers. After the stretch, the team “puts hands on each other” – dabs, high fives, pats on the back – a way to encourage being a good teammate. Then they huddle for short announcements, the day’s focus, and where they’ll go first. They break the huddle and sprint to the first team period, usually special teams or fast ball.
In this practice, UH spent period 5 on fastball, an 11-on-11 drill (often just called “team”) in which the offense must snap the ball in the first 10 seconds of the play clock. It’s the first fastball of the Spring and Willie lets them hear it. “FAST! FAST! This is Ricky Bobby football right here,” he blares over the mic. The first team will go 6-7 plays for the length of the field, then flip, and the second team goes the length of the field, then the third. Keisean Henderson was consistently getting the second team snapped with 32 on the play clock. Willie will run fastball about once a week throughout practices all year, preparing his guys for the times they’ll use pace or a two-minute drill during a game.
Period six is special teams on the defensive field. 5-6 position coaches are assigned to a special teams unit; all coaches except the coordinators and the line coaches participate (and several quality control and assistants – the position that has been called analyst or GA in the past). On this day, they use this period to work with the front- and middle-line guys on kickoff and kickoff return. In the next period, the entire kickoff return team works on alignment, spacing, and responsibilities, with Willie on the mic, colorfully describing everyone’s assignments. At the same time, the offensive and defensive lines run sled drills while QBs work on touch.
Special teams break up for periods eight and nine as the QBs and WRs work on route running, and OL and TEs work on blocking schemes. In the 10th and 11th periods, the OL/DL are on the offensive field, and DBs and WRs compete in passing drills on the defensive field. SFA transfer Jalen Mayo beats Amare Thomas on the left sideline, while Harvey Broussard gets the best of JD Rhym on a #3 vs. #3 dig route. Oregon State transfer Trent Walker continues to show off his technical ability and elite route-running. Walker gets vertical immediately after the catch.
The next two periods are full 7-on-7. Tight end Patrick Overmyer caught a 30-yard corner route, while freshman WR Dorian Barnes made a catch in traffic over the middle, then put his head down, inviting contact. “Best catch you’ve had,” Willie says on the mic. Harvey Broussard makes several great plays and has probably the best practice I’ve seen from him.
It’s back to special teams for the next two periods, working on drills in the punt game. In this one-on-one drill, the punt team player has to beat the return team’s guy to get to a tackling dummy 20 yards down the field. RS freshman DK Mays beat his man repeatedly in this drill. “That’s a win, DK! It took him 8 years to get down the field,” ST coordinator Chris Couch yells. Mays is adept at running belly-to-belly with his man, hand-fighting his way down the field. Carmycah Glass also had several good reps.
The next few periods are spent with individual units. Each unit has a specific part of the practice fields where it does most of its unit work.
The offensive and defensive lines mostly work near the back lines in their respective end zones because they tend to tear up the field.
Then, everyone reconvenes for team. Willie stresses this is the best part of practice, the time to put all the drills into effect. As he has all Spring, Re’Shaun Sanford is running with a purpose, as he comes back from the knee injury that robbed him of his 2025 season.
RS freshman tight end Wyatt Herbal made several good plays down the sideline. He’s a guy I’ll be watching. TE Patrick Overmyer has become Patrick Overmiddle, snagging catch after catch between the hashes. After practice, Overmiddle routinely spends time with the Monarc Seeker, a six-ball robot that can emulate passes, kicks, and punts. He works in manual mode here, with help from student managers, but the Seeker has a tracking tag he could put on his hip to alert the robot he’s ready for a pass.
RS freshman running back Zane Smith (dubbed The Viking by his teammates and coaches) is a long-haired freight train with the ball in his hands. A year ago, Dean Connors told me that if he needed a yard to win a game, he’d give it to The Viking. Harvey Broussard made another good play downfield, and WR coach Brian Bell ran down to congratulate him and put a point on it by reinforcing his good habits. Amare Thomas makes so many elite blocks for other wide receivers. Makhi Hughes runs low, and he runs hard. He will bring a different dimension to the running game this year.
Defensively, Paris Melvin has been a wonder. He’s a freshman and shows crazy talent, but also takes plays off or isn’t mentally locked in at all times, as all freshmen do. They haven’t mastered those habits yet. Defensive coordinator Austin Armstrong pays particular attention to Melvin because he sees Melvin as a multi-year starter. Javion White, the Tulane transfer, continues to shine while Jordan Allen stacks good practices on top of each other.
After four periods of team (sometimes 5), Willie signals an end to practice and position coaches get with their guys for instruction. The team comes together for another “put hands on each other” before announcements about the day’s schedule from nutrition, strength and conditioning, academic affairs, and communications staffers. They sing “Happy Birthday” if necessary, then break the huddle, and get a few final thoughts from position coaches. At that point, practice ends, but some guys stay for individual work, or units have to run as punishment for mistakes or sloppiness in practice.
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