Houston Football officially announced the hiring of offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay and defensive coordinator Shiel Wood on Tuesday. The school expects to roll out more announcements over the next week. Besides one or two analyst/grad assistant positions, the staff is set for 2024.
Tuesday afternoon, UH made the new coordinators available for an interview session. From that conversation and chats with current and former players, football staffers, and UH Athletics administrators, here are a few first impressions on where UH Football sits six weeks since Willie Fritz took over:
Two words appear in every conversation about Willie Fritz: vision and family. Players don’t really know him yet, but from the interactions described to me, they find him caring and inquisitive. Coaches, including the two coordinators, have locked into his vision for the program. Willie wants to recruit Texas high school players, wants to play fundamental football, and wants to do it with speed.
The following two most-used words? Consistent and culture. Those words were never used in the previous five years with UH Football. They are used about the head coach next door at Fertitta, though. Barbay said Fritz is a “master of building culture.”
Players had their first full team in-person meeting with Fritz and staff Monday night. Fritz focused on academics and relationship-building. He had dinner with them last night, got in line last, and all coaches were sitting among small groups of players.
Every staffer I’ve spoken with over the last few days says they notice a huge difference in the ‘weight’ of the program. With Dana Holgorsen, it was always heavy, and the proverbial balloon was always ready to pop. No one is walking on eggshells now.
The offense and defense will run the scheme the players can execute. It won’t be a round peg or a square hole with overtly complicated systems. It will get the right guys into the right spots at the right time. “We’d like to have a defense that plays really fast,” Wood said.
“Every year, (the offense) changes just a little bit depending on who you have in the room,” Barbay said. “And who your playmakers are, what your offensive line is like.”
Both coordinators stressed that spring football will be a time of discovery. Instead of going into Spring pigeon-holing players into certain spots, they want to spend that time learning and teaching.
Barbay wants to run the ball first and will change the pace and tempo without making it too complicated for players. He said tight ends will be important in his offense – he wants to get creative with the TE position in the run and passing games.
He will recruit SE Texas (he played at Nederland HS) and in the Houston area. He was particularly excited about the high school coaches he’ll work with in Southeast Texas:
Wood played at Wofford and then worked on the Terrier staff. He took three years off – he was a stay-at-home dad – before going back to Wofford and then Georgia Tech. He went to Tulane in February 2023 and quickly meshed with Willie Fritz.
I asked him about his early impressions of Brian Early:
“We want to recruit guys that have speed and athleticism, and sometimes, we prioritize that more than other measurables,” Wood said. “To play fast as a defense, there’s a lot of fundamentals that go into that.
A large part of playing fast, he said, “is guys having the ability to read and react quickly and keep things really simple.” He said the most successful defense is something the players can understand and can help them play to their full potential.
Earlier, Barbay said it was essential to get “good at what you believe in.” He said he’s made the mistake of trying to do too much and now focuses on accentuating his players’ abilities.
Both coordinators came off as articulate and likable. Both stressed building relationships in recruiting and with current players.
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