Houston collects 10th win in 38-35 Texas Bowl takedown of LSU

The hometown team finally took the stage in the hometown bowl.

It had been 18 years since the Houston Cougars punched a ticket to the Texas Bowl — an era that was two conferences and several head coaching regimes ago. But for the first time under Willie Fritz and for the first time with the Big 12 Conference patch on the uniforms, Houston earned a postseason berth in its local confines. And the Cougars seized it.

In front of the largest Texas Bowl crowd of the 2020s decade, Houston gave the tens of thousands decked in red a reason to celebrate. The Cougars downed LSU 38-35 in NRG Stadium, earning their third-consecutive bowl victory (dating back to 2021) and first under their second-year head coach.

“It’s a dream,” Houston tight end Tanner Koziol said. “I played four years and this was my first bowl game. Every year — my freshman year we lost a heartbreaker at the end of the season for a bowl game. People talk about the bowl games all the time. They talk about them for the rest of their lives, like how fun the bowl week was. And they talk about it a lot more when you win. That’s just the cherry on top.”

The moment belonged to the city’s local son Conner Weigman. The quarterback transferred to his hometown Cougars last December, and this December, he guided the program to a landmark victory behind a 27-of-36 performance with 236 passing yards, 56 rushing yards, a Houston bowl record four passing touchdowns, and zero interceptions.

“I was locked in,” Weigman said. “For sure I had a chip on my shoulder. Playing against that team meant a lot to me, meant a lot to this team. I can’t say enough about my guys around me. The o-line, they played a hell of a game. I feel I had all the time in the world in the pocket. My receivers went out, made plays. The running backs had juice all day. They ran the ball really hard. When you do that, things like that tend to happen.”

In proper Texas Bowl fashion, Weigman was rewarded a cowboy hat and a bedazzled western jacket to recognize his MVP performance.

“I don’t know if he made a mistake tonight,” Fritz said. “I mean, he was spot on in everything that he’s doing, throwing the ball, running the ball. Now we’re going to nitpick and we’ll find some stuff, but I thought he played really, really well. He’s a really smart football player. He’s very competitive. We had zero turnovers. I don’t know if we were close to one. So he was very deserving of the MVP, without question.”

Another star that shined under NRG Stadium’s lights was tight end Tanner Koziol. Playing his final collegiate game, the FBS receptions leader among tight ends added nine to his season total, collecting 76 yards and a touchdown in the victory. Koziol provided Houston its first lead of the Texas Bowl (21-14) on a 7-yard grab with four seconds remaining in the first half, showcasing his incredible catch radius to cap a game-changing two-minute drill drive.

“I think he’s a high draft pick, I really do,” Fritz said of Koziol. “I’ve had some great tight ends and Delanie Walker was a great tight end for me. And Tanner, boy, he’s something else. He’s really unique. He’s got a great catch radius, reach, length, he sticks his hands away from his body and he utilizes it. He does it time after time, after time, after time.”

Then in the fourth quarter, on a 4th and 1 from LSU’s 46-yard line, Weigman delivered a strike to Koziol over the middle. The 6’7”, 250 pound tight end made a difficult 2-yard contested catch for the conversion but laid down on the field afterward with an injury. Through several nicks and bruises, Koziol — a likely NFL Draft pick this April — demonstrated his warrior mentality by leaving every ounce of effort on the field in the hard-fought contest.

“First down rocked. That was awesome. I knew I caught it,” Koziol recalled. “I was, like, all right, we got
the first down, and I was feeling a little stingy. But we got back up. It was good. It fades away. It just shoots down your arm and then it goes away. So it was all good.”

Koziol’s fourth down reception provided the fuel another senior needed to enjoy his moment. Running back Dean Connors thought he played his final collegiate game in 2024. However, a court ruling extended the eligibility of JUCO players for the 2025 season. Connors took full advantage of it and produced 126 yards in his final game as a Cougar. Three plays after Koziol’s fourth down reception, Connors raced 20 yards to the house to provide Houston a commanding 38-28 advantage with 2:23 left, essentially sealing the result.

“Dean Connors showed up every single time we needed him to,” Koziol said. “He makes big plays all the time.
He’s a dog on the field. And I’m just calling out East-West Shrine Bowl and Panini Bowl to get him over there. He deserves it. He’s the hardest worker on this team. First guy in, last guy out. He’s always talking about football. We’re sending film back and forth all the time. We’re watching film on Facetime with our buddies. He lives and breathe the game. And he loves it more than anyone else, and I love it about him.”

Although Houston went wire-to-wire in the second half, the early moments of the Texas Bowl belonged to LSU. Barion Brown set the tone from the opening kickoff, racing through a sea of Cougars en route to a 99-yard touchdown return before a single snap was fielded. Brown produced another 43-yard return in the first quarter, causing Houston to kick away from him for the remainder of the contest. The Cougars also had to make defensive adjustments as the Tigers flew down the field in four plays and 86 seconds on their first offensive series, establishing a 14-0 lead on Houston.

“One was a kickoff return, so it had nothing to do with the defense. And the second one, you know, we had that poor punt and then they started off with great field position,” Fritz said. “I think we had a 3rd-and-about-17. And we had a brain fart and didn’t cover (tight end Trey’Dez Green) on an over route, and that got him down there to score the touchdown, or else we would have been off the field then. I thought Coach (Austin) Armstrong made some great adjustments. Tackled okay, but sometimes we really put the defense in some bad field position because of the kicking game.”

Houston responded with ferocious defensive play, oftentimes manhandling LSU’s offensive line. The Cougars notched four sacks and seven tackles for loss, as their defenders flew around the field with the hit stick from the second quarter and onward. LSU only managed 77 rushing yards, frequently stifled at the line of scrimmage by an entourage of defenders, especially defensive linemen Eddie Walls III and Khalil Laufau, who combined for 4.5 tackles for loss.

“It was just really feeding off each other and each other’s energy,” Laufau said. “And Coach Armstrong really harps on that, just feeding off of each other and lifting each other up in times of need like that. So we just took it to heart and started feeding off of each other’s energy.”

LSU solved its offensive struggles in the second half by opening the offense downfield. The Tigers hadn’t scored more than 25 on any FBS opponent all year but produced 35 points on the Cougars, remaining in striking distance throughout the contest. However, LSU never received another opportunity after its fifth touchdown. The Cougars provided enough resistance to exhaust timeouts and wind down the clock, allowing their ensuing onside kick recovery to be the punishing blow.

And after those kneeldowns, Houston’s team was treated to some barbecue fresh out of the smoker. As the confetti rained down on the Cougars, Fritz tossed racks of ribs to his players amidst a fervent celebration.

“The barbecue was good, for sure,” Laufau said. “Just needed a little barbecue sauce would have been better. It was good. It was fun. It was a great night for us.”

LSU (7-6, 3-5 SEC) concluded its season on a slide, dropping six of its final nine contests. The Tigers saw their 3-game bowl win streak snap and also lost their first game with a 14+ point lead since 2008. Although they fought to finish, Saturday marked a heartbreaking end to interim coach Frank Wilson’s tenure with the program, before he hands the reins to Lane Kiffin.

“If you could have been a fly on the wall in that locker room when you see them embrace with tears of hurt, of
joy, of fondness of one another, because they wanted to, they wanted to win,” Wilson said. “And the reality, they wanted to win for me, and I wouldn’t let them. It’s about you. It’s not about me. I want you to do it for one another. But they’re that selfless and they’re that high-character young men.”

Houston (10-3, 6-3 Big 12) earned its time in the spotlight Saturday night. The Cougars sealed their first 10-win campaign since 2021, finally breaking through as a Big 12 program in a memorable breakout season. Houston likely secured a season-ending ranking to conclude a 2025 campaign where culture prevailed in a multitude of close games.

“I mean, that should be the expectation here, especially being in the city of Houston,” Weigman said. “We’ve got everything we need to be a power program, and especially with Coach Fritz at the helm, anything’s possible. I love Coach Fritz taking a chance on me bringing me in here, and I can’t say enough good things about him and this coaching staff, and we’ve got to keep this rolling.”