It’s a new era of Houston Cougars football. On July 1, the Cougars officially moved their affiliation from the American Athletic Conference to the Big 12, and the University’s athletics department had nearly two years to prepare for the transition.
Houston enters its new home equipped with a coach well acquainted to the conference. Head Dana Holgorsen enters his fifth year on campus, leveraging his previous experience in the Big 12 as an 8-year head coach at West Virginia and a longtime assistant at Texas Tech to help the team get acclimated to its new reality.
After uncharacteristic losing seasons in 2019 and 2020 for the program, the Cougars have become accustomed to winning under Holgorsen, posting a 20-7 record across the past two years — complete with a conference championship appearance, a No.