Houston fires football coach Dana Holgorsen: Sources

Houston has fired football coach Dana Holgorsen, three program sources tell The Athletic. The Cougars lost 27-13 to UCF on Saturday to finish 4-8, dropping five of their last six games.

When asked after Saturday’s game whether he thought he would return as coach, Holgorsen said, “Yeah, I’ve got a four-year contract. Contracts mean something. If they don’t want me to be the football coach, they have not expressed that to me. I want to be the football coach here.”

Holgorsen signed a six-year contract extension after the Cougars’ 12-2 season in 2021. The Cougars have gone 31-28 in Holgorsen’s five years at the helm, recording only two winning seasons.

Why is Houston making this move?

Since that 12-2 showing in 2021, the team has declined on the field, and the program trajectory after five seasons under Holgorsen’s leadership seemed troubling. In 2022, Houston’s last year in the AAC, the Cougars were a popular preseason pick to contend for a New Year’s Six bowl bid but fell well short, finishing 8-5.

This season, Houston’s first in the Big 12, included too many bad losses. A Week 2 setback to crosstown rival Rice — a game in which the Cougars fell behind 28-0 — cranked up the bad vibes. Houston followed that a week later by failing to score an offensive touchdown in their first Big 12 loss to an underwhelming TCU team. The Cougars were shut out for the first time in 23 years in a loss to Kansas State and also dropped games by double digits to Cincinnati and UCF, teams enduring the same transitional challenges to Power 5 football that Houston has.

Recruiting has fallen off substantially, too. Houston has the lowest-ranked 2024 recruiting class among Power 5 teams and ranks 102nd in the FBS according to 247Sports. The Cougars, who reside in one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country, should be much better than that, especially with Big 12 membership and solid program infrastructure.

Houston is a program with high expectations. Holgorsen generated only two winning seasons in his five there, including two 4-8 showings that bookended his tenure. That’s just not good enough.

Who could be in the mix for the job?

UTSA coach Jeff Traylor, who is a candidate for the Texas A&M job, could be the top target. His name generated a lot of buzz around the Houston job when there was some uncertainty about Holgorsen’s job status a year ago. GJ Kinne, who led Texas State to its most wins since 2014 and its first bowl appearance in school history, could also get a look.

If the school looks at a first-time head coach candidate, Texas special teams coordinator Jeff Banks — who has long recruited the Houston area from his time at Texas A&M and Alabama — is a possibility. A wild card candidate is former TCU coach Gary Patterson. He spent 2022 as a special assistant to Steve Sarkisian but has been out of coaching this year, and we hear he is itching to get back in.

(Photo: Mike Watters / USA Today)