FWAA Houston News

This is the the Week 10 installment of the Football Writers Association of America's weekly Freshman Focus for the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach of the Year Award, Freshman Player of the Year and the 2024 FWAA Freshman All-America Team.

The Football Writers Association of America has released a list of top candidates for the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach of the Year Award, Freshman Player of the Year and the 2024 FWAA Freshman All-America Team. The Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach Award, presented by Chris Doering Mortgage, goes to the best first-year coach (at his school) in FBS football. The recipients of the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach of the Year, the FWAA Freshman of the Year and a Spurrier Legends Coach awardee will be honored at a special reception on Feb 25 in Gainesville, Fla.

Houston is the winner of the Pop-Tarts Crazy Good Play of the Week for Week 7. The winning play was a final play 49-yard touchdown pass from Donovan Smith to Stephon Johnson as time expired in a 41-39 win over West Virginia last Thursday.

Each week during the 2022 season, we will highlight the notable performances of first-year players and head coaches leading up to the selection of our annual Freshman All-America Team and the Steve Spurrier First-Year Coach of the Year Award presented by Chris Doering Mortgage. Here are the top performances from Week 11, the weekend of Nov. 12:

Setting two American Athletic Conference records with 4.5 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss among his 11 total tackles, defensive end Derek Parish set a tone for an aggressive Houston defense in a road game at Texas Tech. Despite a 33-30 loss in overtime, the outstanding effort earned Parish the Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week honor for games of the weekend of Sept. 10, as selected by the Football Writers Association of America.

Cougars run past No. 3 Oklahoma to headline holiday weekend

Cougars complete first unbeaten regular season

Cougars blast Tulsa to move into first-place tie in C-USA West