Houston fires head coach Dana Holgorsen after 5 seasons

The University of Houston has decided to fire football coach Dana Holgorsen.

Holgorsen was a big hire for Houston back in 2019 following his eight-year run at West Virginia. His time with the Cougars started slowly, but UH won 20 games combined in 2021 and 2022, the program’s final two seasons in the American Athletic Conference.

But that success did not carry over as Houston stepped up in class to the Big 12. Like all of the Big 12 newcomers, the Cougars struggled against the better competition and finished the season with a 4-8 record (2-7, Big 12), missing out on a bowl game.

Houston did post conference wins over West Virginia and Baylor, but also had an ugly non-conference loss to Rice and got blown out by TCU, Texas Tech and Kansas State. There was also an ugly home loss to a Cincinnati team that was previously winless in conference play.

The Cincinnati loss dropped Houston to 4-6, leaving a glimmer of hope for a late push for bowl eligibility. Instead, Holgorsen’s team lost 43-30 at home to Oklahoma State and then fell 27-13 on the road to UCF in the finale.

After the UCF loss Saturday, the school chose to part ways with Holgorsen after five seasons and a 31-28 overall record.

"Over the course of his five seasons with the Cougars, Dana made strides in our football program in many ways and laid the groundwork for our transition to the Big 12 Conference," Houston athletic director Chris Pezman said in a statement. "Ultimately, the results on the field fell below our standards of excellence. We are grateful to Dana for his efforts and commitment to our student-athletes and we wish him the very best in his future endeavors."

When he was hired away from WVU, Holgorsen was viewed as a natural fit at Houston, which gave him one of the largest contracts for a coach at a school outside the power conferences.

Houston had long coveted Holgorsen, who spent two seasons as UH’s offensive coordinator under Kevin Sumlin after his eight years at Texas Tech. He later spent one season as OC at Oklahoma State before getting the WVU job. The Mountaineers had just one losing season under Holgorsen’s watch and he ended up with a 61-41 record in Morgantown.

And when it appeared that the Holgorsen-West Virginia marriage was on the rocks, Houston — the school whose chancellor once said, “We’ll fire coaches at 8-4” — was there to pounce.

Expectations were immediately high, but the Cougars went a combined 7-13 (5-9 AAC) in Holgorsen’s first two seasons. Houston rebounded in 2021 by going 12-2 with a loss to Cincinnati in the AAC title game before dropping down to 8-5 in 2022.

Growing pains were expected with the transition to the Big 12, but a 2-7 record in conference play was evidently too much for the Houston brass to endure.

Moving forward, Tulane's Willie Fritz, UTSA's Jeff Traylor, UNLV's Barry Odom and ex-TCU coach Gary Patterson are potential candidates for the UH opening, according to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger.