Willie Fritz has been hired as Houston’s coach, replacing Dana Holgorsen, who was fired a week ago after five seasons with the Cougars.

The Houston Cougars fired football coach Dana Holgorsen a day after finishing his third losing season in five years.

Clayton Tune connected with Nathaniel Dell for a 12-yard touchdown with 20 seconds remaining, and Houston rallied from a 13-point deficit to beat Louisiana-Lafayette 23-16 in the Independence Bowl.

Jerome Ford rushed for 187 yards and two touchdowns and Desmond Ridder threw three touchdown passes as No. 3 Cincinnati broke open a close game in the third quarter and rolled past No. 16 Houston 35-20 in the American Athletic Conference championship game.

Michigan State has moved up to No. 5 in The Associated Press college football poll and Wake Forest is a top-10 team for the first time in school history.

The Houston Cougars are again without an opponent and still waiting to play their season opener as COVID-19 issues wiped out two more major college football games Wednesday. We've had four games canceled, so we're kind of used to that,” Holgorsen said Monday before the bad news from North Texas. Houston athletic director Chris Pezman said Wednesday that he understood the “COVID-related decision North Texas has made to not play” and appreciated the consistent dialogue with UNT officals. North Texas (1-1) was coming of a 65-35 home loss to SMU last Saturday. The Mean Green’s next scheduled game is their Conference USA opener at home Oct. 3 against Southern Miss.