Last Wednesday, Willie Fritz and the Houston Cougars were on the wrong side of fate when senior running back Tony Mathis Jr. tore his ACL.
Mathis will undergo season-ending surgery on Wednesday and will be a big loss for Fritz in his first season at the helm in Houston.
Mathis is entering his second season of college football at Houston and his sixth season overall. The Florida native spent the first four seasons of his career in Morgantown with West Virginia, totaling 229 carries for 943 yards and six touchdowns. In 2023 at Houston, Mathis posted 41 carries for 170 yards and 11 catches for 79 yards and a score.
Coming out of High School in the Class of 2019, Mathis was listed as a three-star prospect by the 247Sports index and the nation’s 936th-ranked player. He also checked in as the 56th-ranked player at his position and the 88th-ranked player in the state of Georgia.
With Mathis suffering a season-ending injury, much of the workload will fall on junior running back Stacy Sneed. As a sophomore in 2023, Sneed totaled 48 carries for 282 yards and a score while averaging an impressive 5.9 yards per carry. He, along with dual-threat quarterback Donovan Smith, will have their work cut for them in the upcoming season.
