Horton taking firing in stride

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1998 | 10:47 a.m.

Jeff Horton sat back in his office chair and took a well-deserved deep breath.

It had been an emotional and draining 30 hours for the 41-year-old soon-to-be former UNLV football coach.

Horton learned of his firing from Rebels athletic director Charles Cavagnaro during a meeting early Monday afternoon, informed his coaches of the news around dinnertime that night, went home and stayed up until 2 a.m. with friends and family, then informed his team of the news at an emotional 2 p.m. meeting Tuesday at the Lied Athletic Complex.

A few hours later, after directing a practice in preparation for Saturday's season finale with Texas Christian at Sam Boyd Stadium, Horton faced the glare of television lights and talked with reporters about the end of his five-year reign as UNLV's head football coach.

Now he was back in his office answering still more questions with this reporter. The grueling and traumatic events of the past day-and-a-half, plus the frustration of an 0-10 season, seemed to be catching up with him. Still, Horton patiently and softly answered each question.

"It's not anger," he said of his firing. "You're disappointed more than anything. I wish the people here nothing but the best. I just wanted a chance to finish what we started. I really feel we've done a lot of good things. We're just a couple of pieces away from making it happen."

Despite compiling a 6-38 record over the last four seasons, including an on-going school-record 15-game losing streak, Horton said he still felt he would make it to the 1999 season to serve the final year of his contract.

"I really felt most of the time that I'd be back," he said. "There's probably a side of me that should have been more concerned when (Cavagnaro) didn't come out and say I'd be back. But I really felt we'd be back."

Horton said the Monday afternoon meeting with Cavagnaro was amicable.

"Obviously, something like that is never easy," he said. "Obviously, you don't agree. But I'm a professional and Charlie is a professional. They felt a change needed to be made. They're the ones who make those decisions. So be it."

But Horton admitted he tried to persuade Cavagnaro to let him fulfill his contract.

"We talked for about 40 minutes," he said. "I tried to present some issues I felt strong about. But I think he pretty much had his mind made up. I may have a physical education degree, but I can still tell when someone has their mind already made up."

Horton addressed many of those issues -- the lack of athletes on scholarship (44, 41 less than the NCAA maximum) when he took over a program in disarray from Jim Strong in 1993, an increased emphasis on academics and moral character, and a below-average (by Division I-A standards) football budget -- in a written statement that was passed out to the media at a press conference hosted by Cavagnaro at the Lied Center.

"I inherited a program with 44 scholarship players and was charged with making UNLV football a program that the university, community and boosters would be proud to support," Horton said in his statement.

"The foundation for the future was based on creating an environment where athletes could be students first and athletes second. The concept was put in place because of a myriad of problems, mainly off the field, that previously existed. Although the task was daunting, I eagerly accepted the challenge knowing that I could make a difference. And I feel that I have."

Indeed, UNLV's football squad has maintained an excellent 2.7 team GPA. The players have also managed to avoid the kind of off-the-field headlines that can bring a black eye to a program.

And when star quarterback Jon Denton, suspended twice during his sophomore year at UNLV, failed to toe the line, he was shown the door, eventually transferring to Eastern Kentucky.

Horton was asked if he considered how many games the Rebels would have won this year if Denton, who set 10 NCAA freshman offensive records at UNLV in 1996, would have stayed.

"Nah," he said.

"Obviously, Jon's a talent. Hopefully, the decision made him a better person and a better player. I never look back. I made those decisions for a reason. As I told our team today at our meeting, if I had a chance to do it all over again, I'd do everything the same way. I felt we were building the program the right way."

As is usually the case when a head coach is fired, Horton's players rallied to his defense, taking the blame for the team's losing ways.

"It's not Coach Horton's fault," safety Randy Black said. "He's not the one who plays. He's not the one who goes out on the field each week and puts the pads on. Everybody blames him. It's more the players than him."

"It's real sad and disappointing," said redshirt freshman linebacker James Sunia, one of the Rebels' six team captains. "He's done a lot of good things around here. He's the person who gave me my chance here. I owe him a lot."

Horton notified the team of his dismissal at a team meeting Tuesday afternoon. He spoke to his players, many of whom learned of his firing just before meeting, for 15 minutes.

When he was done, they gave him a round of applause. Many of the players had tears in their eyes, then went up to give Horton a hug.

"That was really hard to see him up there like that," punter Joe Kristosik said.

"It's hard to describe the feeling of being in there during something like that," wide receiver Damon Williams added. "He sat the whole team down and told his opinion of what happened and kind of cleared the air on everything. It was emotional."

"That was hard," Horton admitted. "You could feel your voice cracking a little bit, your eyes swelling up.

"I told them that things haven't gone the way we wanted, but 10 or 15 years from now people won't be concerned with how many wins you had here. They'll be more concerned about what kind of character you have, did you have some courage and fight in you, and can you handle adversity? I told them that nobody has been tested like we have."

Horton said he would consider Cavagnaro's offer to remain in the athletic department in a position yet to be determined once the season is over.

"That would be a big career change," he said.