Columnist Dean Juipe: Hot seat is familiar for Horton

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Aug. 18, 1999 | 10:02 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

At the age of 64, John Robinson has no intention of coaching anywhere after he leaves or retires from UNLV. Win or lose, success or failure, this is it for him.

When Robinson departs, he'll slump into an easy chair and watch the world go by. With a beer or a pop in hand, coaching will be a thing of the past and he will have no other coaching aspirations.

That's good because UNLV has become a graveyard for football coaches. Consider: With the exception of Harvey Hyde's brief tenure at a Long Beach State program that no longer exists, no UNLV head football coach since 1976 has ever been hired by another school or team as a head coach.

For Tony Knap, Wayne Nunnely, Jim Strong, Jeff Horton and Hyde (to some extent), it was curtains after their days with the Rebels. Knap retired, Nunnely has bounced around as an NFL assistant, Strong has virtually disappeared, Hyde took a radio show and Horton had to face the reality that his 13-44 record with the Rebels will likely serve as a perpetual head-coaching albatross.

Yet a man has to eat and Horton was connected well enough to land at the University of Wisconsin, where he's serving as quarterbacks coach. If there is a drawback to joining a program that comes into the season with two Rose Bowl victories in six years and with top-10 aspirations this season, it's that the Badgers' perceived weakness is at quarterback.

"Seems like I'm out of the frying pan and into the fire," Horton said Tuesday from Madison, where the Badgers are in the midst of two-a-daze. "It's fun, but it throws a lot of pressure on things.

"Everyone has been real nice to me so far, but wait until our quarterback throws his first interception. People will say 'Run that coach back to Las Vegas.' "

He laughs the same laugh that got him through trying times at UNLV, although there is a very real pressure on a position coach at a major university.

"No question about it," Horton said in response to the notion that the pressure he faces as an underling on the Badgers' staff is equal to what he faced running the Rebels. "Here, the expectations are very, very high. These people are talking about playing in the national championship game."

Wisconsin is ranked No. 11 in Sports Illustrated's preseason poll and has eight starters back from what was the best scoring defense in the country. In all, 14 starters return, including Ron Dayne, a running back who needs 1,717 yards to break the NCAA's career rushing record.

Yet, as S.I. noted, the key for this season is developing a passing game and Horton has narrowed the field to senior Scott Kavanagh and redshirt freshman Brooks Bollinger.

Horton is concerned, although probably not any more concerned than he was for his future after UNLV let him go.

"I wouldn't trade the good or the bad that happened to me in Las Vegas, but I didn't do as good as I could have as head coach and the nature of the game is that there's a price to pay," he said. "But (wife) Teri and I had the time of our lives in Las Vegas and when all is said and done we may go back there to live."

If so, perhaps he'll bump into one or more of his fellow ex-UNLV head coaches on the street or in a retirement center. But he sure won't bump into them on the sidelines of a football game.