The Register-Guard

September 2, 2007

Oregon strikes gold by hiring Horton as its baseball coach
By Ron Bellamy
The Register-Guard

In the end, the coach the Ducks never thought they could get took the job he never thought he would consider.

The University of Oregon introduced George Horton as its new baseball coach on Saturday, having reached agreement with the two-time national coach of the year who led Cal State-Fullerton to six trips to the College World Series in 11 seasons, including the national championship in 2004.

"The gold standard," director of athletics Pat Kilkenny said of Horton, who has a career record of 490-212-1.

"The bottom line is that the University of Oregon has immediate credibility as a baseball program. President (Dave) Frohnmayer said if you do it, be the best you can be and get the best you can get, and there's no doubt we did get the No. 1 coach in America."

The details of the agreement: A five-year contract that runs through June 30, 2012, subject to state approval, at $400,000 per year - a base salary of $150,000 per year and an additional $250,000 per year in guaranteed income derived in part from Oregon's contracts with the Oregon Sports Network and Nike.

Kilkenny said Horton could earn as much as $400,000 more each year in incentives ranging from academic success to postseason wins.

At Fullerton, Horton said, his package totaled $280,000, including a base salary of $140,000. He said Oregon's offer was competitive with some of the big-time offers he's turned down in recent years - by Oklahoma and Texas A&M. He said speculation that he's become the highest-paid coach in the country is inaccurate, but he said the package is commensurate with the top-level salaries in the Pac-10 Conference.

Oregon also announced that Cal State-Fullerton assistant coach Jason Gill, who served as recruiting coordinator for the Titans, will be joining Horton's staff, with an annual salary of $120,000 per year, plus a one-time stipend of $25,000.

Kilkenny confirmed that Oregon has no doubt already exceeded the proposed initial budget for baseball of $710,000 per year.

"It's significantly higher," Kilkenny said. "Philosophically, we're going to raise the money that we're going to spend. We're not going to take one nickel out of our operating account. ... We strongly believe that fundraising has become a lot easier as of today, a lot easier because of the leadership. It's all about having something to sell. I think we have a great product to sell."

That statement was echoed by Dave Roberts, the former University of Oregon baseball star who was a No. 1 draft choice, and who was consulted by the Ducks throughout the hiring process.

"He's just stellar," Roberts said of Horton. "There are no holes. George Horton is an excellent coach, he's an excellent person, he's an excellent recruiter, he's got a great passion for his job. I could go on and on. ...

"He's got to be, if not the best, one of the top coaches in the country. He's a great guy to lead the charge."

When Oregon began its search process, Roberts said, he never thought it could get Horton, and Kilkenny concurred, noting that it would be as beyond audacious as Oregon going after Duke's Mike Krzyzewski as a basketball coach. The Ducks were ambitious enough in the early going, going after both Vanderbilt's Tim Corbin, the Southeastern Conference coach of the year who elected to remain in Nashville, and Dave Serrano, of UC Irvine, Baseball America's national coach of the year, who withdrew his name from consideration and played a role in Oregon pursuing Horton, as far-fetched as that quest seemed.

"I thought he's entrenched back there," Roberts said of the Fullerton grad. "He's got his family there, he's already won a bunch, he's got some first-round draft choices next year, he's probably going to go back to the College World Series, so why do you want to come up here and start over and wait five years, or however long it will take?"

Those same thoughts, and the perception that Oregon wanted a phased approach to reaching the NCAA limit of 11.7 scholarships for baseball, had, in fact, led Horton to initially conclude that the Oregon job might be an appealing Pac-10 job to some, but not to him. After four trips to the CWS in the last five years, he said, his youngest daughter, Rebecca, considers it an annual vacation.

That changed, Horton said, when Serrano, his close friend and former assistant coach, was being courted by the Ducks and kept raving about Oregon's commitment to winning, its facilities and leadership. Even before Serrano withdrew his name from consideration, Horton had told his friend he was mulling going after the job as well, and asked that Serrano inform Oregon of his interest if, in fact, he pulled out.

Serrano did that, and Horton visited Oregon last Sunday and Monday, and reached agreement with the Ducks on Friday.

"Really, this makes no sense at all," Horton said. "I'm saying this in a respectful way. ... If you look at anybody who's been to Omaha four of the last five years, they're not moving institutions. ... They probably thought they couldn't get me out of there with a stick of dynamite. Well, this is beyond a stick of dynamite.

"This is so special. It wasn't about the money, it was about the leadership here, the direction here, the opportunity here to win another national championship; in the state of Oregon, just a little farther south."

Horton, who'd never been to Oregon before last weekend, had to confirm that Eugene is south of Corvallis, home of the Oregon State Beavers, who have won the last two national crowns. "We're going to try to make everybody forget where Corvallis is," Horton said.

He will now turn his attention to spending the coming school year preparing for Oregon's return to the baseball field during the 2008-09 school year, the first time the Ducks have offered the sport since dropping it in 1981. That will include filling out his staff - he's recruiting UC Riverside pitching coach Andrew Checketts for that position as the second full-time assistant, and Checketts was in Eugene on Saturday and introduced with Horton and Gill during the UO-Houston football game.

Checketts would bring Northwest roots - the graduate of West Linn High School played three seasons at Oregon State, graduating with a degree in business administration. As a senior in 1998, Checketts posted an 11-1 record and 3.77 ERA, striking out 73 batters in 86 innings and earning Pac-10 North Player of the Year honors.

That will also include developing a schedule - Horton wants the Ducks to play a full Pac-10 schedule in their first year. That will include finding a site and developing plans for a 5,000-seat stadium capable of hosting NCAA Super Regionals, though Horton recognizes that the Ducks will probably play their first season in Civic Stadium.

And that includes recruiting his first Oregon team, with the understanding that Oregon will allow him to exceed the 3.4 scholarships it had originally expected to invest in the first season, while recognizing that to award all 11.7 in the first year would be "suicidal."

Horton said his baseball philosophies can be summed up in "throw strikes, play catch and put the ball in play. ... We might not be as good (initially) as we're going to be in years two, three or four and beyond. We'll take the athletes we have and put green and gold on them and compete with anyone in the country and we'll expect to win."

As a major-league baseball scout for the past 20 years, Roberts said he's watched Horton's teams play at least 50 times.

"His teams play hard and they play smart and they play relaxed and they play the game right," Roberts said. "I've been very impressed with him, and I wouldn't say that about every college coach that I've seen. In fact, I wouldn't say that about many college teams, that I'm really impressed with the way they play the game, but I'm really impressed with what he's done."