September 2, 2007

Horton couldn't resist Oregon coaching job
By RANDY YOUNGMAN
The Orange County Register

When George Horton was introduced as the new Ducks coach Saturday, I was shocked.

After all, Randy Carlyle led the Ducks to the Stanley Cup championship this past June, and training camp begins next week. Besides, I didn't even know Horton had a hockey background.

All kidding aside, I was very surprised when reports surfaced last week that Horton, the smashingly successful Cal State Fullerton baseball coach the past 11 years, was talking to the Oregon Ducks about their baseball coaching vacancy.

Why would Horton consider leaving a program he had established as an annual College World Series contender — one national championship and two other final-four finishes to show for six trips to Omaha in the past nine years — to resurrect a program that has not fielded a baseball team since 1981?

Maybe Horton merely was listening, just as UC Irvine coach Dave Serrano, one of George's best friends, had listened to the same search committee in recent weeks before he decided not to pursue the Oregon job.

Never hurts to listen, right? Especially when someone sends a private jet — in this case, Nike founder Phil Knight's corporate jet — to whisk you and your wife to the Pacific Northwest for an unplanned, all-expenses-paid weekend vacation. That happened a week ago Sunday.

"The only other time I had been on a private jet was on (CSF alumnus) Kevin Costner's G-3," Horton recalled Sunday from Oregon before flying back to Orange County with a new job. "It doesn't get any better than that. We were there for 48 hours. It seemed like a recruiting trip."

It was. Oregon was recruiting Horton. And, suffice to say, Horton ultimately was overwhelmed in Eugene by what he saw, what he heard and what he envisions.

It wasn't all about money, but the money certainly got his attention. If someone offers you the opportunity to become the nation's highest-paid college baseball coach, offers you the challenge to build a program from the ground up, offers you the luxury of opening a campus baseball stadium with all of the creature comforts you desire, don't you have to listen carefully?

All of which explains why a very conflicted Horton decided to accept the Oregon coaching job this past weekend, leaving behind the school and the program he loved and the program that made George Horton a big name in college baseball.

He signed a five-year contract that could be worth several million dollars, including incentives, shoe contracts, baseball camps, radio-TV revenue and Nike-related opportunities.

"I have nothing but tremendous feelings about Cal State Fullerton, because I'm a Titan," said Horton, who played baseball for the Titans and returned to campus as an assistant under the legendary Augie Garrido, whom he succeeded as head coach in 1997. "I admire and respect all the athletes and administrators there.

"But this opportunity meant a difference of $2 million in five years for my family. You have to think about something like this. It's great thing for my family, and that's what it came down to. But it was still a coin flip for me. That tells you how I feel about Cal State Fullerton."

Ultimately, however, Horton decided to leave Southern California, where he has lived virtually his entire life, and move his family to Oregon, a state, interestingly, he just visited for the first time.

"I think I'm going to have to buy an umbrella," he said, laughing.

Horton says he is looking forward to the challenge of restarting a Pac-10 program that was eliminated a quarter-century ago, victimized by budget cuts and Title IX restrictions, and has been given "the green light to do what I need to do" to field a team in 2009.

That means he will be allowed the full complement of offering 11.7 scholarships, though he doesn't expect to use all of them the first year. He's also excited about the new baseball stadium being built, with funds provided by Knight, his new best friend, an Oregon alumnus who recently donated $100 million to the athletic department. (That didn't happen at Fullerton.)

Horton, who compiled a 490-212-1 record and won two national coach of the year awards at Cal State Fullerton, enthusiastically endorsed longtime CSF assistant Rick Vanderhook as his successor "because he deserves the shot. He was my Rock of Gibraltar, and Augie's, too."

Horton also made it a point to thank Serrano, the CSF pitching coach on Horton's 2004 national championship team, for turning down the Oregon job.

"Maybe that's his way of paying me back for everything I've done for him," Horton said, chuckling.

He is proud to have left his mark on the program.

"The program is in better shape than when Augie left, and it was in great shape then," Horton said. "So to leave a place you love, it makes you feel good you were able to give back to the program that helped you."

Ba-da-bing!From Dan Daly in the Washington Times: "Boise State last year. Appalachian State this year. What's next — USC getting knocked off by Wottsamatta U?"