November 17, 1998
LAS VEGAS - UNLV head coach Jeff Horton will be reassigned at the conclusion of the 1998 football season, the school announced Tuesday.
"In addition to being a decent, caring person, Jeff Horton has been a wonderful representative for our University," UNLV President Dr. Carol C. Harter said. "Hopefully, he will consider joining us in another capacity.
"We are committed to competing in football in the Mountain West Conference and division I-A level and will do everything possible to secure a top-notch football coach," Harter said.
Horton will finish his fifth year leading the Rebels with Saturday's season finale vs. Texas Christian at Sam Boyd Stadium.
"Coach Horton will be reassigned to a position in the athletics department that has yet to be determined," Director of Athletics Charles Cavagnaro said. "I am currently defining a position at the senior level for him. I know of no better ambassador for UNLV than Jeff Horton."
Hired on Nov. 23, 1993, Horton also spent one year as the head coach of Nevada, Reno. He currently has a record of 13-43 at UNLV and 20-47 in six seasons overall. His 1994 Rebel squad won the Big West Conference title and the Las Vegas Bowl.
A national search for a new head coach, who will be the school's eighth in the 31-year history of the program, will begin immediately.
Head Coach Jeff Horton made the following statement:
"I am prefacing this by stating that I can not be at the press conference because I need to make myself available to my players, as they are my first priority. This is a very difficult situation for me, my assistant coaches, our families and our players, as we are doing our best to make sense of our dismissal.
The direction in which I took the program includes a conference title, a Las Vegas Bowl championship, a substantial increase in the team's grade point average and the recruiting of student-athletes with strong character. Players who did not adhere to the moral and academic standards were removed from the program in order to insure its long-term viability.
I inherited a program with 44 scholarship players (85 is the maximum allowed) and was charged with making UNLV Football a program that the University, community and boosters would be proud to support. The foundation for the future was based on creating an environment where athletes could be students first and athletes second. This 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.
Today, I am disappointed that I did not have the opportunity to complete my mission because the administration has seen fit to make a change. It is easy to point at our win-loss record as the only barometer of our success, but knowing other facts is critical. Our football budget needs to be greatly improved in order to compete with the caliber of teams we are currently competing against. They have much longer traditions and deeper resources from which to draw. The school's move from the Big West Conference to the WAC changed the direction of our rebuilding effort - especially in recruiting.
This change in mid-stream was perceived as a positive but realistically made our mission more difficult. However, we rose to the occasion as our last two recruiting classes were ranked fifth and sixth respectively out of 16 schools in the league.
I am a fighter and a survivor. My coaches are fighters and survivors. We preach this to the kids and that will never change. My only regret in leaving UNLV Football is that I will not see my players enjoy future victories, which they will earn because of the solid foundation we have built.
Right now, the most important mission for my staff and me is to prepare our kids for Saturday's game against TCU."
