Jan. 24, 2011
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State head football coach Rocky Long announced the addition of four more coaches to his staff on Monday. Daniel Gonzales (safeties), Jeff Horton (assistant head coach/running backs), Osia Lewis (defensive line) and Kevin McGarry (linebackers) will join the Aztecs immediately.
Gonzales, a graduate of New Mexico and former assistant at his alma mater under Long, will coach SDSU's safeties. Gonzales worked with the safeties, punters, kickers and deep snappers at UNM from 2005-08, after being the school's video coordinator from 2003-05, and a defensive graduate assistant football coach from 1999-2002.
"I have known coach Gonzales for many years since his collegiate playing days at UNM," Long said. "He is an extremely hard worker, whose devotion to this profession will allow him to develop an immediate bond with our players and the rest of the coaching staff."
Under Gonzales' tutelage, the New Mexico safeties combined for 55 pass breakups in 2007-08, and the 2007 Lobos ranked 13th nationally in total defense, 14th in scoring defense and 20th in passing defense. In addition, he coached place-kickers John Sullivan to consensus All-American honors in 2007, and James Aho to freshman All-America accolades in 2008.
Gonzlaes was a three-year letterwinner at New Mexico, playing punter and safety. He earned the team's Chuck Cummings Memorial Award for morale and spirit as a senior and was a part of the 1997 squad that won the Western Athletic Conference Mountain Division championship. The Albuquerque, N.M., native has a bachelor's degree from UNM in business administration and general management and a master's degree in physical education and recreation.
With over six years of experience as a Division I head coach, Horton will serve as San Diego State's assistant head coach and running backs coach. Horton comes to The Mesa after spending the final five games of 2010 as the interim head coach at Minnesota. With Horton at the helm, the Gophers went 2-3 with victories over a pair of bowl-bound teams in Illinois and Iowa, after beginning the year with a 1-6 mark. As the co-offensive coordinator, Minnesota saw drastic improvements from 2009 in total offense (+34), rushing offense (+26), passing offense (+18), scoring offense (+11), turnovers (+82), time of possession (+82) and penalties (+21).
"Coach Horton has extensive experience at both the collegiate and professional levels," Long said. "He has worked on the offensive side of the ball for over 25 years and will be the guiding force in the further development of our running backs."
Prior to his time at Minnesota, Horton was the quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions in 2009, where he worked with No. 1 overall pick Matthew Stafford, and was the assistant offensive line coach, special assistant to the head coach and offensive assistant with the St. Louis Rams from 2006-08. Horton also spent seven seasons (1999-2005) as the quarterbacks coach at Wisconsin, helping the Badgers to four bowl wins in six appearances, including a 17-9 victory over Stanford in the 2000 Rose Bowl.
Horton has also been a head coach at UNLV from 1994-98, and at Nevada during the 1993 season when the Wolf Pack boasted a 7-4 record. In addition, Horton spent six years as a wide receivers, special teams or running backs coach at Nevada (1985-89, 1992), two years as an assistant head coach, running backs and wide receivers coach at UNLV (1990-91) and a season as a graduate assistant coach at Minnesota (1984). Horton graduated from Nevada in 1981 and earned his master's from the University of San Francisco in 1993.
Lewis has been a defensive coordinator at both the collegiate and professional levels since 2003, and has been a full-time football coach in the Mountain West Conference, Conference USA, Big Ten and Pac-10.
"Coach Lewis has a lot of experience in the 3-3-5 defensive scheme, which was one of the things that I was looking for to help make a quick transition here at San Diego State," Long said. "He understands our defensive philosophy, knows our conference and does a great job at developing young talent."
He worked alongside coach Long at the University of New Mexico from 2003-08, as the Lobos' defensive coordinator and also tutored the defensive line and linebackers. During his tenure, UNM went to four bowl games and its defensive unit was fifth in the country in rushing defense in 2003 and first in the MWC in total defense in 2003 and 2004.
Before moving to Albuquerque, he was at the University of Illinois for six years as the squad's defensive ends/special teams (1997-2000) and linebackers (2001-02) coach. In 2001, the Illini went 10-2 overall, won the Big Ten title, earned a berth in the Nokia Sugar Bowl and earned a No. 12 final ranking in the coaches' poll.
Lewis was an honorable mention All-American and team captain at Oregon State from 1981-85, before playing professionally in the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts and in the AFL with the Chicago Bruisers and New York Firebirds. He has a bachelor's and a master's degree both from Oregon State, where he was also an assistant coach from 1991-97, working for the first five seasons with Long, who was the Beavers' defensive coordinator.
McGarry served as an assistant to the Aztec coaching staff the past two years and will coach the linebackers. He was head coach across town at the University of San Diego for eight campaigns, compiling a 39-37 overall record with national rankings on three occasions.
"Coach McGarry has worked with our program the last two seasons and is very familiar with our University and the student-athletes," Long said. "He also has deep connections in the San Diego area as a collegiate and prep coach and will continue to develop those ties."
Under McGarry's direction, the Toreros were the No. 1 offense in the nation (Div. I-AA) in 2003 and consistently were rated in the top 20 in various defensive categories. He was named the Pioneer Football League Coach of the Year in 2002 and had eight players garner All-America honors. In 2002, McGarry helped then junior quarterback Eric Rasmussen rank first in the nation in passing efficiency (164.2).
The USD alum has a bachelor's degree in diversified liberal arts and a master's in educational administration. He was the Toreros' head women's softball coach from 1980-85 and served as the football team's defensive coordinator from 1978-95.
Last week, coach Long announced that LeCharls McDaniel, Brian Sipe and Tony White would continue their roles as assistant football coaches at SDSU. In addition, Rick Court was hired as the team's strength and conditioning coach.