SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State football associate head coach Jeff Horton announced his retirement on Tuesday. Horton, who also was the team's offensive coordinator last year and coaches the Aztec running backs, has spent the last 12 seasons with SDSU.
For his career, Horton coached 43 years, including 35 seasons in the college ranks with seven seasons as a head coach, four years in the NFL and another four years of high school ball.
"(Retirement) is something I've been thinking about for a long time," Horton said. "I've always said I wanted my retirement to be my decision. In this profession 99 percent of the time you don't get to leave on your terms and I'm getting to do that. I wanted to leave the party when I'm still having a blast and I am doing that too. I look forward to spending more time with my wife and family in the next chapter of my life."
"The world of football is going to miss a man like Jeff Horton in what he has brought every day to the young men that he coaches," San Diego State head coach Brady Hoke said. "San Diego State owes Jeff a debt of gratitude for everything that he's done here. I couldn't be happier to have the opportunity to work with Jeff, and we wish Jeff and his wife, Teri, a happy retirement."
After serving as the team's offensive coordinator from 2015-19, Horton became SDSU's OC once again in early-October with the team averaging just 19.0 points, 258.2 total yards and 65.6 passing yards per game. Over the final eight games with Horton as the offensive coordinator, San Diego State averaged 23.0 points, 366.6 total yards and 254.0 passing yards per game.
In Horton's 12 years on The Mesa, the Aztecs were bowl eligible all 12 seasons, made a bowl game in 11 and won three Mountain West titles.
Horton coached his starting running backs to all-MW honors in 11 of his 12 years at SDSU, including Super Bowl champion Ronnie Hillman (2011), Adam Muema (2012-13), the NCAA's all-time leading rusher Donnel Pumphrey (2014-16), San Diego State's single-season leading rusher Rashaad Penny (2017), Juwan Washington (2018) and Greg Bell (2020-21).
In 2016, Horton was named the FootballScoop Running Backs Coach of the Year when the Aztecs became the first team in NCAA FBS history to produce a 2,000-yard rusher (Pumphrey) and a 1,000-yard rusher (Penny) in the same season. SDSU set Division I-era single-season records in rushing yards (3,680), rushing touchdowns (34), rushing yards per carry (5.8) and points (493).
Horton coached Pumphrey to one of the best rushing careers in FBS history. A Heisman candidate, Doak Walker Award finalist and a three-time All-American, Pumphrey finished his career as the NCAA FBS career record holder in rushing yards (6,405) and was fifth in all-purpose yards (7,515), tied for eighth in overall touchdowns (67) and ninth in rushing touchdowns (62). He was picked in the fourth round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Under Horton's tutelage in 2017, Penny capped off his stellar senior campaign becoming just the third consensus All-American in program history while finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting, the highest placement by an Aztec since Marshall Faulk took fourth in 1993. In addition, Penny recorded the fifth-best NCAA FBS single-season rushing total in history with a school-record 2,248 yards and finished with a career-average of 7.49 yards per carry, which represents the third-highest total among FBS schools since 1996.
Horton also had Hillman receive All-America recognition from the Associated Press in 2011 after the Aztec running back rushed for a then conference-record 1,711 yards, which ranked fourth nationally, and added 19 touchdowns. Hillman, who was one of 10 semifinalists for the Doak Walker Award that season, was selected in the third round of the NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos in April 2012.
Horton came to The Mesa after spending the final five games of the 2010 campaign 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.
Prior to his time at Minnesota, he was the quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions in 2009, working with No. 1 overall Draft pick Matthew Stafford. Horton began his stint in the NFL with the St. Louis Rams from 2006-08, where he was the assistant offensive line coach, special assistant to the head coach and an offensive assistant.
Before joining the NFL ranks, Horton was on the sidelines in six bowl games as the quarterbacks coach at Wisconsin from 1999-2005. The Badgers tallied four postseason victories, including a 17-9 win over Stanford in the 2000 Rose Bowl, after claiming the Big Ten championship.
An Arlington, Texas, native, Horton was the head coach at UNLV for five years from 1994-98. In 1994, he was named the Big West Coach of the Year after leading the Rebels to the conference title and a berth in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Before becoming the head coach at UNLV, Horton compiled a 7-4 record at Nevada in his first season as a head coach in 1993. The Wolf Pack led the nation in offense that campaign, including 4,373 yards passing.
Horton also spent six years as a wide receivers, special teams or running backs coach at Nevada (1985-89, 1992) and two campaigns as an assistant head coach, running backs and wide receivers coach at UNLV (1990-91). He started his collegiate coaching career in 1984 as a graduate assistant at Minnesota under head coach Lou Holtz.
Horton graduated from Nevada in 1981 with a bachelor's degree and later earned his master's from the University of San Francisco in 1993. He played at Arkansas as a walk-on wide receiver from 1976-77.