When Nevada played at Fresno State during the 2019 season, third-year head coach Jay Norvell was looking for a road win.
He left with both a road win and a recruiting win, even though no FBS program had offered a certain Fresno-area receiver who was still flying under the radar.
The night before the Wolf Pack’s win over the Bulldogs, Nevada receivers coach Eric Scott attended a CIF-Central Section playoff game to see Fresno (California) Washington Union take on Porterville (California). He was there to scout a receiver that graduate assistant Chad Savage and director of player personnel Lucas Gauthier had identified and recommended to Scott.
It turned out to be the least productive game of the season for that receiver, senior Tory Horton, who was held to just one catch for 54 yards.
But Scott saw for himself what Savage had been selling him on, and Norvell signed off on the offer. Nevada offered Horton a scholarship.
Horton had been a three-star prospect on 247Sports since February 2019, despite having no offers — not even from smaller schools.
He wasn’t an unknown. His older brother, Tyler Horton, had just wrapped up his career at Boise State, where he was a three-year starter for the Broncos.
While Washington Union hadn’t produced much talent since Deontay Greenberry in 2012, Horton was part of one of the most talented receiver groups on the 7-on-7 circuit. His team, No Zone, had five future Division I receivers, including two rookies now in the NFL: Xavier Worthy and Jalen McMillan. The other two are current Washington receiver Jeremiah Hunter and Fresno State receiver Mac Dalena.
“We had all those receivers on No Zone, and now they’re doing the same, if not better, at the next level,” said Mike Ware, Horton’s Fresno-based 7-on-7 coach for No Zone.
Yet, for whatever reason, Horton’s recruitment was slow.
By late October 2019, Horton still had just two offers, both from Big Sky schools: Montana and Northern Colorado.
As Savage, Scott, Norvell and Gauthier searched for a developmental receiver to add late, their trip to Washington Union changed Horton’s fortunes.
In turn, it also gave Norvell one of the best players he’s coached at Nevada, one he would later take with him when he was hired at Colorado State in 2022.
In his redshirt sophomore season with the Rams in 2022 — his first in Fort Collins — Horton caught 71 passes for 1,131 yards and eight touchdowns.
He followed that up in 2023 with 96 receptions for 1,136 yards and another eight touchdowns.
With one year of eligibility left due to a covid-shortened 2020 season, Horton had a choice: join Worthy and McMillan in the NFL Draft, transfer to a Power Four school via the portal, or stay in Fort Collins. He was one of 20 players in a CBS Sports audit of underrated draft-eligible prospects in the preseason.
He chose loyalty, remembering the chance Norvell and Savage took on him, and returned to Colorado State for one final season.
“He’s a loyal kid and comes from a loyal family,” Savage said.
With Colorado visiting Fort Collins on Saturday for the first time since 1996 in a nationally televised game on CBS (7:30 p.m. ET), the Rams are hoping Horton will be 100%.
In last week’s win over FCS Northern Colorado, Horton had a 78-yard punt return for a touchdown and a team-high 65 yards receiving before leaving the game with an injury.
“Tory is sore but I think he’s going to be available to play, so we’ll see how he progresses over the week,” Norvell said this week.
Last year, in the Rams’ heartbreaking overtime loss to Colorado in Boulder, Horton caught a career-high 16 passes (one of four games on the season with double-digit receptions) for 133 yards and a touchdown.
He’s a two-time All-Mountain West first-team selection, and the NFL is clearly in his future.
But if the Wolf Pack hadn’t been playing on the road in Fresno and gone to see him play, Horton might have had a completely different future.
