Everyone Agrees: A Bit More of Horton is a Good Thing
A bigger version of the wideout on the prowl for records
Mike Brohard
The request wasn’t anything Tory Horton had not heard before. Or even sought personally.
When the all-conference wideout took a stroll through the NFL Draft evaluation process, he knew at the very least he would gain some valuable feedback, notes which would shape a rather major decision.
What league scouts told him was another year of college football wouldn’t be a bad idea because there were not going to be any guarantees should he leave. Should he decide to return, they told him, the request was they wanted to see more.
Not particularly production – he’s been nothing but a stat-sheet filler – but to see him do it all again would be a bonus. Not speed: he has that to burn. His route running is sharp but tightening a few lines wouldn’t hurt.
The main thing was more of him. As in bulk. More muscle on his 6-foot-3 frame, see him use it over a dozen games or more, take hits and pop back up. Prove himself to be Timex tough. To take a licking and keep on ticking off yards after the catch on a field where every defensive back is looking to make a highlight-reel with bone-jarring contact.
“I feel like they hit everything. They see that the speed is there and the ball-tracking skills,” Horton said. “They said I could improve on my routes a little bit, but that’s something I’ve been working on. The one thing I did take was I could show them more strength on the field. They said my blocking was good, but you can always improve in anything. My main goal is to show the strength I have and go out and make more contested catches, getting dirty in the middle. I want to do those things to show I’m durable and I’m able to go out and take those big hits and play with strength.”
Tell him something new.
This has been the request ever since he was recruited out of high school, and late to boot, because he was on the smallish side – 6-1 and a dozen donuts shy of 160 pounds. Young, too. He was a mere pup, 17-years old when he enrolled at Nevada to play in Jay Norvell’s Air Raid system. The Fresno, Calif., product is entering his fifth season of college football, but he won’t turn 22 until the final regular-season game, Nov. 29, a Friday night at Canvas Stadium with Utah State in for a visit.
Getting bigger has always been the goal, and it has proven to be a bit of an uphill battle, but one where he’s finally starting to gain some substantial ground. Horton has constantly tried, but his biggest adversary has been himself, his rigorous workouts and his hummingbird metabolism.
And for the past four years, it has somewhat become Jordon Simmons’ search for the Holy Grail. Call it a love-hate relationship between the star wideout and Colorado State’s speed and strength coach at times, but Horton wouldn’t ever trade the times, frustrating or exhilarating.
We’re still going up. Sometimes I think I can’t go up, and he says, ‘no, we’re going now.’ The weight is going up and the speed, it’s going up.Tory Horton
“I want to say the first two weeks at Nevada, I loved Jordon. The intro stuff. But then you get to wrapping things up, and I’m really not in that big group my first year,” Horton said. “That sophomore year, he was, ‘it’s time to crank stuff up,’ and I promise you sometimes I didn’t even want to talk to him. Then there were other times I said I can’t believe I did that, and he told me he wasn’t going to let me cheat or cut corners.
“I’ve never had that mindset, but it’s hard to see the first week, 185, then week nine it’s 250 on the bench. That’s a good jump from where I started and even where I’m now. We’re still going up. Sometimes I think I can’t go up, and he says, ‘no, we’re going now.’ The weight is going up and the speed, it’s going up.”
The speed which serves him so well on the field hinders his goal of packing on and retaining body mass. It’s much easier for him to blow past a defensive back than it is to gain the weight he craves. He packed on 15 pounds of muscle entering this past spring camp, but after a small break at home, he had to retrace some steps on the scale.
Simmons said that’s the norm for all players. What’s not normal is Horton, which has been factored into the plan Simmons has, the one CSU’s director of sports nutrition, Matt Garrell considers in his work with Horton.
“Tory has an extremely high metabolism, so he’s a hard gainer, but because of how hard he works in here. It’s not easy, but it’s not difficult either because of his work ethic,” Simmons said. “Even when I was modifying stuff with him, he wanted to do everything everyone else was doing and he wants to push the envelope all the time. It’s a process to do it the right way and make sure we’re not putting the wrong weight on him.
“Tall and lean is part of it. It’s not necessarily his build, it’s his super-high metabolism. And his workload as a receiver, he’s burning a lot of calories.”
Horton’s fast, a skill he puts on constant display. The Air Raid requires it. Run a deep route, come back, run another on the next play. It’s part of wearing down a defense, and Horton insists on being in the type of shape where he can do it for four quarters.
In the summer, when the sun burns hottest, is when he runs the most. In just the first two weeks of summer workouts, he had already surpassed 300 sprints where he was clocked at more than 19 miles per hour.
In the weight room, he’s just as relentless. Because he is tall and lean, some people may overlook the muscle he has packed on his frame. His numbers are almost as impressive to Simmons as his on-field speed, and for him, it’s the perfect before-and-after snapshot of how a body can transform.
Horton is just as proud of those numbers. When he wants to compare and contrast his workouts, he likes to pit himself with Jacob Gardner, the starting center, and safety Jack Howell. He also likes to talk smack with both of them.
“Even though he’s our starting center, I still call him weak,” Horton said. “Then he and I will have our battles, and he’ll show me how to do something. He’ll have a lot of weight on the bar, but sometimes I’m up there and he’ll say sometimes, ‘I’m surprised you did that.’ I always get him on the pullups.
“I do the same thing with Jack. We go at it every time in the weight room. I try to match numbers with him. He’s in that program throwing up heavy weight. I try to compete, even though my time isn’t as fast, I still throw some of the same weight as him. Thats’ what I like to see, me competing with those guys on the bulkier, stronger side. I can get the weight up; I’m just trying to get that speed.”
That’s a tribute to what he does on the field, because it’s the stuff behind closed doors people don’t see which makes him great.Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi
Those competitions are vital for the team, Simmons said, because it bleeds into the other sections of the weight room. Specifically, when Horton and Howell are going at each other, Simmons said the rest of the team really takes notice.
More importantly, they follow suit.
“He and Jack specifically, they are non-stop competitive with each other. They are constantly looking at each other’s bar speed and how much weight are you lifting, and I moved it this fast,” Simmons said. “It’s awesome. It brings a competitive spirit to the weight room which rubs off on everybody else. Their energy levels are so high and they’re sitting there yelling at each other from across the weight room, so it’s neat. It’s comical.”
Pre- and post-workout is where Garrell has tried to make the biggest changes with the receiver. For the nutritionist, it didn’t take long to ascertain Horton just wasn’t fueling his body enough to match the workload.
As Garrell explained, every player is going to lose a little bit of something during a workout. The key is to not lose so much they go into the “negative,” where the body reaches the point the muscles start to take a hit. Horton’s ears perked up when he was told it also has a lot to do with injury prevention.
Garrell knows some athletes don’t like eating before a workout. Most don’t want to refuel in the middle of one, either. For someone like Horton, it’s a requirement, not a suggestion.
“His thing is how we can get calories in. Training table is limited with what you can do,” Garrell explained. “We went with a meal-prep delivery service to fill his basic needs. If you get to complicated with exact numbers and learning a plate, they can get lost, so we try to make it as simple as possible. It’s a taste test, too. You have to like what you eat; that’s the other thing, especially when you’re telling kids you have to eat when you’re not hungry and have to eat extra meals and extra snacks.
“It’s been retraining him on how much to eat and how often.”
To his credit, Horton has latched on to not just eating enough but often enough. Every player will take in a recovery shake after a workout, some more than one. Horton’s aim is one and a half, but it doesn’t stop there.
He needed more, and the elixir he settled on was hard-boiled eggs. He puts down four after every workout, putting him up to as many as 40 in a week. A little salt, a sprinkle of pepper, even some hot sauce. If they start to feel too routine, he’ll switch to the tuna-to-go portions the team offers. On the days he really doesn’t feel like it – “sometimes that last egg is hard to get down” – he has running back Avery Morrow eating them with him and encouraging his friend to keep with the program.
It is working because there is more of Horton. His goal through the season – another challenge entirely – is to maintain his weight around 190 pounds.
His body has constantly changed throughout his career. His numbers across the board have all shot up to the point where Simmons has seen him become one of the few athletes he’s had (about 10) who are elite athletes who have reached an excellent rating on the five lifting metrics he tracks.
What has never really changed is Horton has always been a weapon. Entering his third season at Colorado State, he is in line to become the program’s career leader in both receptions in yardage. He needs 73 catches to move past Rashard Higgins (the record is 239). He’ll need to have his best season yardage wise to beat Higgins’ mark of 1,383, but it’s not out of the question.
Having spent his entire career in the Mountain West, he already ranks fifth all-time in career receptions with 239, needing just 45 to break the mark set by UNLV’s Ryan Wolfe of 283. He only needs 289 yards to surpass Higgins on the career yardage list.
“I didn’t know I was that close to that stuff. It is nice to hear, but my main focus is just staying consistent and making sure I’m on the top of my game,” Horton said. “I was never the selfish type to take from other people, but when the opportunity comes, I make the most of it. I think it shows on the field, and that’s what I’m grateful for.”
As he’s grown in the system, he’s felt he’s added polish to all it requires. He classifies himself as detail-oriented, even from an early age. When he started in the Air Raid, he felt he was a bit ahead in being able to read coverages, and with more experience, he believes he sees the field even better, allowing him to gain separation in those one-on-one battles with defenders.
It has also helped him avoid contact, adding to his accumulation of yards after a catch. The NFL wants to see him do it again. Fine. Those around the team see it all the time.
“The day I came in, I noticed there was something different. He always had his head down, working,” quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi said. “He stays to himself, pretty quiet, but you can tell from the work ethic. He’s always getting extra work; he’s always somewhere doing something extra. That’s a tribute to what he does on the field, because it’s the stuff behind closed doors people don’t see which makes him great.”
Which leads to great catches, and Horton has his favorites. The overtime post route against Colorado. A contested catch off a flea-flicker against his former school, Nevada. The out-and-up against Wyoming.
Fowler-Nicolosi has his own list of favorites, made up of receptions off throws he felt he’d misfired. The back-corner, one-handed catch with a toe-tap against Middle Tennessee State. A sideline catch at a crucial moment in the rally over Boise State. The sideline catch against Colorado, where Horton was completely stretched out for all he was worth.
“He’s done it several times,” Fowler-Nicolosi said, “and I’m more than grateful.”
As is Horton. For Simmons loading the bar. For Garrell loading his plate.
If people want more, fine. Horton is ready to give it to them.
Support Colorado State Athletics: Tickets | Ram Club | Green And Gold Guard