It didn’t take long into Zach Horton’s football career for him to want something different.
The Roanoke, Va. native began playing as early as he was allowed to, at age five or six. He started at running back, and his earliest memory of the game came from that position. Horton scampered 90 yards for a highlight-reel touchdown, the type that would hype up most players. But he wasn’t in a celebratory mood after crossing the goal line.
“I went to the sideline to my dad, and I told him, ‘I don’t want to do it no more. I don’t want to run the football no more,'” Horton told The Daily Hoosier ahead of Indiana’s game against Purdue. “I don’t know why I said that. I don’t know why, cause I was tired or something. I don’t know. But I was like, ‘I just don’t want to do that.'”
Zach’s father, Bennie, supported the request, and moved him to offensive line. He still got the ball occasionally, but he mainly blocked.
That moment marked the beginning of Horton’s path at tight end, one that ultimately led him to an underrated, yet important, role in the greatest season in Indiana football history.
Dual threat
The core facets of Horton’s game trace back to his grade school days.
The intensity he plays with is the biggest thing that sticks out about him on the field. Horton gives maximum effort at all times, no matter what he’s doing, no matter the situation.
It’s particularly noticeable when he’s blocking. Horton’s caught some key passes this season for the Hoosiers, with four receiving touchdowns. But some of his biggest plays have come as a blocker, leading the way for wideouts or running backs on chunk gains or touchdowns.
Horton has a higher Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade than All-Big Ten center Mike Katic. And his run-blocking grade is higher than Drew Evans, IU’s starting left guard before his season-ending injury.
Not all of Horton’s blocks stand out from the crowd among IU’s offensive linemen, but his flashier, more vicious blocks — the ones where he just obliterates the opposing defender — have drawn reactions from fans.
He displayed that same blocking prowess in high school. Lord Botetourt High head coach Jamie Harless coached against Horton when the tight end played for Northside High, before he transferred to Botetourt as a senior. Harless called it a sigh of relief to go from opposing the tight end to coaching him, largely because of his effort.
“In high school, when he would block kids, it was absolutely devastating. We all talk about finishing blocks. Zach would finish the block on that guy; and if he probably had a chance, he’d go finish off their brother, their family, or break the garage door in,” Harless said in a phone interview. “The level of intensity that he played out when he blocked somebody, you sat back, and it’s just really hard not to admire it. Even coaching against him, you’re sitting there, you’re like, ‘Good gracious, look at this kid, look at how hard he plays.'”
That type of effort is important to Horton. It’s part of his character, how he aims to represent himself as a player.
And his teammates notice. Quarterback Kurtis Rourke said Horton works harder than anyone he knows.
Linebacker Jailin Walker, who joined Horton in following head coach Curt Cignetti from James Madison to IU, credited their battles in practice for helping make him the player he’s become.
“Since freshman year, me and Zach been bumping heads,” Walker said. “That’s my brother on and off the field. I know Zach is a great tight end, and he gets me better. So every day we get to go against each other, iron sharpens iron.”
Horton’s intensity goes hand-in-hand with his versatility. That’s what he most enjoys about playing tight end, being able to impact games in a lot of different ways.
His receiving stats are slightly down this season, as Indiana’s skill position players have remained mostly healthy and so many have been strong contributors. But Horton has been relatively sure-handed when the ball comes his way. Per PFF, he’s caught 20 passes this season out of his 24 targets, and only one of those four incompletions was a drop. That 83.3 catch percentage is the best mark on the Hoosiers among players with at least 15 targets on the year. And those receptions haven’t all been straightforward — he’s had to lay out for some balls and absorb some hits throughout the season.
Horton, overall, handles a big workload for the Hoosiers. Per PFF, his 639 offensive snaps this season rank 28th in the country among tight ends, and only three other Big Ten tight ends have played more snaps this season.
The combination of Horton’s receiving and blocking abilities prompted Harless to call him “a graceful bull.” And it’s part of what Indiana’s staff likes about him.
“He’s in incredible shape. For him to play as hard as he plays and the amount of plays that he’s playing within a game, I’ve always been very impressed with that part of his game,” offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan said. “And his versatility (is valuable). He can block the defensive ends in the box. He can block linebackers and DBs out in space, and he does a really good job catching the football whenever a pass comes his way.”
Struggle
Horton is a perfectionist, perhaps to a fault.
He so badly wants to play to the best of his ability. And at times, when coaches give him constructive criticism to help him improve, he doesn’t always take it well.
It’s an internal battle for perfection, when perfection in sport is both elusive and fleeting. And Horton can be hard on himself while chasing that.
It’s something the tight end dealt with back in high school as well, when coaches knew he could dominate with his pure physical tools but still harped on technique to make him even better.
“I think he struggled a little bit, maybe, with thinking, ‘Maybe I’m not this good, maybe I’m not smart enough.’ But we always reassured him that he was,” Harless said. “But I think Zach is one of those kids; he’s going to be really, really hard on himself. He wants to do it the right way, and he’s going to do everything in his power to make sure he does it the right way. And if he doesn’t, he’s going to be really hard on himself.”
The Virginia native is still working through that mental struggle.
It’s not something that’ll ever truly go away. Horton has learned how to manage it more effectively — how to give himself more grace, how to cool himself down when needed.
“You got to realize that everything’s not going to be perfect. Nothing in the world is perfect. So you got to just realize that, and just don’t be so hard on yourself,” Horton said. “Coach (Grant) Cain told me, ‘How you all talk to yourself, you want to be coached like that. So try to coach yourself to how you would want to coach others. Don’t try to be so hard on yourself.'”
But that ongoing battle has made him particularly attentive to the little things, one of his other strong on-field attributes.
“He’s a guy who’s very detailed. He wants to do it exactly the way we’re asking him to do it every single play,” Shanahan said. “He’s really just an all-around, really good player, complete player, and a guy that we have a lot of trust in.”
The road
Horton wasn’t always destined to play on a stage like the College Football Playoff.
He didn’t receive any power-conference offers coming out of high school. In fact, only three FBS schools — at the time — offered Horton. But Cignetti liked what he saw on film, and believed in the tight end’s potential.
“(He) showed tenacity, functional strength, explosion. Also the flexibility, ball skills, movement skills you’re looking for in a receiver. Thought he really had a good chance,” Cignetti said. “He wasn’t really highly recruited. I was surprised. He was a little under-recruited. But as soon as he got on campus, we knew we had a good player.”
Transferring from JMU was the biggest obstacle Horton’s faced in his football career. He’s had plenty of good days and bad days, highs and lows on the field throughout his time as a player. But he’s never waded into the unknown the way he did in Dec. 2023.
It wasn’t his first time transferring, as he did so in high school as well. But the situations were pretty different. Horton left Northside for Lord Botetourt to follow some close friends and teammates who also made that switch. There wasn’t any of the recruiting that happened when he entered the transfer portal last year.
He knew exactly where he was going when he changed high schools. The portal provided less certainty.
“When you’re doing all that, it can get scary, cause you just don’t know,” Horton said. “You’re changing a lot for your future. It’s a big, big step. And for me, being at JMU, I was an hour away from home. Then I came to IU, now I’m eight hours, nine hours away. So not being close to family like that, it can get really difficult. But with time, it got really easy. I made more friends and I love it here now.”
Horton ultimately stuck with Cignetti, over other offers including Maryland, Georgia Tech, and NC State. Harless added that an SEC coach reached out to him about the tight end’s status as well.
The high school transfer experience did help Horton adapt once he arrived in Bloomington. The unknown destination was the particularly unsettling aspect of the portal for him. Once he sorted things out and got to IU, he had an easier time adjusting to his new surroundings.
A journey
Indiana football’s remarkable season has created stars around the field.
Rourke placed in the top 10 in Heisman Trophy voting. Defensive end Mikail Kamara became IU’s first Associated Press All-American in 10 years. Ty Son Lawton and Justice Ellison became the first running back duo in program history with at least 10 rushing touchdowns apiece. Wide receiver Elijah Sarratt has consistently shined in the spotlight. Linebacker Aiden Fisher was the Big Ten’s third-leading tackler and led IU’s stout defense on and off the field. D’Angelo Ponds was one of the top cornerbacks in the country.
Horton might not be among the first names fans mention from this team, like that group would. But he’s a big reason why the Hoosiers will take on Notre Dame in the CFP first round on Friday. His ride to this point after his portal uncertainty a year ago has been rewarding.
“It’s been a journey,” Horton said. “You’re just putting a lot of faith into something that a lot of people don’t believe in. So you just got to ride that journey. To be where we’re at right now, it’s been a heck of a ride. It’s been really exciting, too. It teaches you a lot. And I’ve got a lot of lessons that I’ve learned for a lifetime. So I’m really thankful for it.”
This, in all likelihood, is Horton’s last ride as a college football player, barring any unlikely NCAA waivers. He went through IU’s senior day festivities before the Purdue game.
By simply playing a key role on this historic Indiana team, he’ll already have a legacy in Bloomington.
But the way Horton will be remembered, in particular, seems clear.
“There’s a very minute percentage of human beings that play as hard as Zach Horton plays the game of football,” Harless said. “It’s a damn fine thing to get to watch.”
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