Horton gives Crook 'D' in opening loss

UNLV head coach Jeff Horton didn't mince any words.

Asked during the weekly WAC coaches' teleconference Monday to evaluate the performance of starting quarterback Kevin Crook in Saturday's disappointing 41-7 loss at Northwestern, Horton couldn't be accused of sugarcoating.

"Probably a D," Horton said.

"I thought Kevin made some poor throws. We really emphasized not turning the ball over and not forcing it into coverage and he probably did that three or four times that cost us three interceptions.

"I thought we missed some checks that we should not have missed at the line of scrimmage. So I thought it was not a good effort at all."

Crook, the man on the hotseat after star quarterback Jon Denton transferred to Eastern Kentucky in the summer, completed 15 of 30 passes for 173 yards and one touchdown along with the three interceptions.

Don't look for a change at quarterback in the near future, however.

"(Crook) is still our guy," Horton said. "He's invested a lot of time. One game is not going to dictate a change. We have to get better and we have to do a better job as coaches preparing them because obviously he wasn't prepared as well as he needed to be. That falls on me."

Horton was then asked if Crook's backup, redshirt freshman Chris Hayward, was "even close" to being able to start.

"Hmmmmm," Horton said. "He's not far. ... somewhere in-between there."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

* PAYBACK TIME? San Diego State coach Ted Tollner will face the school that fired him unceremoniously, USC, Saturday night at the Coliseum. So you would think Tollner has had that date circled on his calendar for a long time, right? "I haven't really thought about it," Tollner said. "I've been back (to the Coliseum) several times since then when we played the Raiders when I was with the Chargers. So it won't be my first time back there. But it will be my first time back there as a college coach. But you get caught up into trying to win the game." Tollner was handed his pink slip by then Trojan athletic director Mike McGee after the 1986 season despite directing his young Trojan squad to a 7-5 record and a New Year's Day bowl berth in the Florida Citrus Bowl. Only two seasons earlier, he had coached USC to a 20-17 upset of No. 6 Ohio State in the Rose Bowl despite starting perhaps the weakest backfield in modern Trojan history ... quarterback Tim Green, fullback Todd Steele and tailback "Four-yard" Freddie Crutcher.

* BEST IN THE BAY? When Dave Baldwin was a wide receivers assistant under Jack Elway at San Jose State back in the early 1980s, beating Bay Area rivals Stanford and Cal was not unusual for the Spartans. "We beat Stanford three times during that span and Cal twice," Baldwin recalled. Now in his second year as head coach of the Spartans, Baldwin directed San Jose State, which opened as a 19-point underdog, to a stunning 35-23 victory over the Cardinal Saturday in Palo Alto. "It was huge victory for us," Baldwin said. "We had gone 0-18 in our games against the Pac-10 recently." It was also San Jose State's first non-conference win since 1995 when the Spartans beat Utah State, 32-20.

* MR. HONESTY: Wyoming coach Dana Dimel, whose squad opens its season Saturday against Montana State before heading off to SEC heavyweight Georgia the following week, admitted his team is looking ahead to the game with the Bulldogs in Athens next week. "We've spent seven of our practices for Georgia and four for Montana State," Dimel said. "But we will spend this week practicing for Montana State because it's our home opener. So it will be eight (practices) to seven after this week." When it was pointed out to Dimel that most coaches wouldn't admit they're looking ahead, Dimel replied, "I just tell it like it is. I don't like giving canned answers. I'm just trying to give you guys some straightforward answers."

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