It's tough to really blame Horton. He's put up incredible numbers after learning the ropes under Augie Garrido at Fullerton. Horton leaves behind some legacy in Southern California. He took the Titans to the College World Series six times in his 11 years, winning the national championship in 2004, including last season when Fullerton went on a nice run through the postseason before bowing out to conference foe UC Irvine.

So why leave a winning tradition to deal with all that goes with building a program from scratch? There are a couple of reasons. A ton of coaches have a dream of building a program from nothing into a contender. It's just what a coach dreams of. It's in their blood. From a staff, to the first recruiting class, to building a stadium, to picking the uniforms (and you know there will be plenty of combos), it'll all lie on Horton's shoulders.

The other reason is money. Plain and simple, Fullerton doesn't have the same financial resources that Oregon does, thanks to Nike founder Phil Knight. What many people call Nike U, Oregon just received a $100 million donation from Knight to its athletic programs. You know they will be dishing out quite a lot for Horton.

Will they be able to compete? Eventually. The school has said that the team will only have four or five scholarships to start, before reaching the 11.7 total that other schools receive in year four or five. But a school spokersperson has said that could change depending on what coach they bring in.

Horton brings in some real good recruiting lines to compete with Oregon State's Pat Casey, who owns the Pacific Northwest. It'll be interesting to see if Horton is able to wrestle away some of the dominance that Casey has had in the area. But expect a lot of SoCal kids heading North in the first couple of years.

He's got a lot of work ahead of him, and leaves behind a Fullerton program that has to be kind of stunned. Garrido left to take over Texas. Horton leaves to take over Oregon. Obviously a difference.

But they are left in somewhat good hands. Isn't it funny that during the CWS, assistant coach Rick Vanderhook was promoted to associate head coach? I won't believe that they were setting up for this in June, but sometimes things just work out. Vanderhook had been rumored to have wanted to take over a high school program in the area, but got the promotion.

He's got to be the man for the job now, especially since he's been with the program now for 21 years. There will be a load more on this story in the coming weeks. It'll be fun to follow how a big-time program is built, from literally nothing.