ISU football coach Dan McCarney filled his lone coaching vacancy, hiring Jeff Horton to be the Cyclones’ tight ends coach and special teams coordinator.

Horton fills a spot left open after Terry Allen resigned to become the head coach at Missouri State.

“I was not just going to go anywhere,” Horton said in a press release. “I knew Dan and was aware of the great success he has had at Iowa State.”

Horton comes to Iowa State from Wisconsin, where he had been the Badgers’ quarterbacks coach for the last seven seasons.

Prior to coaching at Wisconsin, he was the head coach at UNLV, taking that team to a Big West Conference championship in 1994.

“I feel great about this because Jeff comes from a very strong program, where he made major contributions to the success of Wisconsin football,” McCarney said in the release. “[Retiring Wisconsin head coach] Barry Alvarez had nothing but great things to say about Jeff and he will be able to hit the ground running here at Iowa State.”

Wisconsin went to six bowl games in Horton’s seven years with the Badgers, winning the 1999 Big Ten championship and beating Stanford in the 2000 Rose Bowl.

“He knows all about big-time college football and has been a championship head coach,” McCarney said. “That kind of experience is hard to find.”

At Wisconsin, Horton coached two quarterbacks who are now in the NFL.

Brooks Bollinger was a sixth round pick in the 2003 NFL Draft by the New York Jets and became the team’s starting quarterback this season.

Bollinger is the winningest quarterback in Wisconsin history, compiling a 30-12 record over four seasons.

Horton also coached Jim Sorgi, who plays behind Peyton Manning with the Indianapolis Colts.

Current Badger quarterback John Stocco set school marks in passing yards and touchdowns in 2005 as a junior.

Horton joins a Cyclone team that went 7-5 and appeared in the Houston Bowl against TCU.

“The stability of the program also appealed to me,” Horton said. “Dan is the dean of Big 12 coaches and has done a great job retaining his coaching staff despite all the success ISU has experienced.”

Tight ends Walter Nickel and Ben Barkema return for Iowa State, a team that will have 10 offensive starters back from last season.

Nickel caught 20 passes last season as a junior, and sophomore Barkema had 18 receptions. Both players caught two touchdown passes.

He will also have the task of replacing three seniors on special teams: punter Troy Blankenship, kicker Tony Yelk and deep snapper Landon Schrage.