#44

Zach Horton

Former tight end at Indiana. 2024: 21 catches, 189 receiving yards, 4 TD.

TE · Indiana · Sr. · #44

6′4″ · 254 lb · Roanoke, VA

CFB Index 42 · #83 of 135 TEsMedium-low confidenceIndiana 2024 — college career complete

Recruiting

3★

TE recruit

No. 2090 nationally · Signed with James Madison

No college snaps yet.

His career numbers, season by season

The story

Former tight end at Indiana. 2024: 21 catches, 189 receiving yards, 4 TD.

Signed as a 3-star recruit to James Madison in 2021.
Transferred from James Madison to Indiana in 2024.

His career, year by year

How it ended

Three seasons at Indiana, 623 receiving yards, a first-team All-Conference season (2023) — his college career is complete.

His career

Nobody recruited him. He earned the honors anyway.

The week the volume broke through — stacked 2 td at Georgia State.Georgia State · W 42-142023

2021

Signed with James Madison3-star out of Northside

202311 games

All-Sun Beltfirst

202410 games

Entered the portal

Career arc

Recruit

★★★

#2090 national

CFB

College

2 teams

2022–2024

NFL

NFL Draft

—

Not drafted

Trophy case · Confirmed honors

What the selectors said

2 honors · 1 category

🥈

ALL-SUN BELT · 1ST TEAM

All-Sun Belt 1st team (2023)

Coaching lineage · 2022–2024

2 coaches

2022–2023

Tom Allen

Indiana

2024

Curt Cignetti

Indiana

era →

Coaching transition mid-career: Tom Allen → Curt Cignetti. Worth noting in scheme + development context.

2024 snapshot

Season context · Team result + system

2022James Madison8-3HC: Curt Cignetti · Run-leaning

2023James Madison11-2HC: Damian Wroblewski · Balanced

2024Indiana11-2HC: Curt Cignetti · Run-leaning

Where this profile ranks vs the TE cohort

Box-score + play-by-play EPA percentiles

42Rotational starter #83 of 135?

Medium-low confidence10 metrics · season cumulative

Elite: td rate (99th percentile). Strength: catch rate (91st percentile). Concern: explosive rate (2nd percentile).

Real play-by-play efficiency

TD rate#9 / 610 · 99th pct

19.0%

Catch rate#1 / 610 · 91st pct

100.0%

EPA / target#348 / 610 · 43rd pct

0.82

Yards / catch#500 / 610 · 18th pct

9.0

Explosive rate#587 / 610 · 2nd pct

0.0%

Box-score rates (5)

Rec TDs#29 / 168 · 78th pct

Receptions#87 / 168 · 47th pct

Rec yards#114 / 168 · 32nd pct

189

Yards / catch#131 / 168 · 21st pct

9.0

Long catch#158 / 168 · 4th pct

Season trend

Last seasonThis season

EPA / target

63rd → 43rd percentile

Explosive rate

36th → 2nd percentile

Catch rate

82nd → 91st percentile

TD rate

99th → 99th percentile

Yards / catch

27th → 18th percentile

Percentiles versus same-position peers with enough snaps this season. Most bars are box-score rates; EPA / success-rate bars are computed from real play-by-play (offense only — no defensive EPA model exists yet).

Splits & context

Splits · Per-game

2024 season · 10 games

Home/Road · Season halves

Home vs Road

	REC/g	YDS/g	YPR	TD/g
Home6g	2.3	21.7	11.0	0.3
Road4g	1.8	14.8	8.9	0.5

First half vs Second half

	REC/g	YDS/g	YPR	TD/g
Weeks 1-75g	2.0	19.2	9.8	0.4
Weeks 8+5g	2.2	18.6	10.6	0.4

Supporting cast · Scheme

Staff and system around the player

2026 season

Head Coach

Curt Cignetti

Scheme reads (pass share, tempo, sack rate) need at least 3 team games — 2 games in so far.

Awards

Player standing · 2024

Rotational

Earning real snaps in the rotation without a starting job.

Recognition

Roster2-deepStarterRecognizedEliteApex

Production · CFB Index Score

42 · #83 of 135 TEs

Three-star recruit. Now #83 at the position.

Career stats

Season	Team
2024	Indiana	21	189	9.0	4	--
2023	James Madison	27	275	10.2	6	--
2022	James Madison	13	159	12.2	2	--
Career		61	623	10.2	12	--

Signature game

SIGNATURE GAME · Week 11 · 2024

W 20–15

vs Michigan

1 rec · 15 yds

A wire-to-wire battle — won by 5 at home.

With K. Rourke — 206 yds · 2 TD · 1 INT · QBR 44.3 · -28 rush yds (5 car) · J. Evans — 41 AVG · 2 IN 20 · 52 LONG

Signature plays

Signature plays · top plays by |EPA|

The plays that mattered most

fact

Week 10 · Michigan State · 1&10 · Q2 · EPA +2.58Kurtis Rourke pass complete to Zach Horton for 17 yds for a TD (Nicolas Radicic KICK)
Week 14 · Purdue · 2&5 · Q3 · EPA +2.44Kurtis Rourke pass complete to Zach Horton for 5 yds for a TD (Nicolas Radicic KICK)
Week 1 · Florida International · 1&9 · Q1 · EPA +2.42Kurtis Rourke pass complete to Zach Horton for 9 yds for a TD (Nicolas Radicic KICK)
Week 14 · Purdue · 2&10 · Q2 · EPA +1.85Kurtis Rourke pass complete to Zach Horton for 13 yds to the PUR 36 for a 1ST down
Week 6 · Northwestern · 1&4 · Q4 · EPA +1.69Kurtis Rourke pass complete to Zach Horton for 4 yds for a TD (Nicolas Radicic KICK)
Week 5 · Maryland · 1&10 · Q1 · EPA +1.67Kurtis Rourke pass complete to Zach Horton for 18 yds to the MD 1 for a 1ST down
Week 3 · UCLA · 1&10 · Q3 · EPA +1.44Kurtis Rourke pass complete to Zach Horton for 17 yds to the UCLA 44 for a 1ST down
Week 1 · Florida International · 1&10 · Q2 · EPA +1.10Kurtis Rourke pass complete to Zach Horton for 13 yds to the FIU 3 for a 1ST down
Week 8 · Nebraska · 2&2 · Q4 · EPA +0.80Tayven Jackson pass complete to Zach Horton for 11 yds to the IU 46 for a 1ST down
Week 9 · Washington · 1&10 · Q1 · EPA +0.67Tayven Jackson pass complete to Zach Horton for 8 yds to the WASH 34

Game log

Game log · Week-by-week

2024 season · 10 games

Box score · CFBD

Wk	Opp	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG	Note
Wk 1	W 31-7vs Florida International	3	36	12.0	1	14	Season-high 36 yds
Wk 3	W 42-13@ UCLA	4	31	7.8	0	17
Wk 5	W 42-28vs Maryland	1	18	18.0	0	18
Wk 6	W 41-24@ Northwestern	1	4	4.0	1	4
Wk 8	W 56-7vs Nebraska	4	21	5.3	0	11
Wk 9	W 31-17vs Washington	2	14	7.0	0	8
Wk 10	W 47-10@ Michigan State	1	17	17.0	1	17
Wk 11	W 20-15vs Michigan	1	15	15.0	0	15
Wk 14	W 66-0vs Purdue	3	26	8.7	1	13
Bowl	L 17-27@ Notre Dame	1	7	7.0	0	7
Total		21	189	10.2	4	18

Stats from CFBD · ESPN · fan discourse. Every figure computed from source tables — not invented. Methodology