Texas S coach Blake Gideon leaving to become Georgia Tech DC

The former Longhorns standout is leaving his alma mater for a promotion.

“Individual accolades come with team success.”

For players, the maxim frequently employed by Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian means awards and favorable NFL Draft positioning.

For coaches, it means the opportunity for advancement, and that’s the opportunity that safeties coach Blake Gideon received and accepted on Thursday in leaving his alma mater to become the new defensive coordinator for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, news first reported by 247Sports/CBS Sports and later confirmed elsewhere.

Gideon replacers Tyler Santucci, who recently left Atlanta to become the linebackers coach for the Baltimore Ravens.

A Leander product who played for his father in high school, Gideon played safety at Texas, starting all 52 games he played for the Longhorns, posting 276 tackles (166 solo), 10 interceptions, 20 passes broken up, two sacks, eight tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and a blocked punt for his career.

After going undrafted, Gideon spent training camp in 2012 with the Arizona Cardinals and then signed to the practice squad of the Denver Broncos.

Gideon started his coaching career in 2014 as a defensive quality control assistant at Florida under this old defensive coordinator Will Muschamp before spending a year as a graduate assistant at Auburn. The first on-field assistant role for Gideon was at Western Carolina for two years, leading to a job at Georgia State. After a year at Houston, Gideon joined Lane Kiffin’s staff at Ole Miss for a season, returning to Texas when Steve Sarkisian took over the program in 2021.

It took some time for Gideon to rebuild the safeties room for the Horns with success on the field following the development of former walk-on Michael Taaffe and the transfer portal addition of Andrew Mukuba from Clemson as Texas fielded one of the nation’s best secondaries in 2024.

The future of the position looks bright even with Gideon’s departure because of his ability to land elite prospects like rising junior Derek Williams, rising junior Jelani McDonald, rising redshirt freshman Xavier Filsaime, and early enrollee Jonah Williams, the nation’s No. 6 prospect in the 2025 recruiting class and a major recruiting coup for the Longhorns.

Sarkisian could replace Gideon internally — another former Texas standout, Michael Huff, has been on the staff as an assistant defensive backs coach and Assistant Director of Player Development since 2016 and should be ready to step into a more prominent role.