Texas reunites with familiar face as former star joins Muschamp’s staff

It was officially announced that former Longhorns safety and coach Blake Gideon will be returning to Texas as an assistant under Will Muschamp for the 2026 season.

Gideon originally left his legacy in Austin as a player from 2008 to 2011, where he was a four-year starter at safety, a 2x team captain, a 4x All-Conference HM selection, and a freshman All-American. He finished his Texas career with 234 total tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 10 interceptions, and 2 forced fumbles.

Despite being an incredibly good collegiate defensive back, he didn't have much of an NFL career, playing two seasons for the Arizona Cardinals and the Denver Broncos in 2012 and 2013.

Shortly after he decided to officially retire from playing football, he jumped into the coaching world in 2014 as a defensive quality control coach at the University of Florida under none other than...Will Muschamp. Gideon and Muschamp became very close at Florida, and it was very well documented that Muschamp wanted Gideon to follow him to a couple of his previous stops before landing back at Texas recently.

After spending one year at Florida, Gideon bounced around between Auburn and four other schools as a special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach until 2021 when he made his way back to Texas on Steve Sarkisian's inaugural staff. With Gideon in house on the defensive side of the ball, the Longhorns were BIG 12 champions in 2023, and back-to-back participants in the College Football Playoffs.

Following Texas' defensive success, Gideon had the opportunity to make the jump to defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech, and now he brings that experience back to Austin in 2026.

Longhorn Nation couldn't be happier to have Gideon back at Texas and ready to help lead the defense alongside Will Muschamp.