Longhorns Country

Texas Longhorns Hire Rutgers CB Coach Mark Orphey As New Safeties Coach

The Texas Longhorns have found their replacement for Blake Gideon in up-and-coming assistant coach Mark Orphey.
Matt Galatzan|
Texas Longhorns defensive back Michael Taaffe (16) and head coach Steve Sarkisian celebrate after a victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Texas Longhorns defensive back Michael Taaffe (16) and head coach Steve Sarkisian celebrate after a victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils in the Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

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Texas Longhorns

The Texas Longhorns have found their replacement for Blake Gideon.

According to reports Orangebloods.com's Anwar Richardson, the Longhorns have hired Rutgers cornerback coach Mark Orphey as their new safeties coach.

"According to my sources, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian has hired Rutgers CB coach Mark Orphey to replace Blake Gideon," Richardson reported on X. "Orphey, a North Shore grad, had strong ties to Houston. He's viewed as an excellent hire for the Longhorns."

Orphey will be replacing Gideon after the former Longhorns assistant left Austin to accept the defensive coordinator position at Georgia Tech last week.

A Houston, Texas native, Orphey has been the cornerback coach at Rutgers since 2022, with stops at Alabama, Utah State, Montana State, and South Carolina along the way. He got his career started in 2011 as the cornerbacks coach for Texas Southern.

This past season, Rutgers ranked 87th in the nation in pass defense. However, in 2023, the Scarlet Knights were a top-10 pass defense in the country, with Orpehy helping Rutgers earn its first winning season since 2014.

Orphey was one of three candidates for the job alongside Notre Dame's Mike Mickens and Pittsburgh's Corey Sanders.

He is expected to be a dynamic recruiter with connections in one of the most talent-rich areas in the state of Texas with his Houston roots.

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Matt Galatzan
MATT GALATZAN

Matt Galatzan is the Managing Editor and Publisher of Texas Longhorns On SI and Texas A&M Aggies On SI and a long-time member of the Football Writers’ Association of America. He graduated from the University of Mississippi, where he studied integrated marketing communications, with minors in journalism and business administration. Galatzan started in the sports journalism industry in 2014, covering the Dallas Mavericks and SMU Mustangs with 247Sports. He then moved to Sports Illustrated's Fan Nation network in 2020, eventually taking over as the Managing Editor and Publisher of the Longhorns and Aggies sites a year later. You can find Galatzan on all major social media channels, including Twitter on @MattGalatzan.

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