Photo via Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
According to my sources, Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian has hired Mark Orphey to coach safeties for the Longhorns.
Orphey has coached cornerbacks at Rutgers since 2022. His journey also includes sharpening defensive strategies at top-tier programs like Alabama, where he served as a senior defensive analyst in 2021. Before that, Orphey honed his skills at Utah State, overseeing the secondary from 2019 to 2020, and earlier at Montana State from 2017 to 2018.
His coaching career began at South Carolina, where he held roles in quality control from 2014 to 2016 and as a defensive graduate assistant in 2013. Orphey’s first full-time coaching job came at Texas Southern, where he coached cornerbacks from 2011 to 2012, setting the foundation for his rise in the profession.
Orphey played cornerback at North Shore High School before signing with Texas Southern in 2007.
I’m told Orphey’s ties to Houston were a huge plus, as the staff is focused on landing elite recruits in that area. Everyone behind the scenes is excited about the new addition to the defensive staff.
I’ll have more details in the War Room on Thursday.