Georgia Tech and head coach Brent Key have moved quickly to fill its open defensive coordinator position as they hired Blake Gideon to the role on Thursday morning.

The hire was first reported by Matt Zenitz of 247 Sports and confirmed by JOL's Kelly Quinlan.

Gideon fills the open spot left by Tyler Santucci who left to become linebackers coach of the Baltimore Ravens this past weekend after one season at Georgia Tech.

Gideon has served at Texas since 2021 as associate head coach and safeties coach. Before that he was special teams coordinator at Ole Miss for one season in 2020 and special teams coordinator and safeties coach at Houston for one season in 2019. He has also been an assistant or support staff member at Georgia State, Western Carolina, Auburn and Florida.

Gideon played at Texas for head coach Mack Brown where he was a four-year starter at safety from 2008-2011 and a two-time team captain. After finishing his college career, he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Arizona Cardinals and later signed to the Denver Broncos practice squad before getting into coaching in 2014.