Blake Gideon believes picking up and moving from town to town when he was a youngster will help work past the Texas Longhorns' worst season in 13 years.
"It allows you to harden up a little bit and to go out and expect change and adversity and that has helped me," said the senior safety. "Dad always coached me through adversity and I've definitely faced adversity here in my college career."
Gideon graduated from Leander before moving down I-35 to Austin. He was born in DeLeon and lived in Comanche, Groesbeck, Munday, Midland and Athens before playing his high school football for the Leander Lions.
"It's probably the longest I've been at one place," said Gideon. "With Dad being a high school football coach, we were always moving all around Texas. All those schools ... this has probably been the most continuity I've had."
Gideon has definitely found a home in the Longhorn secondary, starting 39 games at safety, where he has eight interceptions and had been honorable mention Big 12 all three years.
He had also grown pretty used to winning football games, having won 23 of 27 before last season, when the Longhorns slipped to 5-7.
It was a rude awakening for Gideon, going from playing for the national title to finishing last in the Big 12 South and watching the bowl season from home.
The loss brought wholesale changes at Texas, something the 6-foot-1, 205-pounder nicknamed "Slim" believed was needed despite it only being one losing season.
"It really didn't surprise me because that doesn't happen at Texas ...," Gideon said. "We have what we need at Texas, so there needs to be some kind of change. Some coaches got replaced and the depth chart has been completely opened up, so there might be some changes with the players."
With his résumé -- eight interceptions, 194 tackles --Gideon is not likely to be one of the changes, but he has approached this season differently.
"Football, competitive athletics is all about having an edge in the way you train, the way you prepare, your attitude all the time," said Gideon. "We could see in the first few games last year we didn't play as well as we wanted to and didn't play with as much intensity as we wanted to. You may be able to trace it back to January whenever we started being complacent, a little bit entitled after the national championship game. This year we have a reason to be a little bit mad."
Gideon also is aware anything can happen on the depth chart after he earned a starting spot by his first game as a Longhorn.
"It was a surprise for sure. I was coming in with four of five high school all-Americans at my position but I also knew I had a good chance to play because of the new defense coming in at that time," Gideon said. "Coach [Duane] Akina told me this is what it is, you are a starter right now and you better grow up quick because there are a lot of guys counting on you."
Even though the defense slipped slightly in the national rankings, it was not the Longhorns' biggest problem in 2010. All three units contributed to the Longhorns losing all its home Big 12 games and being manhandled on the road by Kansas State.
"I'd probably say any play during the Kansas State game, I mean we didn't play," responded Gideon when asked to give an example of what happened last year. "It looked like we had just started playing football that game. There was one particular play in that game where we blocked an extra point and everyone else was so beaten down in the game we weren't paying attention and the kicker picked it up and ran it round for a two-point conversion."
The play has been brought up more than once while training for the upcoming season.
"We never want to be that team again," said Gideon.
The Longhorns were counting on Garrett Gilbert, the former Gatorade and Parade National Player of the Year, at quarterback last season, but the then-sophomore threw seven more interceptions than touchdown passes while trying to fill the shoes of Colt McCoy, a Heisman candidate who went on to start as a rookie for the Cleveland Browns.
Freshman Connor Wood and another McCoy, Case, could push Gilbert this season for the starting job. Gideon said he had no idea who would start, but was confident new offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin will make the right selection.
NOTES -- Texas had a minus-12 turnover ratio, tied for 116th out of 120 a year after leading the nation in forced turnovers with 37. ... UT was horrific in scoring touchdowns inside the red zone, converting on only 23 of 52 trips inside the 20. The inability to score from in close helped kicker Justin Tucker make 23 of 27 field goal attempts. ... Texas' highest major offensive ranking (50th in passing) was worse than its lowest defensive ranking (49th in scoring). ... The Longhorns play six of their final eight games in Texas, with its last game at Waco, a change made because there is no conference championship game ... Madisonville's Chris Whaley, a sophomore, has moved from tailback to h-back to defensive end.
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