Coordinators among three Texas football assistant coaches dismissed

By Steve Habel
Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — There have been plenty of rumors in recent weeks about possible changes in the assistant coaching ranks for the Texas football team, and, on Sunday, two days after the Longhorns beat Texas Tech to secure a third straight winning season, the axe fell on the 40 Acres.

Finishing the regular season at 7-5 (and 5-4 in Big 12 play) doesn’t cut the mustard for the Longhorns, which prompted head coach Tom Herman to make changes to his coaching staff that will be effective immediately.

Three assistant coaches who have been with the staff since Herman took over at Texas before the 2017 season[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)], defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Todd Orlando, pass game coordinator/outside receivers coach Drew Mehringer and inside receivers coach Corby Meekins were relieved of their duties.

Orlando and Mehringer will no longer be with the staff. Meekins will remain on the staff in an administrative capacity rather than as an assistant coach.

Herman also removed the offensive coordinator responsibilities from assistsnt Tim Beck, but Beck will continue in his role as quarterbacks coach through the Longhorns’ bowl game.

A national search for Beck’s and Orlando’s replacements as offensive and defensive coordinator will begin immediately.

“After taking time, looking back and evaluating the season in its totality, I am very disappointed in our performance in a number of areas in 2019,” Herman said in a statement released by the university. “(A) 7-5 (record) will never be our standard at Texas, and I take full responsibility for any and all of our shortcomings and know we need to do a better job coaching across the board.

“With that said, I do believe the future is very bright, and have decided to make some changes to our staff as we head into bowl preparation and look to finish strong in the final weeks of fall recruiting.”

The changes were announced as the Longhorns begin bowl preparations and the team’s coaches go on the road for the final weeks before the Dec. 18-20 National Signing Day period.

Neither Beck nor Orlando expressed any concern about their long-term future at Texas when asked last week in the run-up to the Texas Tech game.

“I can look in the mirror. I work really hard. I do a really good job. I’m proud of what I’ve done,” said Beck, who has been the Longhorns’ offensive coordinator the past three seasons. “I feel like I coach these guys hard, I recruit hard.”

Orlando, who has been with Herman since 2015 when they were at the University of Houston, was given a pay raise last season to $1.7 million annually and one-year extension through 2020.

His dismissal might be the biggest surprise in this turnover because his defense had been battered by injuries this season and had showed improvement over the last four games.

“When you get to a place like this, every second of every day is ‘work your tail off,’” Orlando said last week. “You get to be my age off of that, there’s an understanding. It doesn’t matter. You come in here and do the best job. I come into every job thinking that I’m going to be elite.”

Co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach Craig Naivar will assume the defensive coordinator responsibilities on an interim basis. Naivar became co-defensive coordinator in 2019 after serving as special teams coordinator/safeties coach during his first two years at Texas.

Football analysts Andre Coleman and Jeremiah George will take on assistant coaching roles during bowl preparation. Coleman will serve as the interim wide receivers coach, while George will be the interim linebackers coach. As two of the 10 full-time assistant coaches, they both also will assume responsibilities in recruiting.

Before joining the Texas staff this season, Coleman spent the previous six years at Kansas State coaching wide receivers, including two (2016-17) as pass game coordinator and one (2018) as offensive coordinator.

George played linebacker at Iowa State from 2010-13, earning first-team All-Big 12 honors as a senior. A 2014 fifth-round pick of the New York Jets and four-year NFL veteran, he joined the Texas staff in March 2019.

In addition to the coaching changes, director of recruiting Bryan Carrington will move into one of the 10 full-time assistant coaching roles on an interim basis in order to assist Herman and the staff on the road recruiting. Carrington joined the Texas staff in 2017.
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