Report: Texas DC Vance Bedford won’t call defensive plays anymore

Texas head coach Charlie Strong reportedly thinks it’s time to make a change within his defensive staff. According to OrangeBloods.com, Strong has taken away defensive play-calling duties from coordinator Vance Bedford. Texas gave up 49 points and 555 total yards of offense in an 18-point loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday.

It appears Bedford is out formally as coordinator at Texas but will remain on staff.

Here’s Burnt Orange Nation on the situation:

“Strong admitted after the 49-31 loss to the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday that he made “a few” defensive calls in Stillwater.

Following the road defeat to the California Golden Bears in the previous game, Strong promised to evaluate every coach in an effort to fix the defense. Despite some buzz behind the scenes that the Texas head coach would remove or reassign Bedford, he declined to make any public, significant changes in responsibilities.

Unfortunately, the focus on tackling fundamentals and early personnel changes during the bye week resulted in numerous missed tackles in the first half in Stillwater, 21 in total.”

We maybe should have seen this coming, and it had nothing to do with what was happening on the field. Let’s be honest, this is never a good sign:

It’s what happens when you give up over 500 yards in consecutive games even though you had a bye week in between to get issues corrected. Bedford couldn’t, and now he’s been demoted after two full seasons as Texas’ defensive coordinator. Strong didn’t really have a good option but this is the path he chose.

Bedford has been with Strong since 2008 at Florida, when the former was the Gators’ cornerbacks coach and latter was defensive coordinator. Bedford then followed Strong to Louisville as the Cardinals’ defensive coordinator and to Texas in the same position. Loyalty to Bedford has been a trademark of Strong’s tenure with the Longhorns, but clearly the Oklahoma State game was the last straw.

During Texas’ 49-31 loss to Oklahoma State, it certainly seemed like Bedford was fed up with Strong giving him the business verbally.

But it is Bedford’s defense that has held Texas back the most in 2016. The offense has, oddly enough, not been the issue under new offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert. But Texas’ defense is absolutely a problem. Through five games, the unit is 116th in scoring defense while giving up 38.3 points per game. The unit is 87th in total defense, allowing 428.5 yards per game and 5.95 yards per play.