Blake Gideon not only received a job promotion from Houston to Ole Miss, the special teams coach now has a national award to add to his career bio.

The former Houston assistant now on Lane Kiffin’s staff at Ole Miss was named the 2019 FootballScoop Special Teams Coordinator of the Year as selected by prior winners.

Houston blocked six kicks, the most in the nation, and was also one of the best in the nation at covering kickoffs, limiting opponents to an average of 17.6 yards on 31 returns, a figure that rated 14th nationally. Houston also led the American in net punting, averaging 43.6 yards. In fact, Houston was No. 1 in the country in both blocked punts (five) and blocked kicks (six).

Houston was the only team in FBS to return two punts and two kickoffs for scores in 2019.

Before Houson, Gideon was cornerbacks coach at Georgia State in 2018. He spent the previous two seasons on staff as the defensive backs coach and defensive passing game coordinator at Western Carolina. In 2017, Gideon helped coach a Western Carolina defense that ranked No. 15 nationally in passing yards per game allowed and No. 20 in pass efficiency defense.

Gideon began his coaching career as a defensive quality control assistant at Florida in 2014 before he went to Auburn to serve as a defensive graduate assistant.