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The Saint Goes Marching Home: Terry Joseph leaving Austin for New Orleans

Eric Nahlinby:Eric Nahlin•about 9 hours
Terry Joseph
Terry Joseph (Will Gallagher/Inside Texas)

Texas secondary coach, defensive pass game coordinator, and safeties coach Terry Joseph is joining the New Orleans Saints, Inside Texas has learned. A native of New Orleans, Joseph is headed home after helping lead Texas back to its famed ‘DBU’ status.

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Steve Sarkisian hired Joseph from Notre Dame in January of 2021. At the time, the veteran defensive backs coach worked with the safeties but Sark hired him to coach cornerbacks. During his tenure, he left no doubt he could coach either position, with the 2024 season culminating in a Thorpe Award for star pupil Jahdae Barron. Barron is projected to be drafted in the first or second round of the 2025 NFL Draft.

Last season, two-year starter Ryan Watts was selected in the sixth round. It’s only a matter of time before Texas starting cornerback Malik Muhammad joins his former teammates in the NFL.

In many respects, Joseph never received his due in Austin. Despite a stellar recruiting track record and sound cornerback play, it wasn’t until this season when he was recognized for his work. Some of that was due to his title as defensive pass game coordinator but criticism was largely unwarranted.

Before Texas, he recruited current Baltimore Ravens standout Kyle Hamilton to Notre Dame. After moving to safeties coach in the last week following the addition of Mark Orphey, he would have had the chance to coach Hamilton’s close analog in freshman five-star Jonah Williams but it wasn’t to be. The call from his hometown team was understandably too much.

In addition to coaching at Notre Dame, he also spent time at Texas A&M, North Carolina, Nebraska, and others.

Despite coming from a football family, baseball was his first calling. He attended Northwestern State before being drafted by the Chicago Cubs in the 13th round of the 1995 Major League Baseball draft. Eventually football came calling as it did for his cousin Vance Joseph, the current defensive coordinator for the Denver Broncos, and another cousin, Mickey Joseph, the current head coach for Grambling State.

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With that sort of football lineage in the Crescent City, it seems this was meant to be.

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