Former Auburn defense coordinator Kevin Steele has agreed to a deal to join the Tennessee football coaching staff, sources told ESPN.
Steele, 62, has been Auburn’s defense coordinator for the past five seasons, but was not retained by new Auburn coach Bryan Harsin, who has appointed former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason as his defense coordinator.
Steele, a finalist for the Broyles Award as the best assistant coach in college football during the 2017 season, has deep Tennessee ties. He played in Tennessee and began his coaching career in Tennessee, both under Johnny Majors. Steele was a finalist for the Vols’ head coach position in 2018 when Jeremy Pruitt was appointed. Steele and Pruitt collaborated on Nick Saban’s staff in Alabama.
While at Auburn, Steele’s defense finished in the top 20 nationwide in four of his five seasons on the Plains. He is widely regarded as one of the best recruiters in the country and has worked for some of the biggest names in college football, including Bobby Bowden, Tom Osborne, Dabo Swinney, Les Miles and Saban. Steele also worked in the NFL from 1995 to 1998 as a coach for the Carolina Panthers.
“He’s an excellent coach and as strong as anyone I’ve ever seen in recruiting,” Bowden told ESPN.
Auburn owes Steele a little over $ 5 million from the contract he signed last January, which at the time made him the highest paid defense coordinator in college football.
Steele returns to his alma mater amid an internal investigation into alleged irregularities within the Tennessee football program that has been underway since November. The university announced last month that it had retained the services of Michael Glazier and Kyle Skillman at the Bond, Schoeneck & King law firm to help review what the university said in a statement: ‘regulatory issues that come to our attention brought ‘.
ESPN reported last week that Tennessee has not extended the contracts of assistant football coaches and that they have suspended coaches for vacancies while the Vols continue to investigate whether violations have occurred within the program.