Alabama reportedly bringing back Kevin Steele as defensive coordinator
On Friday afternoon, the news was announced that Alabama had found its new offensive coordinator in Notre Dame’s Tommy Rees. Less than two days later, the Crimson Tide have also identified their replacement for former defensive coordinator Pete Golding, who left to take the same position at Ole Miss.
No, it’s not Jeremy Pruitt, but it is another former Alabama defensive coordinator in Kevin Steele. That news was first broken by Chris Low with ESPN.
This will be Steele’s third stint in Tuscaloosa. He was actually Nick Saban’s first defensive coordinator back in 2007, but he moved to just the linebackers coach in 2008 with now Georgia head coach Kirby Smart sliding in to take his place as the defensive play-caller. From there, this is what Steele’s coaching history looks like:
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Phil Longo Fired
Wisconsin announces firing of OC
- 2
AP Poll Shakeup
New Top 25 shows big fallout from Saturday
- 3
JuJu Lewis
Elite QB decommits from USC
- 4New
5-star QB flip
Texas A&M commit Husan Longstreet flips to USC
- 5
Coaches Poll
Big changes to updated Top 25
- Clemson DC/LB coach (2009-11)
- Alabama director of player personnel (2013)
- Alabama LB coach (2014)
- LSU DC/LB coach (2015)
- Auburn DC (2016-20)
- Auburn interim HC (2020)
- Tennessee interim HC (2021)
- Miami DC (2022)
In other words, Steele has been the defensive coordinator at Alabama, Clemson, LSU, Auburn and Miami. Those are five prominent programs. Below, we’ll take a quick look at how his defenses have done at each of those stops.
Alabama DC
- 2006 (pre-Steele): No. 20 (297.7 ypg) / T-No. 27 (19.2 ppg)
- 2007: No. 33 (353.7 ypg) / No. 32 (23.3 ppg)
Clemson DC
- 2008 (pre-Steele): No. 14 (301.9 ypg) / No. 16 (18.9 ppg)
- 2009: No. 20 (314.3 ypg) / T-No. 24 (20.4 ppg)
- 2010: No. 19 (320.2 ypg) / No. 13 (18.8 ppg)
- 2011: No. 71 (394.4 ypg) / No. 81 (29.3 ppg)
LSU DC
- 2014 (LSU pre-Steele): No. 9 (316.8 ypg) / T-No. 4 (17.5 ppg)
- 2015 (LSU): No. 25 (347.2 ypg) / No. 41 (24.3 ppg)
Auburn DC
- 2015 (pre-Steele): T-No. 71 (405.2 ypg) / T-No. 54 (26.0 ppg)
- 2016: No. 28 (361.9 ypg) / No. 7 (17.1 ppg)
- 2017: No. 14 (319.4 ypg) / T-No. 11 (18.5 ppg)
- 2018: T-No. 37 (355.4 ypg) / T-No. 14 (19.2 ppg)
- 2019: No. 28 (337.0 ypg) / No. 17 (19.5 ppg)
- 2020: No. 63 (406.0 ypg) / No. 38 (24.7 ppg)
Miami DC
- 2021 (pre-Steele): No. 75 (389.6 ypg) / T-No. 84 (28.4 ppg)
- 2022: No. 65 (375.2 ypg) / T-No. 67 (26.8 ppg)
If you’re look at just those surface-level numbers, Steele might not feel like the best hire. He’s done some good things with defenses though. We did see some progress with the Hurricanes this past season, and the expectation was for that unit to continue to show improvement under Steele.
Instead, he’s heading back to Tuscaloosa.
BamaInsider will have more on the hire.
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