Former Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has agreed to a deal to join Tennessee’s football coaching staff, sources told ESPN.
Steele, 62, has been Auburn’s defensive coordinator for the past five seasons, but was not held by new Auburn coach Bryan Harsin, who hired former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason as his defensive coordinator.
A Broyles Award finalist as the best assistant coach in college football during the 2017 season, Steele has deep ties to Tennessee. He played with Tennessee and began his coaching career with Tennessee, both under Johnny Majors. Steele was a finalist for the Vols’ 2018 head coach job when Jeremy Pruitt was hired. Steele and Pruitt worked together on Nick Saban’s staff in Alabama.
While at Auburn, Steele’s defense finished in the top 20 nationally scoring defense in four of his five seasons at the Plains. He is widely regarded as one of the top 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 as the linebackers coach for the Carolina Panthers from 1995 to 1998.
“He’s an excellent coach and as strong as anyone I’ve ever seen recruiting,” Bowden told ESPN.
Auburn owes Steele just over $ 5 million on the contract he signed last January, making him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football at the time.
Steele returns to his alma mater amid an internal investigation into alleged irregularities within the Tennessee football program that has been ongoing since November. The university announced last month that it had retained the services of Michael Glazier and Kyle Skillman at the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King to assist in assessing what the university said in a statement were “regulatory issues that have been brought to our attention. “.
ESPN reported last week that Tennessee had not renewed assistant football coaches contracts and paused the hiring of coaches for vacancies, while the Vols continue to investigate whether there have been violations within the program.