Alabama filled its offensive coordinator vacancy Friday afternoon with Tommy Rees, and just a couple of days later, Nick Saban has his guy to fill the defensive coordinator opening left by Pete Golding. Saban is bringing in Kevin Steele, a familiar face to both Alabama, and the rest of the SEC, to be the next Crimson Tide defensive coordinator.
Steele, 64, will be making his third appearance at Alabama under Nick Saban. Back in 2007, Steele was Nick Saban’s first defensive coordinator at Alabama before moving over to coach the linebackers the following year to make way for Kirby Smart to call the defensive plays. After a brief period as Clemson’s defensive coordinator from 2009-2011, Steele returned to Alabama in 2013 as Alabama’s director of player personnel and moved to the linebackers coach the following year.
To return back to Tuscaloosa to be the defensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide, Steele will be leaving his job as Miami's defensive coordinator. In his one year at Miami, Steele had the Hurricanes’ defense improving and moving in the right direction.
Along with his time as defensive coordinator at Miami, Clemson, and Alabama, Steele has also been the defensive play caller at LSU in 2015 and Auburn from 2016-2020. When not serving as the defensive coordinator, Steele has spent most of his coaching career as a linebackers coach. In one of his most unique situations as a coach, Kevin Steele briefly served as an interim head coach in back-to-back seasons for two different SEC schools. In 2020, Steele took over for the Auburn Tigers to coach them in the Citrus Bowl after the firing of Gus Malzahn. The following season, Steele served as interim head coach for Tennessee for just 10 days between the firing of Jeremy Pruitt and the hiring of Josh Heupel.
Steele brings 39 years of experience as a defensive mind as well as a solid recruiter.
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