Former Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele agreed to an agreement to join the Tennessee technical football team, sources told ESPN.
Steele, 62, has been Auburn’s defensive coordinator for the past five seasons, but has not been hired by Auburn’s new coach Bryan Harsin, who hired former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason as his defensive coordinator.
Steele, a Broyles Award finalist as the best assistant coach in college football during the 2017 season, has strong ties to Tennessee. He played in Tennessee and started his coaching career in Tennessee, both with Johnny Majors. Steele was a finalist for the post of chief Volleyball coach in 2018, when Jeremy Pruitt was hired. Steele and Pruitt worked together on Nick Saban’s team in Alabama.
While at Auburn, Steele’s defenses ended in the top 20 in the country, scoring points in four of his five seasons on the plains. He is widely considered 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 as a linebacker for the Carolina Panthers from 1995 to 1998.
“He is an excellent coach and as strong as anyone I have seen in recruiting,” Bowden told ESPN.
Auburn owes Steele a little more than $ 5 million with the contract he signed last January, which at the time made him the highest-paid defensive coordinator in college football.
Steele returns to his alma mater amid an internal investigation into alleged improprieties in Tennessee’s football program, which has been ongoing since November. The university announced last month that it had engaged the services of Michael Glazier and Kyle Skillman with the law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King to assist in revising what the university said in a statement were “regulatory issues that have been brought to our attention.”
ESPN reported last week that Tennessee has not extended the contracts for assistant football coaches and has stopped hiring coaches for the vacancies while Vols continue to investigate whether violations have occurred within the program.