Kevin Steele reunites with Auburn, his childhood favorite

Kevin Steele is no stranger to Auburn.

He attended his first game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in first grade, wore No. 7 at Prattville Junior High School in honor of former Auburn quarterback Pat Sullivan, who won the 1971 Heisman Trophy, and said one of the saddest days of his life was when he watched Auburn fall to Georgia Tech in a driving rain at Legion Field in 1966.

“I’ve got a lot of memories about this place,” Steele said.

Steele was introduced as Auburn’s new defensive coordinator Tuesday, becoming the third defensive coordinator in three years and seventh in the last decade.

Despite the turnover Auburn has faced in recent years on the defensive coaching staff, Steele was adamant that he wants to be at Auburn for the long haul, a claim last made by Will Muschamp, who bolted to South Carolina after one season.

“I want to be here the duration of my coaching career, and I’ve never been able to say that before,” Steele said. “And part of the reason is — I saw my first game here. It’ll be just fine with me that I coach my last game here.”

Steele comes to Auburn from LSU, where he spent the 2015 season leading a defense that finished 25^th in total defense and 41^st in scoring defense.

His hiring, which took place on Dec. 30, ended a 24-day search for a defensive coordinator after Muschamp’s departure. Head coach Gus Malzahn said Steele satisfied all five of the qualities he wanted in a coach: previous experience in the SEC, recruiting success, high character, a good example for players and stability.

“I wanted to be patient,” Malzahn said. “We got the right guy.”

Steele will utilize both a 4-3 and 3-4 defense, but the focus will be on the players, not the scheme, according to the 57-year-old coach.

“It’s not so much what you know as a coach," Steele said. "It’s what the players can do, what they can execute. There’ll always be tweaking of the style. I don’t think, in this day and age, that you can just go in and throw a playbook down and say, ‘This is what we do, and this is how we do it and conform to it.’ I think you got to find the strength and weaknesses of your players. Improve upon the weaknesses and build on the strengths, and sometimes that means doing some things different.”

Steele refused to comment on his defensive staff, saying only that Malzahn will be in charge of the hirings and Steele will be allowed some input. He also refused to comment on his contract, which is reportedly worth $4 million over three years.

“I don’t know how to read a contract,” Steele joked. “I just know that I’m the defensive coordinator here, and there were some general terms. But coach [Malzahn] will address that when it comes to that point.”

Steele has coached at the college and professional levels as a position coach, coordinator and head coach.

His coaching career began at Tennessee, his alma mater, and he made stops at Oklahoma State and Nebraska before jumping to the NFL in 1995 to coach linebackers for the Carolina Panthers.

He spent four seasons in Charlotte, then returned to the college ranks to be the head coach at Baylor, where he posted a 9-36 record.

Steele’s longest stint as a defensive coordinator came at Clemson, where he spent three seasons. His defense surrendered 18.8 points per game in 2010, which ranked 13^th nationally, but he was fired in 2011 after his unit gave up 70 points to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl.

Steele returned to Alabama for a second stint under Nick Saban before his one-year stay at LSU. He now finds himself back at Auburn, where he experienced college football for the first time, and is tasked with repairing a defense that ranked near the bottom of the SEC in most statistical categories.

“Auburn has a history of being a hard-nosed, physical defense for years and years, ever since I was a young guy,” Steele said. “I certainly know of the tradition and the history of Auburn’s hard-nosed defenses and looking forward to be a part of that.”