Is coach steele underrated?

[aubiefifty 17,488]

Is Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele underrated?

Updated on August 24, 2017 at 7:06 AMPosted on August 24, 2017 at 7:00 AM

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Gallery: Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele

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By James Crepea

jcrepea@al.com

Last season, Kevin Steele seemingly accomplished the bizarre feat of being simultaneously one of the highest paid assistant coaches in the country and underrated for his accomplishments.

Steele inherited a defense in disarray when he arrived Auburn, where he was the fourth defensive coordinator in five years and seventh in a decade. The Tigers finished 2015 ranked in the bottom four of the SEC in nearly every major statistic.

Yet in what was Auburn's best scoring defense since 2007, four players were drafted, but none were in the first two rounds.

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For the stunning turnaround Steele was among the 40 nominees for the Broyles Award as the nation's top assistant, but he was not among the five finalists, all of whom continued or inherited what were arguably far better situations than Steele.

"I don't really care too much about us getting the credit, but coach Steele definitely hasn't gotten enough credit for that because he's an amazing coach; he's an amazing person," safety Tray Matthews said. "He's one of those coaches that you want to play for, that you want to put your life on the line for him because he would do the same. I love coach Steele; all the players can vouch for me, they can say the exact same thing.

"I never met a person like that before in my life. He's impacted the whole defense, he's impacted the whole team, even the offense."

The numbers underline the magnitude of Auburn's defensive turnaround last season.

A nearly 50 yards per game improvement in rush defense (132.8), which ranked 27th nationally and was best for Auburn since 2010. Auburn's best pass efficiency defense (116.83, 22nd nationally) since 2009, best total defense (361.9, 28th) since 2008, best scoring defense (17.1, 7th) since 2007 and in the top 25 in passing yards per attempt (6.4, tied for 17th), on third downs (34.8 percent, 25th) and in the red zone (74.4 percent, 11th).

Auburn coach Gus Malzahn won the Broyles Award in 2010 and felt Steele "should have been right in the middle of that thing" for what he accomplished last year.

"If you remember what I said this time last year, our number one goal as head coach is getting us to play top-ten defense," Malzahn said "We weren't anywhere close to that the year before. So, for him to get us to play top-ten defense, I think we were seventh in the country in scoring, just did a super job in the red zone, third down. And his defensive staff did a super job along with him, but Kevin was a big part of our success last year."

Steele insists accolades are not something he concerns himself with, though his best friend, Texas A&M defensive coordinator John Chavis, won the Broyles in 2011. Even after what might have been the best season of his college coaching career considering all the circumstances, Steele said he "never really thought about" the lack of credit he received from a national perspective.

"This is the 38th season (I'm coaching), I'm several seasons past that," Steele said. "I'm sure every coach goes through a phase in their coaching career where they're probably trying to climb the ladder or make this happen or make that happen. I don't think about that. I'm coaching for the enjoyment of teaching those young guys and making them as good as I can. I really don't think about that. It's irrelevant to me.

"At the end of the day I think people that really love Auburn football saw signs of things that they appreciated defensively. Some of them stronger signs than others and some of them not as strong. But I think our players fed off of that and I think that is important."

Steele will earn $1.2 million this season and $1.3 million in 2018 after making $1.1 million last year, which ranked No. 10 among assistants at public schools, but those increases were already outlined in his full-guaranteed contract.

Even as Auburn's passing yards allowed did not change much from a year before, former defensive backs coach Wesley McGriff saw a greater jump by landing the defensive coordinator position at Ole Miss and more than doubling his salary.

While the overall improvements of last year is undeniable, Auburn's defensive coaches are focused on maintaining the heightened standard and on avoiding the issues that plagued the defense in the final two games of the season.

"Even though I think we made some improvement I think we still left a lot on the field and I know how we finished wasn't every impressive," defensive line coach Rodney Garner said. "When you start sitting down looking and just being honest, our worst football that we felt like we played as a defense happened the second half of the Iron Bowl, which you know in the biggest game we play our worst half of football. Then you go to the second half of the Sugar Bowl and we play our worst football.

"In the two finales, we don't show up after the half. That's been really our focus: We got to finish and we can't get caught up in the other things that's going on."

[oracle79 3,569]

13 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

"When you start sitting down looking and just being honest, our worst football that we felt like we played as a defense happened the second half of the Iron Bowl, which you know in the biggest game we play our worst half of football. Then you go to the second half of the Sugar Bowl and we play our worst football.

"In the two finales, we don't show up after the half. That's been really our focus: We got to finish and we can't get caught up in the other things that's going on."

I'm glad they acknowledge this and hopefully get it corrected.  Steele did a great job his first year.  I expect some drop off the second year both because of who we lost and the fact that the league has seen him for a year at Auburn and will adjust.  If we're close to last year, it will be enough with our expected improvement on offense.

[bigbird 60,624]

I would expect actual halftime adjustments with AB and CL. We've not seen much of any adjustments on either side since CTR.

[gravejd 3,281]

He is probably underrated by me. He can change that with another good year on D this coming up season. I'm still not sure if the uptick in D this last year was due to Steele or residual impact of Muschamp from the year before. In the end he fielded the best D at AU in a long time so he deserves a lot of credit and high fives for that but if he can keep it going this year all the credit goes to him IMO

[djg0017 726]

I think it remains to be seen. After one year I would say his in-game coaching was pretty darn good. Our D got put in some tough positions last year where we really needed them and they came through (Clemson, LSU, Ole Miss, Vandy, UGA). I think our sporadic offense made it harder than necessary on our D. However, the D seemed to lose their fire after the UGA game.

I think recruiting will really spell out what we have in CKS. If he can at least bring in Top 20 defensive classes then I think he's going to do awesome here.

[WFE12 9,192]

He made people respect the defense. Kirk Herbstreit mentioned Tre Williams and Deshaun Davis as a nomination for best tandem on his preseason awards show. He also said that our defense will keep us in games this year. It feels so good to hear people talk about AU and mention defense as a factor again.

[djg0017 726]

8 minutes ago, WFE12 said:

He made people respect the defense. Kirk Herbstreit mentioned Tre Williams and Deshaun Davis as a nomination for best tandem on his preseason awards show. He also said that our defense will keep us in games this year. It feels so good to hear people talk about AU and mention defense as a factor again.

Kirk also nominated "Trey Marshall, Auburn" for "The Enforcer". I'm assuming he meant Trigga Tray, but it's nice to see our defense get some preseason love! (I also think Stidham was nominated for two categories.)

*girly scream*

[lionheartkc 6,150]

First... did I just read a positive article about Auburn written by Crepea? Maybe he has decided he'd be better off if Gus actually liked him?

Second... while I get what Garner is saying, in both the Iron Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, the second half our D couldn't stay off the field because our O was totally ineffective without it's QB and top back. I give the guys a pass for being gassed.

Finally... we'll know if Steele is underrated after this year.

[triangletiger 1,599]

1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

I don't really care too much about us getting the credit, but coach Steele definitely hasn't gotten enough credit for that because he's an amazing coach; he's an amazing person," safety Tray Matthews said. "He's one of those coaches that you want to play for, that you want to put your life on the line for him because he would do the same. I love coach Steele; all the players can vouch for me, they can say the exact same thing.

"I never met a person like that before in my life. He's impacted the whole defense, he's impacted the whole team, even the offense."

Love this quote.  It tells you all you need to know about Coach Steele.

[WDEKC 187]

2 hours ago, oracle79 said:

the fact that the league has seen him for a year at Auburn and will adjust. 

He's been around SEC football since the 80s with multiple years as an SEC DC. I'm sure they had plenty of ideas on what his defensive philosophy and game plan would be.

[kd4au 1,145]

1 hour ago, lionheartkc said:

First... did I just read a positive article about Auburn written by Crepea? Maybe he has decided he'd be better off if Gus actually liked him?

Second... while I get what Garner is saying, in both the Iron Bowl and the Sugar Bowl, the second half our D couldn't stay off the field because our O was totally ineffective without it's QB and top back. I give the guys a pass for being gassed.

Finally... we'll know if Steele is underrated after this year.

This!!! No offense means a tired defense.

[alexava 6,974]

Up and down and always will be. he's great till he ain't. I like that we probably don't have to constantly worry about him getting hired away after a good year. First time in a while we have a coordinator that aint going nowhere.

[AUpreacherman22 3,908]

Steele did a very good job last year. To quote the great Theologian Gustav "I like where we're at".  I think CKS is a very good DC who is also a good fit at AU. I expect the D to be near last year's level again.  Maybe even better as I expect them to get more help from the O.  

[WFE12 9,192]

36 minutes ago, AUpreacherman22 said:

I expect the D to be near last year's level again.

"No doubt"

[I_M4_AU 8,345]

23 hours ago, bigbird said:

I would expect actual halftime adjustments with AB and CL. We've not seen much of any adjustments on either side since CTR.

Ted Roof was excellent at half time adjustments.  Some of his inital planning was not great, but he did get the job done in 2010.  The lack of half time adjustments on the offensive side, I would guess, shows up as a lack of 3rd quarter production for the last few years. I'm looking forward to the upcoming season, both on the offensive and defensive side of the ball.

[auburn4ever 1,266]

Let's see how coach Steel does this year before we star saying he's overrated or underrated.

[AUpreacherman22 3,908]

20 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

Some of his inital planning was not great,

My understanding is that the initial planning often times wasn't his. He got overruled and then had to fix the inept plans in-game. ?‍♂️

[I_M4_AU 8,345]

1 hour ago, AUpreacherman22 said:

My understanding is that the initial planning often times wasn't his. He got overruled and then had to fix the inept plans in-game. ?‍♂️

Well, that explains a lot.

[McLoofus 35,182]

Coach Steele isn't underrated because one year isn't enough to cement his legacy, and he won't be underrated because a 2nd season of success will make sure that he's appropriately rated.