Is Kevin Steele a bystander or opportunist?

[aubiefifty 16,738]

this should be fun for a minute...........

al.com

 

Is Kevin Steele a bystander or opportunist?

By John Talty | jtalty@al.com

7-8 minutes

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Even before Kevin Steele took an assistant job at Tennessee, there was talk within the coaching industry that he was taking it to replace Jeremy Pruitt.

Fresh off missing out on the Auburn job and not being retained on Bryan Harsin’s new staff, Steele needed a job but had options. It’s why when word began spreading in early January that Steele was likely to take a position coach job on Pruitt’s staff, it didn’t make much sense at face value.

Why would Steele, one of the nation’s best defensive coordinators, want to take a non-coordinator role with a program coming off a terrible 2020 season and, most importantly, mired in an internal investigation? By that point, Pruitt’s seat couldn’t have been hotter after Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman got involved and hired outside counsel to investigate alleged recruiting violations. Tennessee football looked like a dumpster fire, yet Steele was rushing into the flames.

Was Steele just trying to help his alma mater through a rough time like Phil Fulmer suggested? Or was it an opportunistic play?

Regardless of Steele’s intentions, his move back to Knoxville paid almost immediate dividends. Less than a week after accepting a vague “defensive assistant” title, Tennessee announced Steele as the acting head coach after firing Pruitt for cause on Monday. Tennessee AD Phil Fulmer said Steele didn’t know he could serve as the interim head coach when he took the assistant job, but it takes a big stretch of the imagination to believe that. Why else would Steele come?

The news Monday capped what has to be one of the most bizarre month-plus stretches for any coach in SEC history. Remember Steele was the interim head coach for a different SEC program all of 18 days earlier.

Auburn fired Gus Malzahn on Dec. 13 and quickly named Steele the interim head coach. AL.com reported the next day Steele had emerged as a serious candidate for the permanent job and had the backing of prominent Auburn boosters. Their plan was to push out Malzahn and quickly promote Steele to the top job.

That prompted a severe backlash from fans who started a “Stop Steele” campaign that pummeled Auburn administrators and trustees with emails and texts imploring them not to hire the long-time defensive coach. It led to accusations on social media platforms and message boards that Steele had conspired with boosters behind Malzahn’s back and played a primary role in his boss’ dismissal. Most of it was unfair character assassination -- Steele didn’t have the power to get Malzahn fired even if he wanted to -- but the questions wouldn’t go away.

RELATED: Inside battle over Auburn’s coaching search

Did Steele know boosters were planning to push Malzahn out? Did he help them accomplish it? Did he start putting together a potential staff as far back as September after being approached by boosters?

The answers to those questions, of course, depend on who you ask. There are those in the Malzahn camp who believe Steele was an active saboteur. They’ll tell you he tried to undercut Malzahn, and knew as far back as 2018 that there were powerful people trying to make a move on Gus. Those in the Steele camp believe he never had anything to do with it and just wanted to coach football. They’ll tell you he’s a well-liked coach who would love another shot to be a head coach but wouldn’t do anything unbecoming to get it.

The truth likely lies somewhere in the middle, with Steele at least knowing he was the preferred choice of the boosters trying to push out Malzahn. The relationship between Malzahn and Steele was strained by the end, according to sources, with Malzahn running the offense and Steele preferring to be left alone to run the defense as he wished. Communication was limited and paranoia was pervasive. Malzahn and Steele were a marriage of mutual convenience, not love.

Steele’s defense was mostly terrific at Auburn, which is why those boosters pushed so hard for him to get the permanent job before Auburn AD Allen Greene and the search committee stepped in the way to run the national search that resulted in Harsin. At that point, it was untenable for Steele to stay in Auburn. How could Harsin keep the man who, at a minimum, badly wanted the job he just got?

Off Steele went looking for the next opportunity before landing at Tennessee. Is it a coincidence that a week after landing in Knoxville his boss was fired? Is Steele some version of an SEC Grim Reaper? Consider it this way: If you’re a head coach on the hot seat and your boss pitches Steele for your staff, you might want to look into selling your house.

Steele would like a shot at the permanent job, according to industry sources, and the timing could play into his favor. With Fulmer retiring, Tennessee must first find a new AD before hiring Pruitt’s replacement. That search shouldn’t take too long, but it is already mid-January and National Signing Day is right around the corner. Any coach potentially interested in Tennessee will want to know just how bad the situation is after Plowman said the school’s internal investigation of the football program turned up a “significant number of serious NCAA rules violations.” Tennessee also fired assistants Brian Niedermeyer and Shelton Felton for cause along with multiple recruiting and personnel staffers. If an NCAA investigation proves the school’s allegations to be valid, Tennessee will likely be looking at a bowl ban and scholarship reductions, among other possible penalties. That would limit the coaching candidate pool.

Could Tennessee keep Steele as a John L. Smith-type bridge hire for a year to help clean up the program and build it up a bit before making a run at a new coach? Steele was a finalist for the Tennessee job in 2017 that went to Pruitt and still has supporters around the program. Steele running out of the Neyland Stadium tunnels on Sept. 4 against Bowling Green as Tennessee’s head coach might not delight fans, but it could be a better long-term strategy than committing big money and a six-year contract to another coach who won’t get it done.

There was a time Steele looked like he’d be the next Auburn head coach. He coached a single game as head coach but the effort ultimately failed, and he was out of a job. Incredibly, he now finds himself in a similar position as the Tennessee interim head coach with a shot at keeping the job.

Monday’s moves showed Steele is either quite the beneficiary of coincidence or quite the opportunist beneath that affable exterior.

John Talty is the sports editor and SEC Insider for Alabama Media Group. You can follow him on Twitter @JTalty.

[gravejd 3,270]

Wow this is some crazy stuff right here. I didn't buy too much into Steele actually working against Gus and conspiring to get the AU job. Just seemed too dramatic to be true....you know something that would be in a show about a football program and not what really happens in real life. But having the Tenn thing immediately after the Auburn deal sure does make a lot of smoke. Very convenient that he gets hired right before the HC gets fired. And very likely the university knew they were going to fire Pruitt when Steele was hired. If i am a Tenn fan the only good i can see coming out of this is that Fulmer got retired at the same time Pruitt got let go. So maybe they can go out and find their own AG to stop good ol boy shenanegans like this 

[casatiger 513]

Was at Clemson around interim Dabo time and at LSU around interim Ed O time.  

[Win4AU 4,052]

I wonder how many Auburn folks would be freaking out if Steele was named coach after 2018 or 2019 when the defense was good compared to this season when it wasn’t very good?  I remember some people being excited about the idea floating around a couple years ago.

Edit to add that John L Smith was a disaster at Arkansas and contributor to one of the worst Auburn games I’ve ever been to inside Jordan Hare.

[j0hnnyRingo 1,445]

Steele was brought in to UT to serve has Head Coach while they navigate their NCAA issues.  They knew Pruitt was going to be out, so bring Steele in while they deal with their issues was the plan.  Who else would they get as HC when they fire their Coach and the AD resigns?  Steele is as good as they could get.

[AUApostle 7,651]

26 minutes ago, Win4AU said:

I wonder how many Auburn folks would be freaking out if Steele was named coach after 2018 or 2019 when the defense was good compared to this season when it wasn’t very good?  I remember some people being excited about the idea floating around a couple years ago.

Edit to add that John L Smith was a disaster at Arkansas and contributor to one of the worst Auburn games I’ve ever been to inside Jordan Hare.

Call me an ageist, but I thought he seemed too old for the HC job back then...add in the failed Baylor stint and lack of upward trajectory...never was excited at the thought of a journeyman DC for the HC postion.

[fredst 9,064]

Anybody think Steele is a good guy now?  What a snake 🐍...

[ChristoThor 70]

44 minutes ago, gravejd said:

Wow this is some crazy stuff right here. I didn't buy too much into Steele actually working against Gus and conspiring to get the AU job. Just seemed too dramatic to be true....you know something that would be in a show about a football program and not what really happens in real life. But having the Tenn thing immediately after the Auburn deal sure does make a lot of smoke. Very convenient that he gets hired right before the HC gets fired. And very likely the university knew they were going to fire Pruitt when Steele was hired. If i am a Tenn fan the only good i can see coming out of this is that Fulmer got retired at the same time Pruitt got let go. So maybe they can go out and find their own AG to stop good ol boy shenanegans like this 

I would hesitate to say that Steele conspired against Pruitt. It is one thing for him to have done it here (which I still don't really believe) having years to pull it off, but it is a completely different story to say that he would be able to pull that off in a week at Tennessee. I have heard that Pruitt and Steele are actually friends as well, but that could just be hearsay. To me, this situation looks more like Steele is trying to help out his alma mater where he played and got his start as a coach. He probably got the opportunity from Phil since they coached together in the past and Phil wanted to help out his friend who just lost the DC job. I could definitely be wrong though. 

[gravejd 3,270]

37 minutes ago, ChristoThor said:

I would hesitate to say that Steele conspired against Pruitt. It is one thing for him to have done it here (which I still don't really believe) having years to pull it off, but it is a completely different story to say that he would be able to pull that off in a week at Tennessee. I have heard that Pruitt and Steele are actually friends as well, but that could just be hearsay. To me, this situation looks more like Steele is trying to help out his alma mater where he played and got his start as a coach. He probably got the opportunity from Phil since they coached together in the past and Phil wanted to help out his friend who just lost the DC job. I could definitely be wrong though. 

Yeah i don't think Steele is the reason or had anything at all to do with Pruitt getting fired. But the idea of taking a job from a guy you know is about to be fired and replaced seems disingenuous and kind of sleezy.  Maybe Pruitt knew what was going to happen when Steele was hired?? 

[ChristoThor 70]

I can definitely see that. I can't imagine that Pruitt didn't see this happening when Steele was hired. I mean Steele was in the running against him when he got hired. Steele is someone who has potential to soothe the defense that actually like Pruitt and ease the transition. I think everyone was thinking that Steele was about to get the interim HC when he showed up. It is a shady way to show up for sure. Steele has managed to be involved with some weird stuff the past month or two.

[AlaskanFAN 1,665]

4 hours ago, ChristoThor said:

I can definitely see that. I can't imagine that Pruitt didn't see this happening when Steele was hired. I mean Steele was in the running against him when he got hired. Steele is someone who has potential to soothe the defense that actually like Pruitt and ease the transition. I think everyone was thinking that Steele was about to get the interim HC when he showed up. It is a shady way to show up for sure. Steele has managed to be involved with some weird stuff the past month or two.

He may be shady but he still has a few more millions $ than I do. 

[jAUSon 2,836]

6 hours ago, gravejd said:

Yeah i don't think Steele is the reason or had anything at all to do with Pruitt getting fired. But the idea of taking a job from a guy you know is about to be fired and replaced seems disingenuous and kind of sleezy.  Maybe Pruitt knew what was going to happen when Steele was hired?? 

My spider-sense tells me Pruitt didn't hire, select, interview, or even recommend Steele. Pruitt was in a camp (under a hiring freeze, likely 100% certain of his fate), UT is in another camp trying to pull these risky maneuvers- then along comes Steele suddenly hired without a job title? Hired into a non-opening? 

Nah.

[AUFlyer99 647]

I can hear the conversation between Steele and UT playing out like this: “Hey TN.  You’re going to sleaze out and fire Pruitt in a manner in which you won’t have to pay him.  I can come up there Monday for a nondescript position, step into the HC role when you pull the trigger on Jeremy and Auburn will pay for it.....”