By Lonnie Turner
The University of Tennessee hired Kevin Steele as a defensive assistant this past Tuesday and since has been named interim head football coach for the Volunteers.
His most recent job was at Auburn where he served as defensive coordinator. He was also employed in the same capacity at LSU, Clemson and Alabama and served as head coach of the Baylor Bears from 1999 through 2002, where he compiled a dismal 9 and 36 record. This will be his third time coaching at Tennessee and has coached on four occasions at Alabama.
Out of high school, where Steele played for the legendary Paul Chapman as a linebacker and during his junior and senior years, an all conference quarterback. After graduating from high school, he went on to play at Furman and transferred to Tennessee where he played at linebacker in 1978 and 1979 under coach Johnny Majors. That’s where his coaching career began as a student assistant and finally a graduate assistant. He coached at Tennessee from 1980 until 1982 and moved on from there to New Mexico State where he coached linebackers in 1983. The next three years found him at Oklahoma State coaching tight ends and linebackers and then back to UT for a two-year stint coaching defensive backs.
For six years Steele would be an assistant to Tom Osborne at the University of Nebraska where the Cornhuskers would win 60 games while losing only 11 and winning the National Championship in 1994 with an undefeated 13-0 season.
Steele even took time out from the college ranks to coach four years in the pros with the Carolina Panthers under coach Dom Capers.
Steele has had a very impressive assistant coaching career and is one of the highest paid assistants in the country. He was awarded a $2.5 million salary at Auburn in 2020 and at Tennessee he has received a two-year contract through January 2023 that will pay $450,00 annually.
Yes siree, another local boy “has made good,”… Kevin and Chief Johnny Chavis in football and then there is former Federal Reserve Chairman, Economist Ben Bernanke.