Auburn football reporter: ‘Don’t talk to me about Kevin Steele’

Former Auburn football defensive coordinator Kevin Steele famously tried to usurp former head coach Gus Malzahn and steal his job in the winter of 2020 before the Tigers settled on Bryan Harsin as head coach — having his attempted coup of the head coaching job dubbed #StopTheSteele.

Steele coached one game for Auburn during the 2021 Citrus Bowl against Northwestern. The Tigers lost 35-19 to the Wildcats and he was replaced with Derek Mason, who has since moved on to become the highest-paid defensive coordinator ever at Oklahoma State.

Now, he is with Miami as its defensive coordinator and, well, it’s not exactly going swimmingly. Mainly because his defense made Middle Tennessee quarterback Chase Cunningham look like Peyton Manning. Cunningham went for over 400 yards and three touchdowns, including a 99-yard TD toss at the start of the fourth quarter in a 45-31 shocker.

After the day Auburn football had — narrowly avoiding a likely tenure-ending loss for Harsin twice in both the fourth quarter and overtime due to two unfathomable Missouri chokejobs — On3’s Justin Hokanson wants no part of hearing about Steele as a potential Tigers coaching replacement should Harsin get canned:

Auburn football is having a better season than Kevin Steele’s Miami Hurricanes

Miami is 2-2 on the year, and while Auburn football would be that had they not had Jordan-Hare voodoo on their side September 24 against Mizzou, it’s an objective fact that Bryan Harsin’s Tigers have a better record than Kevin Steele and co.

Given the cupcakes on Miami’s ACC slate (Virginia Tech, Virginia, Georgia Tech), that statement may not age well come December. Then again, teams get better as college football seasons progress, and there could be more Jordan-Hare voodoo in store for SEC West foes LSU, Texas A&M, and Arkansas this season…