Auburn football: AL.com says Kevin Steele back with Tide for payback

For those wondering why Kevin Steele took the Alabama Crimson Tide defensive coordinator job, AL.com’s Joseph Goodman has a theory: Steele is looking for payback for how things ended for him with the Auburn football program.

Steele was defensive coordinator on the Plains for five seasons, continuing a culture of hard-nosed defense established by predecessors like Ellis Johnson, Ted Roof, Will Muschamp, and Gene Chizik. In 2020, after a failed attempted coup to overtake Gus Malzahn as Tigers head coach, Steele was casted away from the Plains in favor of new head coach Bryan Harsin and defensive coordinator Derek Mason.

Goodman believes Steele ending up back in Tuscaloosa alongside Nick Saban after two previous Tide stints during the first year of the Hugh Freeze era is a measure of revenge from the 64-year-old:

"“Auburn rejected Kevin Steele as its football coach, and now he’s back to haunt the Tigers for that decision as Alabama’s defensive coordinator.”“Auburn chose Harsin over Steele back in 2020 and now Steele, Saban’s original defensive coordinator at Alabama, is back with the Crimson Tide to exact even more payback from the Tigers.”"

How Auburn football can win the next round against Kevin Steele

So if Steele’s Auburn football firing in 2021 following a disastrous one-game stint as interim head coach was first blood, and Steele’s hiring on February 5 to join Saban and co. with Alabama was payback, then the way AU can win the next round is doing its best Middle Tennessee impression when the Crimson Tide visit Jordan-Hare Stadium during Week 13 of the 2023 season.

Steele, despite having top personnel at Miami, was vulnerable when a big-armed passer, top 15 passer Chase Cunningham, challenged the Hurricanes secondary when the Blue Raiders stunned the U at home back on September 24, 2022. The same could happen with an improved Robby Ashford from the pocket or the emergence of Holden Geriner or Hank Brown — or perhaps another QB who isn’t on campus yet.

Beating Bama in the trenches will always be a challenge, but as LSU’s Jaden Daniels and Tennessee’s Hendon Hooker showed this past season, an air-based attack could be the undoing of Alabama’s defense.