Auburn football: Kevin Steele won’t be a part of Bryan Harsin’s staff

Auburn football interim head coach Kevin Steele won’t be returning to the program.

Kevin Steele won’t be a part of new Auburn football coach Bryan Harsin’s staff. Steele has served as Auburn’s interim head coach since the school fired Gus Malzahn at the end of the regular season.

There was some traction for Steele to get the head coach job but a swift and strong backlash from the fans that started a #StoptheSteele trending topic on social media quickly put an end to that.

After a bit of a prolonged coaching search that focused on some of the top assistant coaches in the country, including Steve Sarkisian and Brent Venables at Alabama and Clemson, respectively, Auburn hired Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin.

Steele has a reputation as one of the better defensive coordinators in the nation, but he won’t be a part of Harsin’s staff, according to Cole Cubelic.

Kevin Steele won’t return to Auburn

This isn’t particularly shocking or surprising. New head coaches like to bring in guys they’ve worked with in the past of guys they’ve long wanted to work with in a new opportunity.

For Steele, this gives him a fresh start to find a job where he can land at a program that needs a fresh voice and approach on defense. He’ll be hired somewhere this offseason and likely quickly, potentially at Michigan where Jim Harbaugh has an opening on his staff after letting Don Brown go.

Plus, it’s challenging to return to a place that didn’t want you as the head coach so it removes any sort of awkwardness that may have lingered.

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