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Kevin Steele points to time at Alabama as one of the reasons he joined Mario Cristobal’s Miami staff
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Kevin Steele is excited to be reuniting with a former Alabama colleague. Steele was recently introduced as Miami’s new defensive coordinator on Mario Cristobal’s staff.
In his UM introductory press conference, Steele was asked about accepting the offer to join Cristobal in Coral Gables. Steele said they were close when they worked on Nick Saban’s Alabama staff during the 2013 and ’14 seasons.
“Well, it was pretty easy,” Steele said, per 247Sports. “Actually, because I recruited Dade (and) Broward (counties) for several years and I got to know Mario when he first got into coaching and then when he was at FIU. We would run into each other in Dade (and) Broward (counties) pretty frequently. So I got to know him then, there, and then we, of course, worked together at Alabama and we were not just on the same staff — we were good friends and we kind of did things together, so we built a relationship and it was just we communicated, stayed in contact when he was out west.”
Steele was part of Saban’s initial Alabama staff for 2 seasons (2007-08). From 2009-to-2011, he was Clemson’s defensive coordinator. In 2013, Steele returned to Alabama as director of player personnel. The next year, he coached Crimson Tide linebackers. Steele left UA to be LSU’s defensive coordinator in 2015.
Cristobal was on Alabama’s staff from 2013-to-2016, coaching the offensive line. He left UA after the 2016 season to be co-offensive coordinator at Oregon.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
