Miami’s new D coordinator aims to ‘put out fires.’ Kevin Steele knows what it takes
New University of Miami defensive coordinator Kevin Steele, 63, has been around major college football — and even the NFL — long enough to call Hard Rock Stadium “Pro Player Stadium” and know that some of the old Hurricanes championship teams were led by nasty, hard-hitting, adept-tackling defenses.
“Those guys were dominant,’’ Steele said Thursday in his first interview with the Miami media on Zoom, disclosing that UM will continue to run a 4-3 scheme. “I’ve seen Miami football, Miami defense, up close and personal from many venues and I understand the responsibility we have here... It’s work, it’s grit, it’s toughness, but then playing together with relentless effort. You want to go into Pro Player Stadium and in the fourth quarter you want to make your opponent start thinking, ‘Hey, I can’t do this any longer. let’s get on the bus and go home. This is Miami.’’’
Steele, a prominent, respected veteran who has coached or coordinated defenses at Power Five giants such as Auburn (2016-20), LSU (2015), Alabama (2007-08 and 2013-14), Clemson (2009-11), Florida State (2003-06), Nebraska (1989-94) and Tennessee (1980-82, 1987-88), said he is now in the process of “going through last year’s tape and evaluating the players’’ and “trying to put them in the best place.’’
“There will be some movement during spring practice [and] post spring practice,’’ he said of possible position changes, or at least experimentation to get the best combination on the field. Many believe, for example, that young standout safety James Williams, who is 6-5 and 224 pounds, could eventually be moved to linebacker. Steele didn’t name any specific players.
Linebackers coach?
Steele, who has extensive experience coaching linebackers, UM’s most vulnerable position, wouldn’t commit to a position group he might coach.
“I’ve coached linebackers, I’ve coached safeties, I’ve been a walk-around coordinator. I’ve coached outside backers,’’ he said. “You probably need to throw up your hands if you see me coaching the D-line. But that’s a whole ‘nother world in there. At this present time, all things are on the table. Coach is trying to get the best fit for the University of Miami — dynamic recruiters, dynamic teachers, men that will change and develop young men on and off the field to his standard.”
Steele was effusive about head coach Mario Cristobal, with whom he worked during his second stint at Alabama. He was asked what made coming to Miami and working with Cristobal so attractive.
“I had recruited Dade and Broward county for several years and I got to know Mario when he first got into coaching, and then when he was at FIU,’’ Steele said. “We would run into each other in Dade and Broward county pretty frequently. And then we worked together at Alabama and we were not just on the same staff, we were good friends and did things together. So, we built a relationship and communicated and stayed in contact.
“When he was out west and when he got the job it was something that was talked about a long time ago, a couple weeks ago. It was very easy because I know who he is at the core. He’s a winner and he does it with hard work. I know people throw that word out there but that guy, Mario Cristobal, if you know anything about him, he is relentless. When he gets something in his vision he is relentless at it. He is a hard, smart worker.
“On top of that, he is a phenomenal recruiter. I’ve seen that first hand. So those kinds of things and the fact that you know what this program can be and you put Mario in charge of it, then it really tells you you’re getting in a vehicle and you know where it’s going.”
Defensive pains
Former Hurricanes coach Manny Diaz served as defensive coordinator last season in an attempt to fix its inadequacies. But it still proved to be UM’s weakest side of the ball, by far. The Canes ranked 82nd nationally in scoring defense (allowing 28.2 points a game), 75th in total defense (389.6 yards allowed a game), 102nd in passing yards allowed (250.6), 76th in third-down conversion percentage defense (allowing first downs about 60 percent of the time). Their rushing defense was 44th (139 yards), with their best category a No. 8 ranking in tackles-for-loss (7.8 a game).
Pro Football Focus ranked Miami 128th in tackling, ahead of only USF and New Mexico State.
“As far as the tackling, that is something you have to build with,’’ Steele said. “It’s a technique, it’s confidence. Some guys are just very talented natural tacklers. But you have to teach them all to be good tacklers.
Tackling has regressed, in my opinion, over the years when they started limiting contact in practice, tackling days in practice, fall camp — when you only get three days of full tackling. When I first started coaching you were lucky if you had three days in a year that you didn’t tackle.
“So, repetition. It’s like your golf game. If you don’t go play you’re going to hit it in the rough.”
Meshing with offense
Asked if he thinks it’s important that UM’s defensive style meshes with its offense, Steele said the job of his defense is “to put out fires,’’ regardless of what UM’s offense does. Last year, former offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee ran a high-tempo offense, which meant the defense was on the field more and, considering injuries, had fewer players to rotate.
“I’ve coached long enough that when I first started coaching they huddled up, stayed in the huddle 15 seconds and came out and lined up in the wishbone,’’ Steele said. “And I’ve been on staffs where they try to run three plays as fast as you can run.
“This is the way you have to look at it: I’m a defensive football coach, I’m not an offensive football coach. I’m not the head coach. We’re kind of like the first responders. Our job is to put out fires. So, if the offense turns the ball over, the offense is three-and-out, you don’t want your firemen pulling up in front of your house on fire and going, ‘I don’t feel like putting out a fire today. They keep starting fires at this house and I’m tired of doing it.’
“If that happens, the house is going to burn down. That’s not our attitude. We don’t ask what, why, how it happened. Our job is to go out and physically dominate our opponent and get the ball back for our offense. Fast, slow, indifferent, it doesn’t matter.”
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 4:15 PM.
