Early Sunday night, ESPN’s Chris Low made it unofficially, official the new Alabama Football Defensive Coordinator will be Kevin Steele. Not all Alabama football fans will be excited by the hire, but there are reasons why Crimson Tide fans can be comfortable with Nick Saban’s decision.
One reason is Alabama could have done worse than Steele. Just one example would be if Saban had chosen Todd Grantham instead. There are other, more important reasons. Nick Saban knows exactly what he is getting in Kevin Steele. Fans may choose to think of Steele as a ‘Caretaker’ DC until Jeremy Pruitt can be hired. Even if that is true, to some unknown degree, Nick Saban did not add Steele to just wait on Pruitt. Saban hates losing too much for that. He has always been and will continue to be a ‘win now’ guy.
What Saban must believe is he will have the staff components available to make the Alabama Crimson Tide defense better. As in a situation where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. If that is true, looking back at Kevin Steele’s stats as a DC does not matter. They are not relevant.
It may be some time before fans can know the details of how Saban plans to build new defensive synergy. Will Travaris Robinson coach the entire secondary? Will Jeremy Pruitt be added as a defensive analyst later? There are rumors Saban recently offered Pruitt an analyst role, but he declined. Is there a possibility, the Tide’s new defensive whiz kid, Austin Armstrong might become Co-DC with Kevin Steele?
With answers to those questions coming later, there are a couple of different issues Alabama fans can consider now. Various college football programs and too many media pundits will describe the hiring of Kevin Steele as Saban’s third, fourth or fifth choice. The point of such claims is to feed the popular theme that Nick Saban and Alabama Football are on the decline.
Saban and One Alabama Football Offer
No doubt Saban had conversations with multiple, potential hires. If Saban had wanted to offer the position to anyone other than Steele, first there would have been conversations to determine mutual interest. For example, while Saban might have had a strong interest in Glenn Schumann, that does not mean an offer was made. Schumann could have made it clear he was not interested in leaving Georgia. It is plausible to believe Nick Saban made one offer; to Kevin Steele. My opinion, with no claim of inside scoop, is that Todd Grantham nor anyone else was offered the position.
Check out Kevin Steele’s career history as compiled by the University of Miami.
I confess while reflecting on the new hire, I have moved from doubting, to neutral, to acceptance. I am now prepared for it to be a grand success. Other Alabama football fans might want to adopt a similar perspective.