What was Kevin Steele's salary? Retired Alabama DC's career earnings explored

Kevin Steele is among the coaching personnel leaving Alabama as the Nick Saban era ends at Tuscaloosa. Steele was Alabama’s defensive coordinator until reports of his retirement surfaced last week. Steele's retirement marked the end of his third stint on Saban's coaching staff at Alabama.

His reported annual salary at Alabama was $1.9 million. He had a long, successful coaching career which has seen him work in more than 10 schools. He has also held different roles ranging from linebackers coach to defensive coordinator to head coach. Steele's sole substantive head coaching stint was at Baylor between 1999 and 2002.

As the veteran coach sets to take a break from coaching, we look at the details of his earnings as an active coach.

Exploring the details of Kevin Steele's career earnings

Tracing Kevin Steele's earnings spans over his four-decade coaching career. Steele began his career as a student assistant in Tennessee in 1980. Not much can be said about his earnings from this period until his tenure at Clemson from 2009 to 2011 with any certainty.

Steele was reportedly paid an annual salary of $375,000 in 2009. The amount allegedly rose $681,000 in 2010 and he was paid $680,800 in his final season with the Tigers. As Alabama's linebackers coach in 2014, he reportedly received an annual salary of $702,750.

Alabama v Auburn

Steele earned an annual salary of just over $1 million as LSU defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2015. However, he moved to SEC rivals, Auburn, after just a year on the same role. His contract at Auburn reportedly included an annual salary of $1.1 million, making him the then-10th highest paid assistant in college football.

He signed a contract renewal with Auburn in 2020 which increased his annual salary to $2.5 million, as per reports. The deal made him the highest paid assistant coach in college football, but it wasn't for long. Barely a year later, he was fired along with the rest of the Auburn coaching staff.

His next adventure took him back home to Tennessee, where he was offered a defensive assistant role on a two-year contract, which paid $450,000 annually, as per reports. However, less than a week after the announcement, the entire coaching staff at was fired in the wake of an NCAA investigation.

Steele worked next as defensive coordinator at Miami (FL) in 2022. However, the detail of his earnings there are not publicly available. Lastly, Kevin Steele returned to Alabama for his third stint under Saban in 2023 and was reportedly placed on a $1.9 million annual salary.