AUBURN, Ala. – The dean of defensive coordinators in the Southeastern Conference, Auburn's Kevin Steele recruited and coached six former Tiger defensive players who participated in the NFL Scouting Combine.
"They had the same coaches all the way through," said Steele, noting that defensive line coach Rodney Garner, linebackers coach Travis Williams and defensive backs coach Wesley McGriff have all been part of Auburn's defensive coaching staff since Steele became coordinator in 2016.
"But that's not the key," he said. "The key is that it's about the players. When you recruit a young man and you recruit the family to the Auburn family, then family is people you are kin to or have migrated to a group who are together for a long time, and hopefully forever. That's what a family is. A family isn't two years with somebody and gone."
While nine SEC defensive coordinators will be in their first or second seasons in 2020, Steele is one of two defensive coordinators in the league embarking on season No. 5.
That stability has resulted in productivity. In Steele's four seasons, Auburn has allowed an average of only 18.57 points per game, ranking in the top 10 among FBS teams.
"It's important when you recruit players to a family organization, and you can say this guy has been here through the whole time," said Steele, who referenced recruiting unanimous All-American Derrick Brown to illustrate his point.
"We went into Mr. and Mrs. James and Martha Brown's home and recruited him and he left here with the same people who went into his home still coaching here. That's to the player's benefit because it gives continuity in all kinds of things."
Continuity, Steele says, pays dividends because players consistently know what is expected of them.
"Expectations in terms of what an Auburn man is, expectations to what an Auburn football players is, expectations to what an Auburn student is," he said. "The total package. Those expectations never changed because his family didn't change. They're the same people."
Under Steele's leadership, Auburn has finished in the top 20 in scoring defense in each of the past four seasons, a claim only four other Division I schools can match.
"First of all, we've got great young men to coach," he said. "They're good people. They're fun to be around. They understand hard work. They embrace that. When you have that, you start ahead of everybody else.
"The best teams are the ones that are not led from outside the locker room, but from inside the locker room. We've had really good leadership, so that's key. They buy into the expectations."
Auburn's defensive players quickly become acquainted with the pillars of the Tigers' defense: sound tackling, mental and physical toughness, and relentless effort.
"Relentless effort is a giant eraser," said Steele, who recently signed a three-year contract that runs through Auburn's 2022 season. "If there is a mistake, relentless effort by the 11 guys on the field will erase a lot of mistakes.
"I think probably the thing we're most proud of as a defensive staff in our young men is when you listen to other people speak of Auburn's defense, whether it be ESPN or CBS crews, high school coaches or other college coaches, somewhere in the conversation in the first sentence or two, they talk about how hard our guys play. That's probably the thing has driven the whole thing."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jeff_shearer