Kevin Steele demanding relentless effort

AUBURN | It’s still too early for Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele to start assessing his players on defense. But he does know what he wants out of the group and so far, they’ve responded.

“What we are trying to create right now on the third day — the first day of pads, so the first real day of football — is to be a physical dominating group that plays with relentless effort,” Steele said. “The thing that is the most encouraging at this point over the first three days is we’ve got a really, really good attitude and we have really tried to play with great effort on every play.”

Auburn’s players were quick to pick up on Steele’s demands.

“That’s what he’s been preaching the whole practice is effort and then you build off of that, just making sure we all have good effort to the ball,” sophomore Dontavius Russell said. “We’re trying to build an identity as a team and that’s with effort so that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Steele was hired by Gus Malzahn in December to replace Will Muschamp, who left to become head coach at South Carolina. While Steele might not be quite as fiery as Muschamp was on and off the field, there’s still plenty of similarities.

“He’s more calm but at the same time you have to realize he’s still going to bite too,” senior defensive tackle Devaroe Lawrence said. “He’s got an edge to him. Can’t get it twisted.”

Steele is leaning on some of Auburn’s veteran players to provide leadership and help push the guy next to them. He mentioned several players that have shown leadership this spring including Montravius Adams, Carl Lawson, Tre’ Williams, Carlton Davis, Stephen Roberts and Nick Ruffin. He also complimented sophomore Byron Cowart on stepping up with his leadership and effort.

“We are trying to create a culture where the other players in the group affect the guy beside them, you have to affect the people you play with,” Steele said. “The simple version of that is if you are an older guy out there you demand the guys you play with bring effort.

“The technique stuff, the scheme stuff that’s a process that’s going to take some time. We have to go day-by-day with that, evaluate it and keep teaching.”

Auburn wrapped up its third day of spring drills Saturday on the practice fields behind the athletic complex. The Tigers will continue practice Tuesday afternoon.

MORE FROM STEELE

On what it mean to be a player’s coach…

“Well, I really don’t know. You’d probably have to ask the players what that means. I assume you’re saying somebody said that. I don’t know that. I think the thing that we want to do is we want to demand that they do things the right way, but in the process of doing that, is to be a teacher first and foremost. We all have styles in coaching. My style has evolved, changed back, evolved some more to get to where it is now. It’s been remade many times over to correct mistakes that I feel like I made based on my personality. At this point in time, I’ve been doing it long enough now, I feel pretty comfortable with it.”

On mistakes he’s made in the past…

“Yeah. When you’re younger, sometimes you can coach guys so hard that you can put them in a shell, and it takes you a while to get them out. Now, you can still coach them hard. There’s a difference in coaching them one description hard and another description hard. I try to make sure that it’s always about what’s happening on the field and not get so upset or so frustrated with something that it comes across personal.”

On Auburn’s linebackers…

“They’re an eager group. There’s actually more bodies there in terms of guys who have instincts and understand the game. They’re good students of the game. They’re just young and inexperienced. We got to develop them fast, but that’s not something that has not been done before. I’ve been coaching linebackers long enough, and of course, Travis (Williams) is doing a great job with them. He’s a good teacher. But it’s not the first time you’ve had to play inexperienced linebackers at all.”

On where Jeff Holland is playing…

“Well, obviously we’ve got him at Buck right now, the open-side end. Again, it’s so early in the process. I knew him out of high school as a recruit, so there’s some knowledge there, but as far as I’m concerned, they’re all freshmen in terms of going about it. Just haven’t practiced enough to know, but I do know that he has the physical attributes to be a player.”

On where Montavious Atkinson is playing…

"He's playing the Money/Will spot. He's a very fast guy, a very energetic guy, he's physical. It's only practice, but I saw that real quickly. He's really progressing nicely in terms of the understanding of what he's trying to get accomplished at the position in the three days."

On the Money/Will position…

“It’s two different things. It's the Money in nickel and it's the Will in regular.”

On Prince Tega Wanogho, who is playing Buck…

“Fun to watch because he's an athletic guy who can run real well. He’s like a sponge. He hangs on every word you say. If he hears you talking to a linebacker he's listening. Sometimes I think, 'Is that going to clutter his thought process,' but I think he just wants to hear everything you want to say.”