Aug. 27, 2001
Go to the Chat
WACO, Texas - On Thursday, August 30 at 2 p.m. CT, Baylor head football coach Kevin Steele will make a special visit to the ESPN.com moderated chat room to talk about the upcoming season.
Steele begins his third season at the helm of the Bears this fall. In his first two seasons, Steele has steadily gathered the necessary tools to turn out a finished product. He has recruited talented players and made them better athletes through an enhanced strength and conditioning program. As a result, the players have bought into Steele's positive attitude about the direction of Baylor football and team morale has never been better. Steele has also assembled an experienced and diverse coaching staff dedicated to the student-athletes' success both on and off the field.
In his quest to become a head coach and, in turn, the builder of Baylor's football future, Steele learned from the best. After Steele played linebacker at Tennessee from 1976-79, he stayed on the staff as a graduate assistant. Steele held that position until 1981, when he received a promotion and spent the next year tutoring the Volunteers outside linebackers. Steele then moved to New Mexico State, where he served as recruiting coordinator and linebackers coach in 1983. From 1984-86 he was a member of Pat Jones' Oklahoma State staff where he coached linebackers and tight ends.
Following the stint in Stillwater, Steele returned to Tennessee in 1987 to handle defensive backs, and spent the next two years there before heading to Nebraska to coach under the legendary Tom Osborne. During Steele's six years in Lincoln, the Cornhuskers went 60-11, appeared in six bowl games, won four conference championships and captured the 1994 national championship with a 13-0 record.
In 1995, Steele made the jump to the NFL's expansion Carolina Panthers where, as the team's linebackers coach, he quickly earned the reputation as one of the league's top young assistants and gained what he described as "a doctorate in X's and O's."
Steele won't be stopping by until 2 p.m. CT on Thursday, but feel free to fire off your questions here. We'll save them until he arrives.
