career Steele succeeded Dave Roberts as the head coach at Baylor University from 1999 to 2002. His record was 9–36 (1–31 in the Big 12 conference). In Steele's first season (1999), Baylor finished with a 1–10 record (the school's worst since 1969). During the 1999 season, Steele's Baylor team was involved in what ESPN.com called one of the top 10 worst coaching decisions. The decision came when he chose a running play rather than a kneel down with Baylor leading and possessing the ball in the game's final 12 seconds and their opponent, the UNLV Rebels, was out of time outs. The ensuing Baylor fumble and UNLV return for a touchdown gave the Rebels a shocking win. Steele's second season began with a 2–1 non-conference record but was followed by eight straight Big 12 losses, only one closer than 24 points. A particularly rough stretch in October saw the Bears shut out in three consecutive games (the last of which was a 59–0 loss at Nebraska, where the Huskers led 38–0 after the first quarter). Part of BU's offensive woes were caused by the season ending collarbone injury to heralded offseason JUCO transfer quarterback Greg Cicero, who was injured in the season's second game. Steele's third season in 2001 started with a 2–0 record (including an exciting overtime win over New Mexico), but the Bears won only one more game to finish 3-8. Steele's fourth season (2002) had a terrible beginning. For opening day, Baylor traveled to Berkeley to play California. Since Cal had finished 1–10 the previous year, many felt this was a good matchup. However, Cal (who turned out to be greatly improved in 2002) immediately took command of the game, jumping to a 35–0 lead and cruising to a 70–22 win. Although the team rallied from the defeat to win three of the next four games (the last a 35–32 win over Kansas for Steele's first Big 12 conference win), they could not sustain the momentum, losing their next four conference games by wide margins and Steele was fired after the fourth (a 62–11 loss to Texas Tech). After the firing, Steele elected to finish the season and continued as head coach for the season's last three games, all losses. Steele was succeeded by coach Guy Morriss. Return to Alabama On February 5, 2023, Nick Saban hired Steele as the defensive coordinator for the Crimson Tide. This